Private Been a While, Hasn't it?

Goblin · Jul 18, 2020

Shale rubbed roughly at his eyes, leaning back against the dilapidated wall of the shed he'd been staying in the past night or so. Ever since his fly-over of the town to get rumors stirred up, all he'd really had to do was wait to see when someone from the island would show up to find him. It had given him time to collect himself, at least and make an attempt to get mentally prepared for how different things were really going to be when he got back. It wasn't as if having a peek around a rural, nowhere town in Louisiana was going to give him any insight to how Manta Carlos had changed in seven years, so sitting here and imagining it was just as practically useful, really.

Over the last couple years, he'd wrestled back and forth a lot over it was really even worth it to go back, wondering if the people he'd known would even recognize him, or still care. He heaved a tired sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose and tilting his head back to stare up at the slightly collapsed ceiling. As the minutes crept on toward an undetermined arrival, he found it difficult to properly pin down what he was feeling. Nervousness in no small part, certainly, but a distinct if slight twinge of excitement beneath that. For now, all he could do was sit back and hope the scouts actually managed to find him.

@Romi

Romi · Jul 18, 2020

ANGELO GENOVESE

Angelo had put his foot down: no more long expeditions off-island. No more months-long undercover escapades where he had to pass himself off as the worst of the worst. It was exhausting, even if his powers made it safer for him to do it rather than many others, and he desperately needed a break.

But that didn't mean no more work. Being a scout was still a job, and Angelo still had to work.

Something big had been spotted in the Louisiana back country. Someone had even gotten a shitty, low-resolution photo of... a dragon? That was certainly what it looked like, and that was what they'd gone into things looking for.

But finding a dragon in a state that was so big was... challenging. It wasn't like Louisiana had mountains, but it did have a whole lot of swamp land, and it was easy to hide in.

Which was why Angelo was there.

If he could pass within thirty feet of the dragon, he'd know it. He'd been partnered with another scout, one who could fly, and they'd been skimming over the area, taking advantage of the dark in hopes of finding the dragon.

It trip was, thankfully, already not a wash: they'd found a family of gator-shifters living within their search grid, and while they weren't eager to move right then, just knowing where they could be found was helpful.

So Angelo very nearly missed it when his senses picked it up. He didn't even think, and then suddenly...

"Hold!" He yelled to his partner, and the scout above him banked hard, starting to circle where Angelo had commented. "Someone - for some reason I just found out someone has a new power."

Which didn't make sense. Shale was gone: he was missing. He'd been missing for a while. Literally months.

"I think I know the 'dragon' we were looking for," Angelo explained. "Drop me on the ground and I'll locate them."

"Do I need to stick around...?"

Angelo shook his head, holding on tight until he was deposited safely on the ground.

"Let me handle him. I'll call you if I need a pickup, but he can fly, so it shouldn't be an issue."

If the other scout was surprised Angelo knew the person they were looking for, he didn't show it, eager to get back to the nearest portal.

Angelo waited until they were gone, staring around them. Shale was... somewhere. Probably within a hundred feet, although the heavy trees made it hard to tell.

So Angelo did the quickest thing possible: he yelled.

"Shale?!"

Goblin · Jul 19, 2020

Shale's eyelids fluttered a couple times, his head tilting toward the floor for a moment before he caught himself, shaking himself a bit and forcing his eyes to open as wide as he could. It wasn't normal for him to be tired at night, but he'd been up for a few days at this point, both from anxiety before he'd arrived and an effort to stay as alert as possible to scouts when they might arrive. Groaning, he rubbed at his face, fine for a minute before starting to drift again.

Abruptly then, the voice rang out, and he jolted straight up, breathing hard for a few moments at the pure shock of it. He stood, taking a second to steady himself and focus in on where it had come from. Tugging his coat on, he stumbled out of the shed, resting his hand on the willow tree outside and looking around wildly for the source.

Only then did he realize what was strange: they had just called him by name. That made absolutely no sense, right? It couldn't be scouts. The only thing that it could be is someone had followed him here, maybe to try and convince him to come back. Doing his best to keep his mind from racing too much, he kept looking until he picked out a figure through the treeline.

His eyes were extremely sharp with how dark it was, but even so, he'd have to get closer to tell who it was with so much foliage in the way. So, he made his way over, stepping over a bramble patch and pushing the bough of yet another willow out of his path, until finally he stopped dead in his tracks. He stared, having to actively force his jaw to shut after a moment hanging open. The face he saw was one that, while a little foggy at first, was still altogether absolutely familiar. He was too stunned and confused to talk, walking a few steps closer while his eyes scanned over him.

Romi · Jul 19, 2020

ANGELO GENOVESE

Angelo could tell it was Shale, but that was it. His sense didn't tell him where Shale was, just that he'd been nearby and what had changed about him.

The answer, of course, was a lot. The compulsion towards slavery that had once plagued him was gone, which was... well, confusing? Concerning? Normally that sort of thing wasn't so easily gotten rid of, but he had been gone for months, so it was entirely possible that was what he was doing.

Although Angelo suspected that his family would take issue with that. He'd heard of Shale's disappearance primarily through the Drakenhardt grape-vine, after all.

When someone pulled aside a tree bough and came into range, Angelo was... confused.

Because the person he was looking at wasn't Shale. Sure, they kind of looked like him, but they were far older. Shale had been Angelo's junior, and the man in front of him was... not. Mid-twenties at the earliest, grizzled and world-weary without a doubt.

But they also didn't show up on his senses. There weren't any new people Angelo hadn't met. The more he stared, the more his brain screamed at him, trying to force him to accept the obvious: he was looking at Shale.

Oh.

"I... Shale? You're-" He didn't even know how to respond. Different? Older?

Goblin · Jul 19, 2020

The gargoyle's jaw was set stiffly, eyes locked on Angelo's face, wide with clear confusion. And of course, he was confused, just as much as Angelo himself. It had been ages since he had seen him, and yet when he pictured how he had been in his mind's eye, he was indistinguishable. That didn't make sense, did it?

There was plenty of time to keep thinking about that, however. He had to answer. "...Yeah. Yeah, it's me. I don't know how you-" Cutting himself off, he wracked his brain, thinking back to try and remember what he could actually do. He shook his head once it clicked into place, how he'd known he was there. "I didn't expect you to be here. Forgot that you'd been doing the scout thing, back then."

His voice was deeper, and distinctly tired. As on the nose as it was, more gravelly. And yet, it was unmistakably his. Running a hand through his hair, and pausing to rub a thumb over his temple, he stepped closer, shaking his head a little and doing his best to push back the disbelief he was feeling.

Romi · Jul 20, 2020

ANGELO GENOVESE

To say the least, Shale's wording set alarm bells ringing. Back then? It sounded like Shale was talking about something a long time ago, and combined with his appearance...

Oh no.

"You... you've been missing," Angelo clarified. That was pretty much scout 101: in a confusing situation, state your understanding of the situation, and let other people correct you to avoid miscommunication. "You went missing and no one was sure what happened to you. If you'd run away, or been kidnapped, or... what. I'm here because someone spotted something they thought was a dragon, but I'm assuming that what they saw was you... trying to draw attention?"

That was his best guess. Most people knew, for example, that there were portals in major cities, but most people didn't know where those portals were, and Shale's blindness wasn't going to help him get around in a strange place without drawing attention.

Goblin · Jul 21, 2020

Shale listened quietly while Angelo responded, his hands moving almost automatically to rest in his coat pockets. He closed his eyes for a few moments during the explanation, shoulders rolling back and a stiff sigh escaping him. "...I know. Believe me, I know."

Glancing back in the direction of the shed, he turned to make eye contact with Angelo again, his brow furrowed deeply and lips slightly pursed. "As foggy as all kinds of different things are, the way I left definitely isn't one of them. I've thought about that damn near every day since, how I could have and probably should have done it different."

Shale shook his head a couple times, forcing a weary half laugh. "We'd be standing here all night if I went over all that. To answer your question, yeah, that was me. Was the simplest thing I could think of to bring one of you out here, just...wasn't expecting you. At all."

Shuffling his feet then, he took a few moments, visibly trying to formulate something else to say, before finally closing the rest of the gap between them and wrapping Angelo up in a tight hug. "Fuck, though, man...it's good to see you. It really is."

Romi · Jul 23, 2020

ANGELO GENOVESE

Shale seemed to have a much better idea of what was going on then Angelo was, if his response was any indication. The implication was that he'd left under his own power, and that he considered it, if not a stupid decision, at least one that could have been handled a much better manner.

No kidding.

"I do want to know what happened to you," Angelo said after a moment, "but--"

And then the hug. It caught Angelo off guard for a moment, but after a second's hesitation he opted to hug back, patting Shale on the back in a manner that only really made sense if you knew that Angelo was supposed to be the older one.

"We'll figure this out," he said, trying to sound reassuring. "I can signal my partner if you want, or I can show you where the nearest access point to the island is. Not far from here, really. Not if you're flying, anyway."

It'd be about a half days walk for Angelo, but that was largely due to the awful terrain.

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Private Been a While, Hasn't it?

Goblin

Gremlin Supreme

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Goblin

Gremlin Supreme

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Goblin

Gremlin Supreme

Romi

Secretly a Bird

Goblin

Gremlin Supreme

Romi

Secretly a Bird