jiva (noun) - vital life force

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ now playing ; fearless pt.II by lost sky 

CASSIAN DIDN'T APPRECIATE THE
UNIVERSE GIFTING CUE THE ABILITY
TO SURF BETTER THAN HIM

Damn Cue, and his evidently natural ability to do anything, everything, and whatever the fuck was beyond that.

Granted, Cue had said that he'd had more than a millenia to practice, and Cassian only had one lifetime, but still. It was especially irritating watching Cue sit with his board with Cordelia, who looked about as ecstatic that he thought was capable of, while he was alone on his own, watching the pulsing waves under the moon.

The skies above him were quickly darkening, beams of soft starfire raining down against the ocean before them, illuminating the crashing shores of Elysian.

At least it was pretty.

It'd be prettier if Asia was here.

Cassian bit his tongue, resisting the urge to turn his head to gain a glimpse of the very person that plagued his thoughts. He could feel her haunting eyes on him, sharp and analyzing, but damn her, he would not give her the satisfaction of buckling under the pressure of being watched.

Another part of him, prompted him to look, to catch her gaze, if only to be able to tease her about it later. Although, if he did that, she'd likely look away, and wouldn't spare him another glance in fear of being caught staring. Frankly, Cassian liked her attention, even if she didn't seem to like him all that much.

Asia was just so Asia. Lethally beautiful, and hauntingly mysterious. Sharp-minded and sharp-mouthed, with everyone but Echo, it seemed. Then again, who would dare insult Echo, especially with someone like Asia behind her. She had so many secrets, so much story in her, and Cassian was desperate for it.

A scowl pulled at his mouth, and for a brief second, Cassian closed his eyes, feeling the spray of the sea against his face.

It didn't really matter anyway, if Asia returned his feelings, it wouldn't last. It's not like Cassian wouldn't try to make it last, but most of his relationships ended in horrible, gut-wrenching, soul-crushing, heartbreak.

That's probably why Cue picked him anyway.

Even with all those thoughts that lingered in his mind, he couldn't have helped falling for Asia. Not that she noticed, or knew, or would ever know, because he planned on taking it to the grave.

Maybe Cue has some tips for hiding a secret for eternity.

Knowing him, probably.

It likely didn't matter anyway, it wasn't a doubt in his mind that the others had picked up on his feelings towards her. It felt like everyone knew except the person who actually should know.

Cassian didn't really want to consider the fact that she might know, and just didn't care. He just wanted somebody to care, but he really wanted that somebody to be Asia.

It doesn't matter anyway.

There was an unfamiliar pulse of the waves beneath him, a beat that didn't quite match the rest of the rhythm of the ocean. His eyes snapped open, tilting his head at an angle behind him just in time to see Cue swim into the spot beside him. After adjusting himself up on the board, he turned to face Cassian, who's scowl was already in place.

"What do you want?"

"You're just sitting here." Cue stared at him for a beat, then looked behind them both, over his shoulder and towards the warmth of the beach beyond that. Smoke drifting into the open skies. Cassian refused to look, maybe a little more than concerned that he might meet the lingering gaze of Asia Amara. Instead, he gave his friend a sarcastic glance.

"You should get an award Cue, for being so observant, all the time."

"You're being sarcastic." Cue's response, another excellent observation indeed, Cassian didn't bother resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"No, me? Sarcastic? Never."

Cue's gaze returned to Cassian, a mirrored glance staring back at him. "Okay, now you're definitely being sarcastic."

Cass scoffed, letting out a huff of a laugh, shaking his head slightly. Cue was always like this, and deep down, Cass thought the immortal just liked to push people's buttons, like he was just asking for it. Of course, if anyone even tried to take on Cue, they'd probably be erased from existence. That being said, Cassian was determined to try one day anyway, if just for the fun of it.

Cue was more like him then he really wanted to admit. They both liked pushing buttons, he knew that much. They had surprisingly similar workout routines, which Cassian hoped made Cue respect him at least a little more. They had a lot of pride, he knew that, but the biggest thing - is that they both had heartbreak. They'd both experienced it.

Cassian didn't pry about it, not really, but he could sense it, in a way. His whole thing was heartbreak, after all, and he was starting to find that Cue had experienced a surprising amount of it. Over what particularly, he didn't know.

Cass wasn't really sure if he ever would know.

So instead, he turned his attention back to the noticeable absence of a particular someone that had been on Cue's board a few minutes ago. Turning his head back towards his companion, he nodded towards it, "Where's Cordy?"

"She got cold." Cue shrugged, although his hands twitched slightly, and Cassian recognized the gesture. Fighting back a smile, he duly noted it was the same one he made when he was refusing to look over his shoulder to catch Asia staring.

"Oh?" he raised his eyebrow, turning to face Cue as a teasing smile lit up his face. "She got cold, well, did you offer to warm her up?"

For a moment, Cue went still, and Cassian seriously considered his options. He was either about to die, or potentially fluster Cue for the first time in his goddamn life.

Cassian went with the first, and more likely option of the two. Bracing his hands against his board, he saw Cue's hand raise, lightly smacking him in the back of the head. It didn't hurt, and based on the sheer size of Cue, it definitely could have been harder, but Cassian feigned his collapse anyway. Falling against the board in a dramatic fashion, one that certainly Joon himself would have approved, he theatrically groaned in pain.

"The horror...I've...been hit." He drew in a labored breath, squinting an eye open to see Cue's most irritated face, with a judgemental glare casted down upon him. Snapping his eye shut again, he whined once more, in indescribable agony. "Tell...tell my girlfriend I love her..."

Cue, cheerful as ever, ignored his pleas. "You don't have a girlfriend."

"Find me a girlfriend then, Cue." his eyes opened momentarily, only to cast his own accusatory glare, before he resumed his performance. "Tell her I love her...."

"I wonder if Asia is available then."

Cassian snapped back up on his board, feeling heat flame onto his face. Thank god it was dark out, or he'd give Cue even more ammo to fire back at him. Cue really didn't need anymore, especially after their run last week, when Cass had badly attempted to flirt, and ended up running straight into a tree. Scrambling for some sense of stability, Cassian resorted to a half-scowl, huffing at him like a petulant child who'd just got scolded for eating too much Halloween candy.

"Bastard."

Cue huffed a breathy laugh, not quite a full one, but something just on the brink. He did that more often now, in fact, when Cassian had run into that tree, it almost got a smile out of him. Something that he considered an absolute win, even if the ache on his back hadn't faded all the way yet from the fall. "You want to know something, Cass?"

Choosing to bypass the fact that Cue had just used a nickname, he kept his scowl front and center, crossing his arms over his chest as Cue leaned down against the board, watching the sea beyond them. The pulse of a wave, the start of a good catch, was just on the crest of the horizon, and Cue's eyes might have sparkled in the starlight, as if recalling a memory, when Cassian uttered the bitter response of, "What?"

Cue sighed, but it wasn't the same kind of sigh he heard when Cassian said something inappropriate, it was a wistful one, full of longing. Full of heartache. "My wife, she used to call me that too."

What.

Unable to even push the word out of his chest, Cassian just stood there for a moment, wide-eyed as Cue pushed off to meet the wave before it broke. Once again, Cassian was left scrambling, and quickly he leaned down, shooting after him, and yelling over the wind that had begun to build around them. "Cue! What - you can't just say that and leave, don't you understand anything about conversation?! I mean - what the hell, man -"

He was cut off.

Cut off by a sound much more alarming, and something that arched though the skies like lightning.

Echo's scream.

Below him, the water had grown rougher, the wind ringing into his ears. He watched as Cue turned, almost instantly abandoning the wave he was about to crest, and turning to face the beach, his eyes wide. Cassian followed suit, as another blood-curdling scream rang through the winds of Elysian.

Echo wasn't just screaming.

She was screaming someone's name.

"ASIA!"

At the call, like it had been summoned, a storm above them broke. The torrential downpour barely even registered to Cassian, because everything had stopped for him. In the distance, beyond the ache of the ocean, the opening of the heavens, and on the shores of the beach, was a growing pit of inky darkness. It spiraled into the sky, rapid and unforgiving, eating away even the stars that dimly lit the navy blue.

The last sight of Asia was her hand sticking out of the darkness, before it vanished entirely, around her, a whirlpool of void spiraled out, expanding, eating away at the warm sandy beaches that had been there only a moment ago. Angry, violent, emptiness consuming the land like it knew nothing else.

He barely even registered Cue's hand on his arm, before they vanished into dust, momentarily reappearing on the shores that were being eaten away. The onslaught of rain hadn't let up any, and Cassian took a step towards the darkness, but Cue's arm braced against his chest. "You can't."

"What do you mean I can't, Cue?" Fury. Fury and anxiety bit at his soul, his entire being. "Asia's in there, we can't just-"

"Fucking hell-" Cue pushed him back further, and in an instant, Cue's wings shot form his back, ripping against the wetsuit he'd had on for surfing. "Do you even see what's happening in there, Cassian? Look."

He hated this. He hated it, but Cassian looked.

In the shallows of the darkness, he could see it, tree's - knotted with roots and thorns and death incarnate in the limbs, eating away at any life they could see. Cue's scowl remained, as he pointed towards it. "You wouldn't last a fucking minute in there, much less even manage to get through the branches, you aren't small enough."

Cassian would have taken that as a compliment, had this been any other situation.

The wind howled against them, and Cassian realized that Cue had his grip on Echo's arm, keeping her from doing the same thing that Cassian wanted so desperately to do. The darkness continued, unrelenting, creating more and more space from them, to where Asia was - wherever she was, that is.

Cue barked another curse to the wind, snapping to Echo. "What happened?"

Echo stared up at him, wide-eyed, "I don't know- I don't know what I did Cue, Asia- she, she said she'd been looking at her powers, and trying to work them out, and she just - she asked if she could try it on me - she just wanted to see if she could see my death date, or like - past lives - I didn't mean-" The voice trailed off, and even in the downpour of hail and rain, it was clear she was fighting back tears.

Cue's face had paled, and he snapped back towards the darkness, pushing them back once again. "..fuck."

Freddie, clearly beginning to grow increasingly frantic, was holding onto Amir's arm, in search of some sort of comfort, comfort that Amir was clearly fine with giving. "What - what does that mean?"

Cue was silent for a moment, staring at the all-out war between life and death that had suddenly manifested before them, then spoke. "Immortals don't have death dates, not in the same way mortals do." For another moment, he was silent, and Cassian felt the memory that Cue was reliving, if only for a brief second, before Cue was again speaking. "She broke."

Cassian's heart stopped dead, "She what?"

Cue quickly turned to him, thrown off for a beat "No- I mean, her - power's in a sense, they - they broke, not in the mortal sense of the world, not broke in an unrepairable way, but they broke because Asia is searching for something that is not there." Cue's grimace quickly returned, looking back, "And it's not going to stop."

Silence ran through them, and desperately, hopelessly, Cassian looked towards them all. Looked towards Cue. "We can do something, can't we? I mean, we can't just give up on her, we're her family."

Echo looked directly to Cue, clearly hoping for some kind of plan. Cassian did the same. As did Joon, Freddie, Amir, and even Cordelia, who was hugging herself, nails digging into skin. Cue had to have a plan, he always had a plan. He was always able to salvage it, somehow, someway, even if it didn't end perfectly. When there was no other option, Cue always seemed to find one.

His answer came, a quiet falling over them, even the storm seemed to soothe momentarily, eagerly awaiting his response. At last, it did.

In a voice quieter than he'd ever heard, Cue whispered, "I don't know." There was silence, and he saw Cue's breath hitch, ever so slightly, caught in his chest, "I don't know."

Desperation, and absolute dread, clawed its way up Cassian's throat. If Cue didn't know what to do, what hope did they have?

What hope did Asia have?

A voice spoke, familiar, and they turned to it in unison.

Echo.

It had been incoherent the first time, but Cue seemed to have heard her just fine, because he snapped to her, looking at her sharply. So, she said it again. "I have a plan." Echo stood up straighter, against the winds, and looked towards the darkness, and suddenly Cassian realized exactly what Echo's plan entailed.

"Echo." Cue's voice was a warning. A command. A plea.

Echo smiled, a weak, little thing, and with likely all the strength she could muster, wrestled out of Cue's grip, shoving off of him, and running into the darkness.

It was only a moment before she vanished entirely.

꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎

ophelia !!

tenth chapter done !

also , i apologize for 
this chapter <3

can you guys believe we're 
already at ten chapters ?!
it's kinda crazy , so far
i've written about 28,000 
words for this story !

good luck on finals 
and things ! as you
might know , i am going
through a bit of a rough
patch rn, but ilysm <3
ty for keeping up
with my writing

[ how do your characters feel about the beach ? ]

answers ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥