Eleutheromania
(n)
the intense desire for freedom
--
Perseus had known that his life was a game, a gamble of life and death where every move has its consequences, yet even then, he could have never been prepared for this. Distantly, he heard Agent Barton's voice filtered through incredulously.
"—what?!"
Exactly, what are you even thinking, Stark?
"I said...we're going to party! Come on, Legolas! It'll be fun! Listening through all that world-domination thingy was stressful. So why don't we all have a drink— my treat, mind you— in a place not that far away from here, eh?"
The enthusiastic voice did nothing to eliminate Perseus' thoughts on it being a bad idea. There was something in the air, tugging at him gently and pleading him not to go, as if it was a warning.
But for what...
Shortly after the meeting was dismissed, seeing as they all understood the importance, someone had approached him— Banner, his mind supplied helpfully. After quite a while of what seemed like a subtle interrogation, Banner had relented and accepted that even for SHIELD, the stone inside him was unknown.
Sea-green eyes scanned the room, trying to figure out from which direction was the pressuring aura coming from and finally figure out what it was telling him. His instincts were tingling, the unknown stimulus teasing him. He could just hear it, begging, demanding for him to not go.
Don't...
Why?
...she's there...
...who?
...they're there...
...tell me...
...traitor—
"—Jackson! I expect you to come as well! It'll be fun! You looked stiff, maybe you should try to loosen up a little. I know just the perfe—"
"No, Stark."
The insistent chatter died down at the rejection, yet even then, Stark's expression remained ever so stubborn with a hint of indignancy. He could just see it, how Stark's own mask came up to cover up the shudder that ran through his body. Maybe somewhere deep inside of those sea-green orbs he felt remorse, but people change, masks drop, backs are stabbed, and Perseus was not the same person no matter how he would like to pretend he was.
"...too much people..."
He knew Stark was no fool, the billionaire just liked to ignore some facts and bend that ignorance to his will. He couldn't help but to feel a small spark of envy deep within him, its serpentine body slithering, cold and slippery as its tongue flicked out, caressing the corners of his mind.
"...I don't see a problem with that."
And just like that, to cover his nervousness from the meetting, Stark put up a cover of ignorance. Sea-green eyes flicked up to meet brown ones, the sea visible and churning dangerously, sending a shiver down Stark's spine.
"Have you forgotten I am SHIELD's most guarded secret? Or do you choose to cover your eyes from this fact? I am not going to expose myself, not with the whole world knowing who you are. They would start wondering, and then my privacy would be destroyed."
Silence reigned the area with its cold hands, brushing and nipping at their skin. Amongst the frost lies an ocean, fast and churning, trapped beneath the glassy layer of those sea-green orbs.
"Well..."
All eyes— besides of Perseus and the trickster god, flickered to look at the billionaire, a silent plead inside them, begging Stark not to provoke the raging sea, a streak of fear inside them, a fear of drowning.
"...I could rent the bar and...it'll be just us..."
It came of more like a question rather than a statement, a result of the agitation that was gnawing on Stark's nerves. He could just feel it, nipping and licking at his mind, teasing him. The silence that once again reigned did nothing to help his nervousness as he waited for the Agent to give a clue, any sign of approval.
A sharp yet subtle nod from the Agent sent a gasp of relief to flow out of his mouth. He didn't know what made him so afraid of the Agent. After all, he thought, he's only human...
...right?
--
Bruce held the glass tightly, his eyes reflected back on his nervousness as the smell of alcohol flooded his nose. The golden lights hanging around the place gave it a sense of lux and mystery, a shadow behind the light, the cold dark waters beneath the moonlit surface.
"Nervous?"
The feminine voice sent his body jolting as he turned his head to look at Natasha. The assassin had a rare smile stretched on her face, showing her pearly whites, and he thought she never looked so beautiful, ethereal as she bathed iin the golden light.
A light blush coated his skin as he realised just what he had been thinking about. He knew that if she knew about this, he would be dead and nobody would find him. He swallowed on air before averting his eyes, seemingly embarrassed at his own self.
"...yeah..."
It was lame, he knew it, but his uneasiness was hazing his mind, clogging all his thoughts and rendering him speechless. For awhile none of them uttered a singke word, until Bruce felt a wave crashed down upon them.
It was suffocating, drenching them in pressure, pushing them down. There were only two person with that aura, and the trickster god was all the way across the other side of the room. Gasping and steadying himself, he then stood up and turned to look at the source, the eye of the storm.
He could feel it, even if the Agent himself was quite far from where they stood, the clash of the waves, the ballad of destruction. He could hear it, the roaring from his other self, the primal instincts urging him to flee.
"...you feel it too, huh?"
Snapping himself out from his daze, he focused his attention once more on the Russian. She looked at him with her green eyes, looking more like a meadow bathed in sunlight rather than an ocean, wild and unpredictable, the dark waters bathing in the thunderstorm up above. It was too, very different from the poisonous, serpentine, and dark orbs of the trickster god.
It was both mesmerizing and morbidly intriguing, how the same colour could have so many different shades, so many different personalities that you would start questioning which one was real. It was like a mask, a facade, like the one he wore most of the time.
"Bruce?"
"Ah...yeah, sorry, I was thinking. What was that again?"
Offering her an awkward and slightly crooked smike, he waited for her answer. His brown orbs met her green ones and for awhile no one spoke, until Natasha decided to finally answer. Her voice was quiet, secretive, as if she was telling him a secret, her secret, one so guarded and hidden from the rest of the world.
"...do you feel it? The roar of the sea? The pressure, one that makes you feel as if you are drowning?"
".. yes..."
--
Perseus stood there, the shadows being the perfect cover, shielding him from the others while still being able to see them. Music blasted loudly through the night, yet even then, he could still hear it.
...run...
He was curious, as to why his instincts were telling him to flee. That had been the main reason as to why he had accepted Stark's offer— curiousity. It had been the same curiousity that drove him into finding out about his father, to finding his heritage and then shaping him into a warrior, a killing machine, and arc of destruction.
...into chaos...
He knew something was coming, something that was neither good nor bad, a line between, the grey area. It teased him with the gentle touches of an unsolved mystery, like a puzzle with only one missing piece.
Eventually, the teasing finally snapped his resolve and he decided that if it wasn't coming to him, he might as well run into him, even if it meant doing so blindly, a thin veil of the unknown wrapped over his eyes, obscuring his vision, plunging him into the darkness without a single light.
Then again, that was what he had been doing all along. Those quests and battles, he could still remember the pain and loss of trudging in unaware of the monster that lies inside. And the prophecies, they never tell you anything straightforwardly, always in riddles and painted in secrets.
A half-blood of the eldest gods...
That was who he was, what he was, a halfling, a demigod, a fighter. Because even inside the barriers of his walls, there was no safety at all. He has been fighting all along, when his abusive stepfather came, at school, as demigods, as a leader, and now as a god.
...shall reach sixteen against all odds...
Against all odds indeed, because no matter how many times had he stepped in blindly, quests after quests, prophecies after prophecies— he just kept on living, on fighting, even when he has thought 'this is it'....and see the world in endless sleep...How many had his comrades fallen in battle? How many lives has ended by the cold kiss of blades? And the ground coated in dark blood, how it glittered in the light as they laid there, pale and unmoving, death like as their eyes closed in an eternal dream, a dream which they would never wake up from to see their beloved ones drowning in a nightmare.
...the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap...And it did, it may had been Luke— oh, how he would like to see those blue orbs once more, alight in joy and childish mischief— but he knew that prophecies has double meanings. It was his soul too, that had been reaped, year later as they decided to preserve him for their selfish needs, and after that, their dagger-like words cur through him, shattering him once and for all with the pieces scattered amongst the wind like dust— no, ashes, his ashes from the pyre that would never be built.
...a single choice shall end his days...He chose to fight, to attack with all his might rather than surrendering and succumbing to the cold yet comforting embrace of death. He chose them, and they turned their backs on him when he needed them, yet even then, he took it all in a stride, because he couldn't deny the fact that he's changed, an unknown— no, the unknown.
...Olympus to preserve or raze...How he wished he saw them burn now, with him tearing down the bricks, the storm rolling around like waves, dangerous, powerful, destructive.
And he'd be there, a calm amongst chaos, the center of the destruction, the eye of the storm.
--
Nothing much to say, I'm afraid.
Well, review please.
And give me a word, any word for the next chapter.
I'll pick a few to actually use.
Really.
Well I'll be getting my report from school tomorrow, well actually today seeing as this is 2 AM where I am currently.
#I'mSoDead
#PrayForMeh?
Well, this is it dudes.
au Revoir!