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When Fluixon saw Saparata glowing in the dark at the mines, he thought he was imagining things. After all, no normal person would be able to light up like a beacon. Glowing is for something an angel would do. Fluixon wasn’t stupid, angels weren’t real.
Even so, Fluixon found his eyes trailing to Saparata more often than usual. He played it off as being attentive and cautious to his scapegoat but there was an underlying feeling of something else weighting in his mind.
Fluixon quietly watched as Saparata slowly built up a sandstone pillar. The rest of the Conspiracy was either building with Saps, crafting, mining at the cave, or shoveling at the beach.
Fluixon’s eyes narrowed as Saparata suddenly stopped building and worriedly glanced at his hand.
‘Does he need more sand?’ Fluixon wondered. ‘I think I have some in my inventory.’
He quickly fished out the sand from his inventory and was about to call Saparata over to catch but Fluixon froze. Light suddenly lit up in his vision and he felt something ugly form in his stomach. The sight of Saps dimly glowing in their small tunnel they mined in together flashed in his head.
Although Saparata could glow, he could only do that under specific circumstances. Saps wasn’t even aware of it himself. Now, Fluixon didn’t really care if anyone interacted with them or Saps, but the glowing was something Fluixon only knew. If it spread to others, Fluixon couldn’t exploit it properly.
Fluixon turned to the person grabbing and exchanging blocks of sand to Saps.
It was Thomas.
Fluixon’s eye twitched twitched as Thomas was frozen, stare locked onto Saps. The two were basked in a soft glow that flashed down on them like a spotlight. Almost as if they were main characters.
“Saps,” Thomas’ jaw was dropped a little, clearly unbelieving of the sight in front of him like Fluixon’s first impression. “You’re glowing. Since when could you glow?”
“Huh?” Saparata blinked owlishly.
Fluixon could hear commotion coming from the direction of the excavation site. That would mean more people would see Saparata glowing if Thomas stayed frozen, hands in contact with Saps’, for the next few seconds.
“Do you seriously not see it?!” Thomas exclaimed loudly as Saps backed away from the sheer amount of volume. A small rock was chucked at Thomas, causing him to yelp. His hands immediately scrambled up to the sore bump in his head as his eyes snapped to the thrown stone clattered to the ground and to the main culprit of the attack.
Thomas made eye contact with an unamused Fluixon. The glow illuminating the two dimmed and faded away, leaving Fluixon inwardly and weirdly smug.
“Hey! What was that for?!” Thomas yelled, huffing in annoyance. Fluixon grinned as Saparata glanced cluelessly between them.
Fluixon could see a lightbulb turn on in Thomas’ brain. “Wait-? You saw that too? You saw Saps glowing, right?!”
Fluixon could see Saps was getting more and more confused by the second. Thomas turned towards Saparata with mischief and Fluixon crossed his arms, gut telling him that he was about to see absolute tomfoolery.
Thomas brought both of Saps’ hands up joyfully. Saparata immediately lit up, bathing them both in brilliant radiance as soon as he held his hands. Fluxion’s mood decreased at Thomas’ visible enthusiasm at the scene in front of him.
Fluixon could hear some of The Conspiracy behind while he was on this face-off. Oh, that’s even better. The rest of The Conspiracy was back from their tasks and they were all going to see Thomas’ stupidity in live action.
Fluixon swiftly aimed a bunch of sand at the enamored Thomas and he yelped as bits of grains flew into his face and hair. Thomas frantically covered his eyes as the light from Saparata flickered away.
Thomas paused, realization painting his features. Before Fluixon could figure out what Thomas was thinking, Saparata fake coughed.
“Whatever you guys are doing, you can leave me out of it.” Saparata jumped down and immediately went to the singlular bed he placed as a temporary installment. Thomas and Fluixon glanced at eachother as Saparata flopped onto the bed until Hyvrotation inserted himself in.
“Um. We should probably head back now.” Hyvrotation said. “We can come back tomorrow.”
Fluixon and Thomas finally broke eye contact as Flux reluctantly agreed to go. Thomas hopped down as the rest of the group began to drop their farmed materials in a chest before strolling back to their horses.
Thomas laughed. “Man, you’re certainly more irritated than usual!”
Fluixon contemplated for a moment as they continued walking with the occasional conversations from the rest of the group that he didn’t tune into.
Fluixon didn’t realize how off he was acting. Was he really that hung up on how his soon-to-be enemy, Saps, looked good with a glow filter?
Fluixon inwardly scoffed. As if. There’s no way he was jealous just because another person saw Saps glowing. That was stupid. Fluixon kind of wished he didn’t have to go with the plan, but it was necessary.
’Otherwise, I would’ve taken him traveling with me everywhere.’ Fluixon thought. He wouldn’t have to spend any supplies for torches either. A portable and renewable light. Fluixon felt oddly wistful and shook his head.
He couldn’t afford to hesitate when their island’s life was on the line.
Everyone was tense from Jophiel’s death and Saparata couldn’t blame them. Although it wasn’t well known, he and Jophiel were close siblings.
What he didn’t expect was that as soon as he finished his speech and people began to speak again, stalagmites tore through the ceiling, creating a hole as they dropped rapidly towards the leaders in their respective chairs. Saparata could only watch in cold horror as the stalagmites’ sharp ends pierced through peoples heads, blood spurting out gruesomely.
Saparata knew he had to get out. He was the one who announced the meeting, he was bound to get killed in accusation of murdering almost every leader at the meeting. Saps turned and sprinted out towards an opening gap between two sandstone pillars. He could hear people behind, shouting in surprise as he booked it as hard as he could.
Before he could go any further, a hand harshly yanked him away from the escape route and towards the smallest hole Saps had ever seen. He saw a flash of purple eyes before his head smashed harshly against the ground, head briefly blanking out. He could feel someone pulling him up over to carry to somewhere. An awfully familiar voice sounded in his ears.
He shut his eyes.
When Saps did wake up, however, he was on a bed in a stylized kind of cell.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Fluixon greeted with a grin. Saps’ head felt like splitting. “Do you remember anything? Are you okay?”
Saparata opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. He tried searching in his brain for what happened but the more he searched, the worse the headache became. He decided to just shake his head and answer with “I’m alright.”
Fluixon raised an eyebrow. Saparata really wasn’t lying! He felt like he forgot something important, he had a feeling he wasn’t even supposed to be in this room at all! Where even was he? What happened to everyone? Why was he and Flux only here, did they make another home? Was this Flux’s home? It looked quite sad. It was so dark, Saparata could barely even see anything either. Couldn’t Fluixon afford torches, lanterns, or any type of light in here?
Saparata remembered constructing his holiday home with Fluixon and his friends before his ears rang loudly, making unable to recall the rest. He slowly reached up to touch his head before flinching his hand away. There was bandages. He stared at his hand that dampened with bits of blood from whatever happened to his head. Oh my. What even happened to his head? Was it a blunt hit to his head that was making him disoriented?
A hand suddenly grabbed Saps’ arm and he whipped his head up, dizziness overtaking him for a brief moment. Since when was Flux the one who initiated contact? Wasn’t Fluixon the reserved one?
Saparata’s eyes sharply locked onto the glowing outline that bloomed out of nowhere. Saparata traced it down as the luminescence grew stronger at the area of The light was so dim that he could barely see it unless he really focused. Was it radiating from himself?
Saparata turned back up to meet Fluixon’s gaze.
“Flux, the glow-”
Fluixon pushed Saparata’s head back down and squeezed him closer so Saps’ face smooshed into his chest, shutting him up.
“What glow?” Fluixon asked, knowing that Saparata’s attempts at answering would come out muffled. Saparata begins wriggling and trying to beat at the other to let go.
“..Canff see a faint glow outline,” Saps said, muffled.
“Don’t worry about it,” Fluixon comforted. “Don’t think too much about what happened in the past either if you can’t remember.” The blunt trauma looked kind of bad, but Fluix was in a rush.
Fluixon could feel Saparata relaxing at his words so he continued, “Let’s go mining and exploring around like we did before. Just us this time.”
Nobody could see Saps’ weird flashlight beacon properties if Flux chose the places on where to go. He was convinced that if others interacted and saw the radiance omitting from Saps, they might even think of Saps as a symbol of luck and fortune.
No, Fluixon wasn't greedy. It was normal to want to keep luck and fortune to yourself.
Fluixon’s communicator rung loudly and repeatedly from members around that Saparata escaped and what their next line of action would be. Fluixon quietly kept Saparata’s head down with one hand as he snuck his other to take out and type behind Saps’ back.
[Don’t worry about it. Sooner or later, he’ll be gone. Everyone thinks he killed the leaders.]
Before Fluixon could put it away, a private message came up from Thomas.
[Man, I have a feeling you know something.]
Fluixon narrowed his eyes at the message before simply muting the device. An unknown feeling akin to guilt rose at pushing Thomas, one of his most trusted friend— subordinate away.
Fluixon wasn’t obligated to answer so he tossed the communicator away as Saparata confusedly tried to push off him to see what the sound was.
Fluixon gently guided Saparata’s injured head back to the previous position, ignoring the other’s puzzled protests.
‘I have to plan the next course of action carefully.’
“Is he still not picking up the messages?” Snowbird asked.
”Still not.” Thomas replied, strange feeling curling in his stomach.
He had a feeling Fluixon knew where Saparata went. There was a strange glint in Fluixon’s eyes when they confirmed that Saps was the scapegoat for the trap the other day. There was also Fluix chucking rocks at him the other day after Thomas saw a lightbulb— Saparata light up in front of him. Thomas thought Fluixon was locked onto him the other day because he wanted to signal him about it— he didn’t register that it was probably some weird love exchange Fluixon was doing for Saps.
Thomas groaned tiredly as he raised his hand to rub at the sore spot on his head.
‘Man, what type of drama plot even is this..’