The Forgotten Zodiac

((Poor girl. I tut at her life. Tut-tut.))

When Aurora left the room, Timothy rolled out from under the bed and rolled into a ball. He looked up at Subject and smiled slightly. "Wh-why'd she do that, S-S-Subject? I'm n-not special."

Tyler reacted quite differently from Timothy. Subject's flattery didn't help. "She would be a good servant. I can hire her, and we can make her do the dishes. Sylas cooks, but we don't have anyone to clean up. I would make you do it, but you're too busy doing your very important job. The boy climbed up on the bed, then jumped onto Subject's back and began to pet his head. "Your job is doing whatever I want you to," he clarified. It would be tragic if Subject missed that.

Subject chortled a bit, dragging Sylas back onto the bed. "You are special, Timothy. You--" He paused, having to adjust his balance to make up for Tyler jumping on him. "You and Tyler both have powers that not even I have. Aurora doesn't have to be your servant, Tim...she can be your friend, instead. A very strong friend."

((Will Aurora come back at some point? How long will she fight Lotus?

We need to have Tyler do introductions at some point. "This is Sylas, my cook; and Timothy, my friend. That's my pet, Subject, and my dishwasher, Aurora."))

Timothy shook his head again, entirely unconvinced. "I'm not special like Tyler or Sylas." They were his ultimate goals in life. Sylas was wonderful; and, if Tyler was so sure that he was, the boy must be right.

Tyler grabbed Subject's horns and gripped with his knees, holding himself on Subject's back. "If Timothy doesn't want her, he can just be my friend; and Aurora can be my dishwasher and fighter-person. Then he can borrow her if he needs her."

((She won't actually fight Lotus. He'll see her and that shiny silver sword and stay away. She's looking for him now. She'll be back in the next post, if you want.))

"Well," Subject shrugged. "You're only as special as you make yourself out to be. She can still be your friend, Timothy, that doesn't change anything. Oh, Tyler, be careful with my horns. Keep your fingers away from the points, they're sharp." He warned.

((Yay! I like her.))

Timothy yawned, then climbed on the bed next to Sylas, gently poking the Iyouis to see if he was waking up yet. Sylas had never slept so long before. What if he didn't wake up?
"Okay!" Tyler carefully felt the top of the horn, then took his hands away from them. "What's it like, having horns? I've never had them before."

((Oh, okay. xDD))

"It's heavy and a little annoying," Subject shrugged. "Not that great, and--"

"I couldn't find him. But don't worry, if he dares come around..." Aurora entered the room and quietly shut the door behind herself, sheathing her blade. "I will be your protector from here on. All three of you. Even though you look...demonic."

"I'm not a demon. Just...altered." Subject shrugged again. "You should introduce us, Timothy..."

Timothy looked up and met Aurora's eyes briefly, then looked away and shook his head. He didn't really want to talk to Aurora. She was too new.

Tyler straightened on Subject's back, making himself clearly visible over the 'demon boy''s head. "I'll do it! I'm Tyler, and I'm the boss. This is Subject, my pet friend." He said that in the same way you would say 'my pet dog'. Subject was, apparently, first his pet. Friend was merely the type of pet. "Sylas is sleeping, and he cooks for me, and Timothy is my friend and Sylas' friend. Do you want to come work for me too?"

Aurora blinked in surprise. "I would be honored, my lord. You have my hands at your disposal," She beamed, bowing low.

"Good. You're hired." Subject grinned.

"Oh, no, I could never accept payment..."

"Even better, 'cuz we weren't exactly going to pay you. 'You're hired' was a metaphorical statement." Subject laughed. Aurora shrugged and smiled. "Okay then," Was all she said after that.

Tyler nodded proudly, then went back to examining Subject's horns. "They're heavy? How come? They don't feel heavy; they just feel smooth." Now that Aurora was working for him, he had every intention of ignoring her until he decided to give her instructions. Luckily, that point came fairly quickly. Without waiting for Subject to answer him, he asked questions of Aurora. "You know about Iyouises, right? How come Sylas is sleeping? Nasty Lotus said it was 'cause he was growing, but he doesn't look taller."

"They're light to you because I'm holding them up. Here," Subject moved, grabbing a cup and filling it with water, then holding it up to Tyler. "Put that on your head. Multiply that weight by two, and you've got about the right weight."

Aurora frowned. "I...I don't really know very much about them, to be honest. I know that they're never truly asleep..." She walked over to Sylas and snapped her fingers in front of his nose. No movement.

"Lotis said he wouldn't be waking up unless we had steriods to speed up the growth..." Subject tilted his head to the side. "I wonder if an inhaler would work."

"I'm not certain. Pain would likely wake him up, but I doubt he'd appreciate that."

"No, don't hurt him," Subject shook his head. "We'll think of another way..."

Tyler, needing both hands to hold the cup on his head, barely balanced on Subject's back. After a few moments, he did actually slip and managed to spill water down the front of his shirt and the back of Subject's. "I don't think I'd like having horns," he said quietly, handing Sujbect the half-full cup to put back.

Timothy sat up on the bed next to Sylas, carefully watching Aurora to see what she would do and whether or not it would hurt his friend. He didn't like her yet; she was too new.

Subject chuckled and took the cup back, not really caring about the water. Aurora sat down next to Sylas, gently touching his cheek. She brushed his hair to one side, then the other, then back again. She straightened Sylas' suit and tie, then put his arms in the position they would be in if he were in a casket.

Then she stood and shook her head, rubbing her eyes for a moment. She turned to Subject and held out her hand expectantly. "Inhaler." She blinked at him.

"Oh, okay." Subject rummaged through his bag, pulling out the medical device.

"Do you need this?"

"Not really...I used to, but I don't anymore. I'm a lot stronger than back then..." Subject shrugged, putting it in Aurora's hand. She nodded thoughtfully, then pried out the liquid container. The medicine was mostly based off of steriods, but spraying it wouldn't help at all. Aurora pulled a knife from her boot and pried a hole in the top. She was met with a spurt of the liquid, but after the container decompressed, she was left with a good amount still in the little metal holder. She promptly dumped it into Sylas' sleeping mouth and held it shut until he swallowed.

"Well, we'll see if that does anything." Aurora shrugged. "It won't kill him, that's for certain..." She muttered, rubbing the hilt of her silver sword.

Tyler dropped off Subject's back and watched Aurora pour liquids into Sylas' mouth. "Watcha doing? Is that good for him, or is it going to make him sick? Are you trying to wake him up?" He bounced up on the bed. "What does growing mean? Sylas doesn't look taller..."

"I'm not certain," Aurora shrugged. "Since Iyouis can manipulate their appearance...I assume the growth is mental or internal, rather than physical."

"Makes sense..." Subject frowned a bit.

Tyler nodded as if Aurora's thought process made perfect sense to him. "How come he has to sleep then? Is he going to remember us when he wakes up, or did he grow and forget? I don't want him to forget."

Timothy blanched, staring at Tyler and Aurora in horror. "S-S-Sylas is going to forget m-me? I don't w-w-want Sylas to f-forget me, Tyler. Don't l-let him."

"No idea." Aurora shrugged, shaking her head. She brushed Sylas' hair aside again, then turned and did the same to Tyler. She seemed to have an odd obsession with other people's hair, and she lacked the boundaries to tell her not to touch other people. Subject eyed her curiously, starting to notice some things.

She wore a locket, which she touched occasionally with her thumb, as if checking to see if it was still there. Despite her odd obsession with keeping other people's hair neat, her own hair was a mess, as though it hadn't been brushed in days. "Aurora..." He murmured. "Why do you hunt Iyouis?"

She blinked at him for a long moment, then completely ignored his question and turned back to Sylas.

((Uh-oh. Secret detected. Initiating discovery sequence. Activate Tyler's eyes.))

Tyler bounced on the bed, letting Aurora play with his hair all she liked. "Are you a mommy, Aurora? Your hands feel like my mommy's hands did, but they aren't as soft..." He flopped down on the bed against Sylas, smiled at Aurora, then looked at Timothy. "He won't forget you. He likes you. Besides, if he does forget you, I'll remind him of EVERYTHING."

Aurora smiled, though it looked more like a grimace. "I...I used to be a mother. I had a little girl, about your age..."

"She was taken by an Iyoui." Subject guessed. Aurora looked down, slowly nodding. The horned boy couldn't just leave it at that, though. "And your husband?"

"He was...one of the divine...one like Timothy, here. Gifted with powers beyond mortal reach...he...he was taken away, as well."

"By weasels," Subject nodded knowingly.

"Weasels?"

"That's what we call agents. And Iyouis, sometimes. Bad guys, basically." He shrugged.

"I see...yes, by a weasel. The weasel took my husband away, and when I pursued after Abagail's death...they told me they had killed him. So I broke into their research lab and stole some information, along with this. The information was on the Iyouis...apparently they had been trying to study them, but...nothing really worked. None of the Iyouis would comply, except for one. They discovered the silver weakness after one of the non-compliant ones attacked, and one of the scientists retaliated with silverware from his lunch. An odd way to find out, perhaps, but that's why they made this." Aurora patted the blade at her side, smiling a bit.

"Wait, what? One of them complied?" Subject frowned. "Sylas is the only good Iyoui we know of...he said all the others were bad."

"Well, they didn't really have names. The one they were able to research was called EX-C01. The 'EX' meaning extraterrestrial, I imagine. C meaning calm, considering the fact that he's '01'."

"EX-C01?" Subject blinked. "How long ago was this, exactly?"

"A few months ago...why?"

"I'm just wondering...this EX-C01 could be our Sylas."

"And...?"

"Well, do you still have the info?"

"Sure," Aurora shrugged, reaching into her bag and pulling out a crinkled, messy stack of papers, all stapled together. Subject snatched it up and started looking through it.

Tyler patted Aurora's leg sympathetically, sort of listening to the whole conversation. "Sylas was a weasel? That's funny. I'm glad he's not any more. What does extraterrestrial mean? It's hard to say." He sat up and looked at Sylas curiously, as if he expected him to suddenly mutate. "I don't like that word.

Aurora smiled. "Extraterrestrial just means he's not from this planet. By all technical meaning, Sylas is an alien."

"He's a very good alien. Like ET. Except I don't know if he wants to go home or not." Subject shrugged, still looking through the files. "This...sounds like Sylas. 'EX-C01 possesses a strength in transformations rather than shadow weaponization. His skills in combat, as proven by test 003, seem completely focused on defense. Emotionally, he seems almost human, but it is to be noted that he is nowhere near our species'. Defensive skills, transformation instead of shadows...certainly sounds like Sylas."

"Keep reading. The scientist gets a little attached to him. It's kinda funny." Aurora smiled.

"What happened to the scientist?"

"She was killed by another of her subjects. Not surprising."

"Hm..." Subject frowned, then continued reading. He paused, then said, "Timothy, you should cuddle with Sylas some more. Maybe he'll wake up."