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Moments after the three idiots hang up, they call Callisto back. He considers not answering before deciding that if its something stupid he can just vaporize them.
“What?!” He groans. He is still in the middle of a “battle” but he is not particularly worried about it. Not a single soldier has landed a hit on him, so this might as well be a warmup fight.
“Yes, I know you are upset,” S.G. says, holding up her hands in a submissive manner. “I have news for you- uh- when I licked the genie stone -the one you told me was a genie- uh- something went wrong, and I somehow ended up behind the boundary. “
“Behind the- behind the boundary- into the chaos realm?” He demands. He pays the hologram a little more attention.
“Yes, um, and I met this creature who- uh- who went by Palnaros.”
"Palnaros? Who the hell is Palnaros? What the hell is Palnaros? As far as anyone knows there is no life other than… other than-" He shakes his head, clearing his thoughts.
“I-” He squares his shoulders. "They don’t need to know about him. Not yet anyway." “I have no idea what that is.”
S.G. nods before continuing. “And he- uh- he asked me where I was going, and I said I was going to the rift. So, I think-”
Callisto cuts her off. “What is- what is Palnaros?” he demands, upset that she isn’t elaborating. “What is this?”
The changeling seems to focus really hard for a moment, but the genie shakes his head. Callisto hadn't noticed the genie before this, but he decides that with these idiots it will be best to take it one question at a time.
“I can do it,” he says with a thick Russian accent. The genie waves his hands around and a film of mist appears and its moves to form a picture. It shows a floating island in the chaos realm with small figures of S.G. and Djarrid standing near the edge and a huge centipede monstrosity pulling itself over the edge, but the rest of its body disappears off the edge of the image.
“Oh my god, that’s so much worse than the memory,” Glib groans as he looks away. Callisto ignores him as he leans forward to look at the picture better, and nearly immediately regrets it.
“That looks like- but it can’t be. That can’t be- it surely isn’t-” His thoughts rush around his head for several moments before going dead silent. “What happened to you, my love?” He wants to cry in relief that Prophis is still alive after all of these years. He wants to sob at what has become of his beautiful boyfriend. He wants to scream in anger that he even let this happen in the first place. He has always been quite good at controlling his emotions, and never has it been more convenient than this very moment because he can’t betray any of this information to these idiot "adventurers".
He thinks about what to do for a moment before crossing his arms over his chest to focus all of his energy and emotions into one powerful blast. He throws the power all around him, scorching the earth and burning the soldiers alive, but their screams fall on deaf ears.
Now he can think clearly. Well, clear enough.
He leans closer to the holograms taking a deep breath. “You’re half right. That does look like the Chaos Realm, but the far more concerning thing is that I don’t know what that is,” he lies. Well, is it a lie if he doesn’t know what it is, he just has a theory? A theory that every fiber of his soul is begging for it to not be true. He still has- had- no, has- hope that Prophis is alright and will be returned to him one day.
“So, this issue is alright?” Canyon asks looking between Callisto and S.G.
“I thought your whole thing is knowing things!” Glib accuses.
“It is, frog man!” Callisto hisses. He does know what’s going on, probably anyway, but they don’t need to know. “And that is why I’m concerned at the moment!” One of the several reasons. “That thing wasn’t there the last time-” Callisto mutters under his breath before catching himself. His mouth shuts with a click as he stares at them in challenge.
“The last-?! Excuse you?! The last time?!” The frog shouts, pushing in front of S.G. to talk directly to Callisto instead of hiding behind Canyon. “The last time you what?!”
“Nothing,” Callisto snaps. He owes them no explanations. ”But Prophis would tell them,” a little voice says. It’s a voice that hasn’t said much since Prophis’ “disappearance.” Prophis used to call it his conscious. Funny how the voice sounds almost exactly like loving boyfriend. ”They are helping you, they deserve a little information. Stop lying.” Callisto shuts the voice up immediately. “It’s not relevant to your mission at hand,” he says trying to appeal to the voice. It isn’t relevant. And if he has to keep telling himself that, he will.
“It seems pretty fucking relevant!” Glib screams.
“You’ll know it when I need you to know it,” Callisto snaps in a way that doesn’t leave much room for argument. Everyone is silent while they process the information that was just given to them.
“Mystery Man,” S.G. says, breaking the silence. “Did you fight in the Symmetry War?”
He laughs at the irony of that statement. He’s tempted to tell them the truth, just to see the look on their faces when they learn that he, his boyfriend, and his best friend founded Symmetris and technically it's factions as well.
“I wasn’t-”
But it’s just easier to lie.
“The Symmetry War was eons ago.”
So much easier to lie.
“It was far before any time-”
“Yes, that’s not my question. My question was ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” S.G. interjects.
He cocks a small grin. Smart changeling, he’ll have to remember that. “It was far before my time,” he finishes, not acknowledging their statement and in the back of his mind he hopes she realizes that their right.
”Prophis would like him,” he thinks mildly before the full sentiment behind that thought hits him. Prophis- or at least this Prophis like monster does like her. And Prophis is alive. Monster or not, he’s alive, and that’s all Callisto cares about. He’ll find a way to revert him, to bring back his original form. And if he can’t do that, he’ll make do. He just wants to talk to him again, to apologize for failing him and for forcing him to be trapped in there for eons.
“Continue the mission as planned,” he says as calmly as he can manage. “Speed it up if possible. We need to get this handled now.”
“Oh yeah, we were taking our time before,” Canyon says flatly, tail flicking behind him slightly annoyed.
”Prophis would probably find Canyon funny with his blunt humor. He would probably like Glib too. He would certainly want to talk to him and find out where things went wrong in this poor frog’s life and would probably demand that I help all of them and stop leaving them in the dark,” Callisto thinks with a slight grimace. He might be a little too harsh on these people. They didn’t ask for this and he did threaten to kill them if they didn’t agree to help him. But Prophis was always his better half. He was- is- innocent and sweet. He cared for everything around him and was so kind to nature.
(“My love, why is there a strange child in our living room?”
“Because he was lost and hungry and I couldn’t just leave him outside for the wolves!”
Callisto stared at Prophis for a moment before walking over and kissing his cheek.
“I’ll go make the spare room up for the night, you start on dinner.” He turned to the small child who was staring at him with large, scared eyes. “Hello, I’m Callisto.” He held out his hand and the small child shook it nervously.
“I’m Reylias,” he said meekly, clutching his little teddy bear closer to himself.
“Hello, Reylias. You are free to stay here for as long as you want.” Callisto ruffles his hair with a smile before going to make a little Reylias a place to sleep.)
He used to sing with the birds in the early hours of the morning when he thought Callisto was still asleep.
(Callisto wakes slowly to the sound of distant singing. Confused he rolls out of bed and walks to the window. Outside in the small flower field near their little house, Prophis is scattering bird seed and is singing something in a language Callisto doesn’t understand but recognizes as elvish. Reylias sits near his feet, trying to mimic the words of the song which Prophis gently corrects.
He listens for a little bit longer before he realizes the song is one of the many songs that Prophis’ mother used to sing to him and Kyland when they were young. He smiles and wonders idly if Prophis would ever want to adopt more children with him, or if he is content with just Reylias.)
He used to make breakfast so that when Callisto did get up, he’d have food already made.
(Callisto stumbles out of bed, a scowl already painted across his face. It falters for a moment when he smells something heavenly coming from the kitchen. He blindly follows his nose until he is standing in the dining room with a blanket around his shoulders and a blank expression. Reylias giggles at him from his seat at the table.
“Good morning!” Prophis says happily.
“What are you making?” Callisto asks bluntly.
Prophis laughs. “It’s a recipe I got from a relative. If it smells good enough to get you out of bed, I might need to make it more often!” Prophis walks over and sits a plate down in front of him and his son before kissing Callisto's cheek and the top of Reylias' head.)
He would tell Callisto to go throw his temper tantrum somewhere else before returning to whatever he was doing.
(“I’m going to kill him!” Callisto roars.
“Uh huh,” Prophis says, not even looking up from his papers.
“He has no right to speak to me like that! I should have fire-balled him into the next universe!” Callisto continues.
“I’m sure,” Prophis says flatly.
“I’m-”
“Cal, you know I love you, but I’m not listening to you scream for the next ten minutes, I have things I need to work on,” Prophis says flatly, looking up for the first time. “Go to the forest to scream.”
Callisto blinks for a moment before turning on his heels and going back out of the room. He yells an apology over his shoulder as he b-lines straight for the door.)
Now he’s… now he’s whatever that is.
”But he’s still your beloved Prophis,” the voice scolds. ”You can’t give up on him just because he isn’t as beautiful as he once was!” And he won’t. He won’t give up. He will find a way to bring Prophis back so that he can adopt random kids off the street and sing with the birds.
“-for us?” The frog says and Callisto belatedly realizes that he was saying something. He looks at them for a moment before hanging up. If it was important the frog would call back, he was sure of it.
For now, he just wants to reminisce on his good memories of Prophis as he plans how to get him back.
He can’t fail him twice.
Prophis is coming home.