[Can’t Opt Out]

This was supposed to be a serious situation.

Very serious.

Nothing but the most serious and severe of attitudes needed!

They were descending into the ominous dark of Fräthk's torture chambers! Emilia should not have been losing her shit laughing. Unfortunately, that was exactly what was happening and it was all Halen’s fault!

Now, Emilia had known Halen for almost half her life, and the majority of that time may have been spent obsessing over how to make him miserable. Was this perhaps a sign that there was more behind her feelings for the beautiful boy—and yes, it was a sad fact of life that Halen was one of the most attractive people she had ever met, and considering he was still growing into himself, it was likely he would only become more attract as the years passed—than simple animosity and pettiness? Yes, after having spent hours ruminating over Halen on and off as they travelled, her mind often left to drift back to him as silence overcame their group, Emilia could admit that there had always been something else there.

Even without her Censor’s aid in recalling the exact moment she had first seen the infuriating boy, Emilia could imagine it. This beautiful boy, gangly with youth, but still possessing a presence that couldn’t be denied. Transfer students were rare, only Halen and Coral coming into their class between the time she and her siblings had moved to the Penns, a year into the start of compulsory schooling, and when they had graduated. A few students had left, but that was rare as well. People rarely moved in or out of the Penns, and when they did, it was for big reasons.

So, Halen being a transfer student had immediately made him the centre of attention, even before things between them had exploded and he had accidentally found himself at the centre of nearly fifteen years of drama. For Emilia, however, there had always been something else there as well—this tiny promise of something, calling her attention in across the schoolyard hours before the something had been smothered under all her hatred for a boy who would dare speak badly of Malcolm.

Still, there was a reason why Emilia had always trusted Halen to never say anything bad about her being a silverstrain or having a healthy sex life. When trashing Coral’s school, she had known that if one of them were caught, they would never offer the other person up—and the same had been true for the handful of times they had teamed up before and since then, usually to make some teacher quit. They wouldn’t sacrifice the other for themself.

Emilia had trusted him while they gained themselves an alibi for the vandalism, knowing he would never go too far while they made out in the park, Halen hard against her and so aware that she was high and didn’t let people touch her while intoxicated. It was an odd thing to know, to the bottom of her soul, that Halen never would have done anything to hurt her. He could have been one thrust from coming, and with a whispered no, he would have been gone—gone and fussing, making sure she was okay. The boy was so cute when he fussed, his hands running through his hair as he tried to puzzle everything back together, only to find, at the end, that he had made a mess of himself in the process.

It was so different from the fussiness she had seen in Olivier, his fingers, running over the folds in his clothing, making sure they were perfect, his hands, reaching out to straighten everything around him almost unthinkingly, his posture, always perfect. Weeks ago, in the bathroom stall, he had fixed the ribbons of her dress up perfectly. Another person might have just tied the half she had pulled loose back up, not caring that her arms didn’t match. Emilia thought the man wouldn’t have let her leave without them matching. Even when it came to {{Blissful Silence}}, the man was clearly fussy, refusing to even consider updating it.

It was ironic, in a way, that the only reason Emilia had any idea of where he had disappeared from was that function. It was the only reason Halen and everyone else were headed her way as well, messages—mostly ones expressing concern over her new stalker—filling up her mind now that almost everyone had escaped the aethernet blocking part of the caves.

Almost because Levi, Samina, and Lux were still missing inside the cave system, and fuck.

That was something to worry about later, however. For the moment, she was laughing and contemplating Halen and his fussiness. She would break down crying, if she dared think about her missing friends. The situation was especially bad where Lux was concerned. Apparently she had disappeared in some sort of attack, her Censor disconnecting from the stalking function the same way Olivier’s had. In Lux’s case, however, she had been seen alive, but with an offaether Censor, right before vanishing. This helpfully suggested that not only was she very possibly still alive, but that the same was true for Olivier as well. Then again, they had—theoretically—crossed paths with him earlier. Until she saw him with her own two eyes, however, Emilia wasn’t going to trust that he was actually alive—the information had come from Rayleen, after all.

In some ways, that might have been why she hadn’t at least caught up to the other group and confirmed his alive-ness: Emilia had already known she wouldn’t be able to leave Jerrial to his mission, and she had a feeling Olivier was the same—that he would also be unable to leave the people he had picked up to their fate. So, if she’d caught up, they would have needed to split up, and then what? Then, all that would remain with them was the knowledge that the other person had been alive when they last saw one another, and that they could die any second.

If Olivier—and possibly anyone with him—died because she chose Jerrial over them.

If she or her allies died because Olivier chose his group over hers.

Neither of them deserved to have those realities placed over them in visceral, human form. If Olivier died, Emilia could convince herself he had already been halfway dead when they passed, and she had played no part in it. If she disappeared, hopefully no one would tell him she had died looking for him? If any of the people in their groups died, they couldn’t blame the other for not choosing their group—Emilia thought this was all the more relevant in her case, as she had to admit that going down into the depths of this terrible, terrible place was particularly stupid, and while she liked Jerrial, she probably should have knocked him out and carried him up to Olivier’s group. Really, if anyone died, it was all her fault!

“This is an impressively stupid line of thoughts,” Halen muttered into their private relay, his voice carrying to her through the aethernet a little glitchy. “It’s not even just one stupid thought, it’s all the stupid thoughts. How can a single person have so many stupid thoughts in a row.”

“How can one person say ‘stupid thoughts’ so many times in a row?” she shot back, finally getting her giggles under control. As she and Clemence were currently pulling up the rear of their group, and she had wrapped herself in a sound-blocking skill, no one else had realized she was losing her shit. The teenager had given her an odd look, but when she explained that someone was talking to her through her Censor, the girl had shrugged and tightened her grip, presumably to make sure Emilia didn’t topple down the stairs in her amusement.

Her eyes skimmed back over the stream of messages that had made her laugh. They were also the reason why she had opened a voice call with Halen, not wanting him to send said messages further back in their logs. They were just so… Emilia wasn’t even sure what to make of them. They were sweet and silly, and more than a few of the first ones were highly sexual.

Mikhail would be scandalized to know Halen had sent them to her without her consent… which was probably why a number of his follow-up messages were him attempting to backtrack, issuing apologies for his brazenness. There were a few excuses that the messages were stress induced, followed by exclamations that stress wasn’t a good or acceptable excuse, followed by him assuring her that he hadn’t lied in the original messages, he just regretted sending them without checking that sending them was acceptable.

From what she could tell, it seemed that he had decided “in a moment of insanity, clearly induced by the dark and foreboding cave system and the looming threat of death at any moment”—didn’t Emilia know that never-before-seen monsters could be lurking in the cave system!?—to “shoot his shot.”

Shooting this shot involved a very explicit message about how he would be perfectly happy to offer his cock up for her to experiment with. It had taken a moment for Emilia to remember that, hours earlier, she had teased him with the idea of finding someone with piercings to fuck, so she could determine if Olivier’s cousin’s smut was accurate in its portrayal of how piercing felt during sex. At the time, she had wondered what she was doing, flirting with Halen. If it hadn’t been for the stalking function informing her—and everyone else in his group—that he was exceptionally aroused by her flirting, she might have never mentioned anything sexual to the guy again.

Instead, they had continued on with a gentle flirting.

This—this message and offer that Halen had sent her—was in no way gentle, nor were the first of the follow-up messages he had sent her. They both were and weren’t flirting. A few more were sexual messages that had left her cheeks burning.

“You know how often I think about you when I jerk off? Every time. Why would I think of someone else, when there’s you?”

“I could see taking you with the triplets. I bet they take you so well.”

“Baylor said some things that were… interesting. Fuck, that guy is terrifying. I think even Taelor was a little put off by some of it?” There had been a picture included with that one, of Taelor holding on to Baylor. If they didn’t have the same face, it would have been clear to anyone who looked that they were lovers. As it was, most people would likely assume they were just extremely close siblings—perhaps too close, but few people would assume more.

Halen assumed more, asking if it was hot watching them be together.

“Yes,” she had spoken into his mind, startling him because he hadn’t yet realized they were back onaether, “it’s so hot, but them loving each other? Being able to see them so close and snuggly? Being free to be themselves when we’re alone? That’s the best thing: being allowed to see that love.”

In the background, Halen’s vitals had gone so haywire that Emilia had needed to message Taelor to tell him to make sure Halen didn’t die or trip or come in his pants—somehow, with how much his arousal had skyrocketed, it had seemed like a possibility. It probably wasn’t; still, Taelor had diligently messaged Halen to ask if he needed help cleaning up his pants, resulting in Halen growing embarrassed and then complaining that they were both bullying him. As he was generally relegated to being their caretaker, Taelor didn’t often get the opportunity to tease people—mostly, he had to keep them from doing stupid shit. As a result, Emilia thought he was likely enjoying teasing Halen with his caretaker tendencies.

They had also both noted how, despite his embarrassment, Halen’s arousal had gone up under Taelor’s suggestion—interesting, as Emilia had never really gotten the impression her former classmate was into other men? Hadn’t he even said that the day before? That while he wasn’t into men, Olivier would be a good person to have a threesome with, as he was very attractive? Actually… had Halen ever really expressed interest in anyone, save apparently her?

Later, Emilia would have to ask him about it—really, the poor guy was stressed enough as it was, managing their group as they moved through the upper reaches of the city’s ceiling, trying to figure out if there was a way to get down that wouldn’t involve a lot of jumping and hoping they didn’t die. Most of them could freefall, but that was over water, where there was a little more leeway to fuck up. As long as you’d slowed yourself down enough to not break your legs or spine on impact, if you weren’t quite slow enough when you hit water, you just went a little deeper than intended. On land, the ground generally didn’t move aside for you. You came to zero velocity through your own control of the skill, or the ground did it for you.

A few members of their group were confident enough in their skills that they would jump if no easier method of getting down were found in the next few minutes, but that also meant they had to split the group in two, making sure each side was relatively balanced.

Emilia didn’t envy Halen and Taelor for having to manage the situation.

Unfortunately, the fact that those two were managing things meant that Halen would have to stay with the group on the ceiling if they couldn’t find a non-jumping way down soon. There was no way Baylor would be waiting more than a few minutes to come to her, and where he went, his brothers would follow.

Something nearby groaned, and Emilia told all her friends to be safe and no die on their way down, leaving Halen with a parting message that she looked forward to seeing him soon.

Amazingly, she meant it.

“Don’t die before I can take you up on your offer,” she added, snickering to herself as his arousal once again slid upwards, Baylor’s annoyance going up as well—and wasn’t it interesting that the middle triplet was chronically annoyed by Halen’s arousal?

“Stop causing problems,” Taelor sighed into their relay, although with so much affection floating through to her, it was impossible for Emilia to take him seriously.

“Like you haven’t noticed how easily you three can affect him either,” she pointed out, before shutting down her relays to emergency messages only.

These torture-murder levels weren’t the sort of place she should be fooling around, after all.

That said… she still had one person she really needed to contact, even if it was going to suck. Unfortunately, when she tried to pass the responsibility off to basically anyone else, everyone refused. Rude.