#luka travers | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

luverofralts · 7 days ago

Text

Arkhelios Adventures

"Dear Juliet, things are boring here. Davis won't stop making out with his vampire girlfriend and Mom and Dad are acting suspicious. Gee is coming over later to talk to them, and we're not supposed to listen to their conversation. So I'll let you know what they said tonight. Miss you xx."

Destiny sent her email and crashed on the couch dramatically. Davis and Bronwen ignored her as usual, so she had the couch and TV all to herself. Her girlfriend, Juliet Fontana, lived in Arkhelios, so they didn't see each other very often. Her parents, Oriana and Benvolio, were approaching the end of their demon deal and could die at any time, so Juliet didn't stray too far away from them. She needed to spend every moment with her parents while she had them, which Destiny understood completely. Her parents would never die, but it was something other kids had to face and she felt bad for them. When Juliet's parents died, Destiny had pleaded with her parents to let her girlfriend stay with them, which had ended with a hopeful, "We'll see." Juliet still had the Durant family to take care of her, but Destiny didn't care. She and Juliet belonged together.

"How's that? Good? Is it getting any better?"

Lukas massaged Izanami's shoulders, desperately hoping that something they tried would help relieve some of the pain their husband was constantly in. The nausea seemed to have passed for a few days, but Death still suffered. All the colour had drained from his hair, something that only happened when Izanami lost control of himself. Lukas hadn't seen his hair turn white since the beginning of their relationship, when they'd broken up and Izanami had fallen into a deep depression. To see it return to a bone white colour now was unsettling.

"I think so, a little," Izanami replied. "I need to sit down again, probably. Tell me what our meeting with Gee is about. I didn't get tagged in the email you sent him."

"That would be because I never tagged you in it," Lukas replied. They watched as Izanami settled into the most comfortable seat in their office, still looking miserable. "We're not having a meeting, I am. You are going to rest and not worry about a thing. You're retired from all of this drama. Let your son deal with it."

"I'm still responsible for the realms of Death," Izanami protested. "Gee can't handle this. A sealed realm with a dream demon trapped inside? An entire reaper team that's gone missing? Gee is an idiot. He's unprepared. He doesn't know how to deal with Xexys."

"Neither did we," Lukas pointed out, pulling over the coffee table so that Izanami could elevate his legs. "Hence why we sealed it up in the first place. Now let me know if you need a refill on that tea. It'll help settle your stomach."

"I don't have a stomach," Izanami sighed. "I don't drink fluids. It makes no difference to my system how many teas you make me drink. Please, just catch me up on what you plan to discuss with my son."

Lukas paused for a moment, long enough to give Izanami hope that his pleas had worked.

"I'm going to get you a blanket," Lukas decided, illiciting a desperate groan from their husband.

"Dearest, please, please stop trying to help me," Izanami pleaded. "I'll be fine, I promise. What has happened with Jubilant Accosts and the reapers there? That woman, Zuleika, has she started work on our problem?"

"Eh, sort of? She freaked out about Xexys apparently, but once she found out that I would be the one traveling in his realm, she accepted the assignment. Not that she really had a choice in the matter, but it's nice when the reapers agree to do their jobs. Like a demon stands a chance against a god."

Lukas froze as the words passed their lips. When they thought about it, demons did a lot of damage against both them and reapers. Demons were the number one thing Gee accused them of blaming. Was there actual danger to them? No one knew what to expect from a dream demon that had been sealed away for centuries and perhaps Zuleika's concern wasn't unfounded.

"Well, I'll be careful," they decided. "It's alive and like any demon, a corrupted servant of Life, so I have dominion over it. So don't worry, even though I know you will anyway."

Izanami rolled his eyes, pushing Lukas' blanket aside.

"I know you'll be safe, Dearest. It will be nice to have your attention focused elsewhere for a change. The children will take care of me while you're gone, and unlike you, they don't believe that I'll collapse into a pile of bones if I'm not consuming hot beverages."

"Ha. Ha. You'll thank me soon enough. I'm sort of an expert on maintaining life, and Death can't be that much different."

"It's entirely different, that's my point," Izanami insisted. "I'm not alive, so your well intentioned care won't help me."

Lukas nodded slowly as a new idea dawned on them.

"Right! You should be in your realm then! I'll call Reese and have him and Anakin set up a room for you. You can hang out with your bestie while I'm gone. That's a great idea."

Images of listening to Lukas' brother ramble on and on without an escape flashed before Izanami's eyes. Even with Anakin there, there was no way Izanami would survive extended exposure to Reese.

"I'll be fine here!" Izanami interjected, quickly standing to grab the phone from Lukas' hand. "And don't call Anakin my 'bestie'. I don't know why you adopt the slang of the children. We're friends. It's dignified. The children need me in this realm too much to leave them. Davis has a love interest now and he may need the guidance of his father. And-and Destiny might run off to Arkhelios again instead of focusing on her studies here. The children need me to remain here."

Lukas raised a skeptical eyebrow, but relented when they saw how passionate their husband was on the subject.

"Okay, fine. Suit yourself. I don't have time to argue with you about this. Some of us aren't retired, you know."

"Mom! Dad! Gee's here! Oh, and Venisha too. Hey, Venisha, this is my girlfriend, Bronwen."

Izanami perked up upon hearing Davis' announcement. It wasn't often that Gee brought along his daughter with him on work visits, so either this meeting was actually important enough to require Venisha's presence or Gee and Lukas had conspired beforehand to distract Izanami away from their discussion.

"Venisha! My favourite granddaughter! What are you doing here?"

Izanami quickly engulfed the young woman in a hug, ignoring his son entirely. Venisha just laughed as her father fumed beside her.

"I came to see you, Grandpa," she replied. "Dad was saying how you weren't feeling well and I thought I'd come cheer you up. How are you feeling? I didn't know your hair could be white. I guess that's where Davis gets it, huh?"

Izanami nodded and embraced his granddaughter once more, utterly thrilled to see her despite knowing Lukas was behind this visit.

"It's both black and white at the same time," he explained. "I always wondered if your hair would be the same, since you're the only grandchild to inherit my eyes. You've always been the only grandchild to look anything like me and that makes you special."

Venisha smiled warmly at this comment, while her father huffed irritably by the door. Venisha was the youngest child of the Grim Reaper and the only one Death remembered by name. Her other father was Vrai Toyonaga, Lukas' reluctant employee, so both Life and Death openly doted on her. Gee had at least five other children, all of whom favored him genetically. It had been a long-running joke for centuries that Gee hadn't inherited a single piece of DNA from his father, until Venisha was born and proved that wrong. It was such a prevalent idea that Lukas had initially suspected that Izanami had fathered Venisha behind their back with Vrai until Gee had confessed to his secret romance.

"Your other grandkids say hi too," Gee stated irritably. "Where's Lukas? At least they'll be glad to see me."

"In their office, like you've schemed," Izanami replied. "You never bring Venisha with you; I've fallen for enough of Lukas' tricks over the years to know one when I see one."

"She's about to start college, I haven't been hiding her away from you. If you just made an effort to see me, you could see her anytime," Gee muttered to himself as he walked to Lukas' office. "This is exactly why Leah wants us to go to family counseling."

"Gee! Our scheme worked; your father is completely uninterested in our meeting. I told Venisha to make sure that he's drinking fluids and resting. I left a pitcher of water out in case she forgot."

"Hey, Lukas. I think she'll do just fine, Dad's acting like he hasn't seen her in a decade. Sometimes I forget what he's like. He's been so different since you two got back together and then, out of nowhere, he's the same old Dad that he's always been."

"Hmm, yes, easily manipulated," Lukas agreed, walking towards their desk.

Gee sighed with frustration that he knew Lukas would ignore. Things had been better with his father and step-parent since they reunited, but there were still days that tried Gee's patience. The two of them were sometimes both so self absorbed, it was a wonder if they even knew if someone else was in the room with them.

"Okay, so where do we start?" Lukas asked, jolting Gee from his thoughts. "I have a lot of data so far, but no real answers. I'm going to have to go to Jubilant Accosts again to try to measure what's wrong."

"The missing reaper team is my main priority," Gee responded, picking up an open file on Lukas' desk. "Is this all of them? Zuleika's annual performance review indicated that she'd be the best researcher for the job. I don't have many other reapers like her."

"Yeah, all the names are there. They were all selected from the Jubilant Accosts population when it was sealed. No external transfers into the team."

"And no warning bells, no signal to us that they were in danger? What could do that? I'm older than you are and I've never seen something that could do that."

Lukas waved dismissively at the idea of a foolproof system.

"You're not older by much, and I've seen plenty," they scoffed. "Demons for one, if they act fast. Have you forgotten the Demon Wars? Oh, that's right, you were busy chasing Alpheus around Strangetown during that time, instead of helping your father. Well, demons can do it if they're skilled. There's a small militia of hunters who track and try to kill reapers, but again, that was the Demon Wars, so you wouldn't know. I think the example we made of them was enough to deter any new hunters from picking up the practice though. The Ocean can do it with a thought if you piss him off. Plus, you know, whoever killed my sister, who we still haven't found to this day."

Gee bit his lip to keep from snapping back at someone who was both family and an important coworker. Whatever was going on with his father was clearly making Lukas bitchier than usual, and that was an expected reaction for a spouse. It didn't mean that Gee had to spend the afternoon listening to it though.

"Yes, speaking of your sister, that Darktide boy was running around the living world trying to get people to research those deaths. Do we need to consider that these cases might be connected? Does this ghost have a reason to believe we need to reopen those cases?"

A shadow passed over Lukas' face at the thought of Adam Darktide knowing anything about Riley's death. If he knew who killed Riley and hadn't brought it to a reaper to disclose... Lukas briefly entertained some very dark thoughts.

"How about we talk about how a ghost is getting out of the afterlife?" they demanded. "A reaper caught him the first time, but no one has been able to track him down since. Not even Reese can find him, and he's been a reaper since his thirties. What are you doing about that? This is unprecedented."

Gee sighed, leaning on the desk for support.

"I don't know how he's doing it," he confessed. "Most of the time, it's not even through any realm we can track. He's gone through the Void twice now, crossed through the realm of Death and then somehow through the reaper corridors without being seen. I know your parents used to sneak out of the afterlife, but we fixed those gaps. He doesn't even have a physical body to possess in the living realm. I don't know how he's doing it. Maybe your devious mind can track him down because I've run out of ideas."

"Really?" Lukas laughed. "It's fairly obvious what he's doing. He's a descendant of King Reyes of Crystal Cove after all. I think it passed down to his son, Sebastian Reese even. His daughter, Princess Luna...not ringing any bells?"

When Gee stared blankly back at them, Lukas just laughed.

"Nevermind, I'll go hunting with Reese next time. I just want to talk with this guy, I don't know why he's so determined to break out of the afterlife. I mean, yeah, it's boring, but there's no chance of him ever returning to life. You reaped him yourself."

Gee quietly debated on whether he should ask his next question, or just leave it as something odd he was struggling with. When Lukas didn't stop to clarify what Adam Darktide had in common with a long dead king, he decided to risk bringing up something that could be unrelated. If anything, it would change the subject.

"I've been thinking about that group of his lately. I wonder if it's at all related to our problem in Jubilant Accosts, and that's why this one man is so desperate to return to the living. Does a group trying to kill the Grim Reaper have anything in common with a group of missing, presumed dead reapers in a sealed realm? Is their cult related to what happened to your sister? I don't know if I'm connecting dots to unrelated things, but what if it is all related? Is it a group of long-lived beings or another sect that stumbled upon old writings after the last group died off? Were they based in Jubilant Accosts for all these years or is that a misdirection?" He released a frustrated sigh, overwhelmed by the wealth of information that was leading him to overthink everything in his life. "I don't what to think. What sounds the least crazy?"

"I was in a coma for over three hundred years," Lukas answered. "Riley died just before that; my second incarnation wasn't long lived. A witch is lucky to live five hundred years at the most. Vampires are undead and have no relations with Death. Werewolves don't usually do magic or live past an average lifespan. A reaper has access to both the realms of the living and the dead. When Riley died, we suspected a rogue reaper."

"But never proved it," Gee pointed out. "Could a reaper have entered the sealed realm and taken out the reaper team there? They would probably trust a fellow reaper, and that reaper could have hidden the evidence of the demise of the team from the system."

"Did you feel the presence of a reaper when you reaped the Strangetown coven? One nearby, watching maybe?"

Gee shook his head.

"Just Ewan Goldman, who had been battling with them. They were powerful witches and warlocks, but nothing like the power of a reaper. They still were powerful magic users though, I'll give them that. No wonder that Darktide is so hard to track down. He was powerful beyond his age. Had he lived, who knows what would have happened in Strangetown?"

"It sounds like we dodged a bullet. So we're thinking maybe a reaper gone rogue helps a coven of power-hungry magic users? Or maybe just a reaper or maybe just witches? Maybe a coven that has passed through the centuries? We never solved this problem the first time it happened, so maybe we're missing something completely different."

"What's their motive then?" Gee wondered. "Why kill a reaper team in a sealed location and hide what you've done? And even worse, what has been happening to the souls that haven't been reaped?"

"That's what I intend to find out when I go," Lukas replied. "From what I saw, people are dying, some even being sacrificed, so they have to be going somewhere."

"Sacrificed? To who?"

Lukas could hear the disbelief in Gee's voice. He really wasn't like his father if Gee couldn't imagine the cruel things the living did to each other, seemingly just for fun.

"To the Watcher, who else? These Jubilant Accosts people have been sacrificing a member of their nation since overthrowing their queen and the monarchy centuries ago. It's the most bizarre thing. I thought that there were reapers around, so I've never made a point to watch a sacrifice myself. Maybe we would have been in a better place in this investigation if I had watched one."

"The Ocean allows this?" Gee asked before realizing that yes, of course the menacing deity would love sacrifices in his name. "Does he collect the souls then?"

Lukas had to think about their response for a moment. If it was personal to the Ocean, he would collect the souls himself and bask in the attention. However, since regaining a physical form, the Ocean seemed to take less risks or not travel very far. It seemed that just like Lukas, he was more paranoid and took more caution in his second incarnation.

"No, that doesn't sound like him these days," Lukas decided. "The souls have to still be trapped there. There's a crack in the barrier between realms though, large enough that a stray soul may have escaped through it. Have you had any unexplained souls show up lately?"

Lukas tried to remain unreadable. After seeing the state Jubilant Accosts was in on their initial inspection, they noticed a deep crack in the seal, deep enough to allow things to flow both ways through it. Lukas had known the instant they'd seen it, that those star-crossed teenagers were responsible for it. You should never let a teenager attempt magic that requires maturity and wisdom to perform, and yet Lukas hadn't stopped them. Gee's sappiness must be wearing off on them. Their job was hard enough watching the entire living realm with very little support. While they had helped Theo control himself and pass along messages through the Void, Lukas couldn't be expected to follow that boy around all day just to make sure that he wasn't destroying existence as they knew it. There would be consequences for damaging the protected seal, but Lukas didn't have the luxury of time. They would deal with the teenagers once they had a better understanding of the extent of the damage.

"No, not new unexpected souls," Gee confirmed. "Though something came across my desk earlier regarding Jubilant Accosts that I've been saving for this meeting. Have you ever heard of a burning soul?"

Lukas stared at their stepson curiously.

"No, I don't think I have. Why? What is it?"

"Well, have you ever heard yourself described as having a burning soul?" Gee pressed.

"No, should I?"

"I'm not sure. You are the only person who has ever reincarnated, right? As Life, you can't die and will always create a new physical incarnation if you're given enough time and energy. I've never heard of a single other case of reincarnation over the centuries. Have you?"

"No. Not even one. Every soul who dies goes to an afterlife where they spend eternity. Aside from my parents, I've never heard of souls escaping the afterlife. Even our suspicious Mr. Darktide is incapable of generating a new body or even using his old one. Why are we even talking about this?"

"Because, if Zuleika is right, she may have uncovered a secret within Jubilant Accosts. One soul is recorded in the old logs kept by the lost reaper team, who wasn't reaped despite appearing on the list. It's on the list of the dead, crossed out, with the words "burning soul" written beside it. The person died, but the soul was never taken, which is weird on its own. Zuleika found a reference to those words in one of Dad's old books, and it apparently refers to the act of sending a soul back to be reborn in the living world."

Lukas recoiled at the thought of a regular soul being barred from the afterlife and purposely sent back to repeat a lifetime.

"What the hell is going on here? Izanami is falling apart, I'm trapped in my second incarnation, we have a ghost trying desperately to interfere with the living, and now a mortal who has a reincarnated 'burning' soul. What about you? Are you suffering somehow too? If this all goes sideways, you may be holding the reigns of both Life and Death until I can reincarnate again. Plus raising the kids. Oh god, I need to prepare them for the worst. The world is falling apart and they need to be protected."

"I don't think we need to assume the worst," Gee replied, trying his best to sound reassuring. "Things are a bit weird now, true, but we're strong together. If course, I'd take in Davis and Destiny without a second thought, but I don't think that it's going to come to that. We'll figure this out."

"A mortal reincarnating," Lukas muttered, trying to make this information make sense. "Who is this mortal? A demon of some kind? A powerful witch?"

Gee shook his head.

"Nothing like that. It's the final king that ruled over Jubilant Accosts. Otherwise unimportant in the bigger picture. Zuleika is looking into his cause of death to see if that's relevant."

"I'll make investigating this so called reincarnation my first priority when I travel there," Lukas promised. "I'll still try to get a feel for what's happening there, but this reincarnation businesses needs to be addressed first. Do we know if the burning soul has been born yet? How will I recognize him if he has been born?"

Gee shrugged.

"Well, I kinda assumed that you would know. I'd imagine that you're probably the only other person in this existence who could recognize reincarnation if you saw it."

"I'll try, but no promises. Reincarnation is hard enough when I have to do it; I have no idea what it looks like in other people."

"So you're going to report back in a few days? What do you need me to do here?"

"Take care of your father," Lukas instructed. "That's your first priority. Make sure that he's in a stable condition and isn't getting worse. I can't focus on my job if he's not okay. Then call off Reese from looking for that Darktide boy."

"What? Why? You were going to hunt him down yourself a minute ago."

Lukas nodded.

"Yes, but I'm too busy now to speak with him. I think we'll be better off just observing him and his movements. If he thinks that we've let him go, he might reveal what he's so desperate to reach. I don't know where he fits in this puzzle, but he's persistent enough to make me believe that he fits somewhere. So let's let him lead us to his place in this."

"True. Okay, I'll authorize some reapers to be discrete and report back to us," Gee agreed. "Just...just be careful, Lukas. I don't know what we're dealing with here, but Dad couldn't handle losing you again. None of us could."

Lukas could hear the truth of Gee's emotions in his voice. There was no question that Gee cared about them and his father, but...Lukas was a Lane and also married to Death. Emotions weren't something they did well.

"Yeah, yeah. Help me write down the important coordinates so I don't get lost," they ordered, avoiding Gee's eyes and the emotion they were probably full of.

"I care about you too," Gee replied, earning a groan from their stepparent as they turned their back to him. "Be safe."

"So you want to study history at school? I probably have enough books stored away that would make the entire history department weep with envy. Let me know if you need them or if you need me to 'talk' to the admittance department. I can very persuasive."

Venisha laughed at the thought of her grandfather frightening potential schools by unveiling the presence of Death in their office.

"Grandpa, I'll get into whatever school I want without you scaring innocent people to death," she laughed. "One of my fathers is a prince of Strangetown, remember? Money and privilege work a lot better in academia than giving people heart attacks."

Izanami shrugged.

"Whatever you want to do. Either way, the offer is on the table."

"Hey, since Dad's in a meeting, why don't you get along with him? If that's not a rude question to ask, I mean. Dad just says that you're complicated."

Izanami appeared to be baffled by the question.

"I get along great with your father," he replied. "I gave him my job, and his employee review sheets for the past few years have all been marked 'adequate'. I've even told him once during a difficult time that I no longer regretted his existence. I don't know what more that man needs from me. I've been perfectly clear that I feel affection for him."

"Ah," Venisha said. "So you're complicated."

"Izanami! I don't see a hot beverage in your hands! Venisha, you were supposed to be watching him for me!"

Izanami turned to find a worried Lukas staring at him, probably planning their next health related scheme.

"Dearest," he said, wrapping his arms around his partner before Lukas could start making demands. "How was your meeting?"

"I'm worried about the way things have been going," Lukas mumbled against Izanami's shoulder. They liked the physical reassurance more than they wanted Izanami to rest. "Some disturbing things are happening in Jubilant Accosts and I have to wonder how much of their problems have contaminated our realm just as much as ours has contaminated theirs. Something is very wrong, and I have to find out what."

"I know you will," Izanami replied, pulling away as he did. He hoped that his voice sounded as confident as he felt about his spouse. "You'll have this solved in a week. You'll be back here aggressively pushing your medical advice in no time."

Lukas smiled at the thought.

"I love you, you idiot. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it."

#sims 2 #arkhelios adventures #izanami lane #lukas lane #destiny lane #davis lane #bronwen traver #gee spector #Venisha Toyonaga

5 notes · View notes