Decadence, prologue
Title: Decadence
Author:crayolacat89
Rating: pg for now.
Pairing: eventual flones
Part: 1/?
Summary: Tom is a fallen star, sent to Earth in the highest stigma to celestial beings as a last ditch resort to keep from becoming a black hole and to keep humans safe from the Titans, black holes who feed on death and catastrophe.
Disclaimer: fiction. tom and danny would probably nevermake out for my entertainment. selfish brats.
“And when you get extinguished I will cover (the) heavens and darken their stars.” - Ezekiel 32:7
Prologue
Tom never thought it would come to this. Beings not quite lesser than him but certainly not as powerful taking what was rightfully his. Making him choose between Decadence and a perpetual state of Tartarus. Losing him his ground. Tearing down his reason.
“Let me try again,” he implored.
Valdis pressed her lips together and shook her head. “You’ve neglected your obligations for thousands of years!”
Kieran looked at him hard. “You’ve had this long based solely on your influence, but if you haven’t even been using it for what you must, then you’ve given us no choice!”
“I-“ Tom tried, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on and he knew it. He lowered his head and accepted the Council’s utterance.
“Decadence!”
Tom'd spent his whole life watching stars fall and lose their place in the sky; seen it too many times to let that happen to him. But when the day came where his world skidded to a halt, he realized that letting it happen or not wasn’t going to make any difference.
He was falling.
Danny shook his head as his boyfriend’s voice-ex-boyfriend, now, he supposed-invaded his head, yelling the lyrics to one of Katy Perry’s heinous Top 40 singles in a year old voicemail. He sighed, snapped his phone shut and saw Ryan come into the crowded bar, eyes seeking out his immediately. He jerked a thumb towards the back door and Ryan nodded, waving him off. Danny walked into the backroom to grab his keys and jacket.
Just short of the back door he ran into Tillie, who was coming back inside from her smoke break. “Hey, darlin’,” she drawled with her Southern charm, and placed a many-ringed hand on his arm. Somehow the three years she'd been in England hadn't lessened her Texan accent. “You alright?”
Danny threw his hands up. “Why does everyone keep asking me that? I’m fine. I’m fine, I am.”
Tillie raised a dubious eyebrow. “You’re never fine when you confirm it three times.”
Danny sighed. “Thank you for caring.”
Tillie nodded, hearing the sincere gratitude as well as the unspoken but cut it out. She smiled and said pushing past him, “Well, gotta go, darlin’, or Mr. Bossman will have my hide.”
The back door led to an alley and outside Danny leaned back against the building, rubbing his hands over his face.
---
The clashing of realities was nearly a real, physical jolt, and Tom felt the world reverberate around him. He had time to stand and take exactly one breath before a heavy sheet of tangible negative energy covered atmosphere around him.
They were after him.
---
When he opened his eyes, he thought he saw the faintest hint of a shadow in the already dark night, followed by another, and another and another. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if he’d imagined it, but then the shadows went back in the direction they’d come from, each with a small gust of wind that had Danny pulling his jacket tighter around him. He couldn’t tell what they were; but even with how fast they were going, he could see that they moved with a creeping morbid grace; all odd angles and gangly limbs.
“Mama,” Danny heard a mechanical voice say, and he turned to watch a raggedy doll stumble towards him. “Mama,” it paused to say again, and then resumed its jerky movements. The doll opened a mouth Danny was positive had been only sewed on moments ago to reveal row after row of needle-like teeth, mouth gaping far wider than it possibly could, till the top half of the doll head fell back. The entire head began spinning, mouth moving incessantly.
“Mama. Ma…ma. Dan…ny. Danny. Danny...” the doll chanted. Danny couldn’t blink, knew it was a hallucination, knew it; the doll was fuzzy around the edges like a smudge in a nightmarish reality, but it wouldn’t. Go. Away.
“DAnny. Danny. Danny,” the doll continued, winds chiming in, voices blending in a sickening harmony, and then the shadows were back; tens of them in a circle around him. A candle snuffed in a cyclone.
They moved forward and he walked to keep up so he wouldn’t-quite literally-get torn to pieces. It seemed to Danny that they were leading him to the street; there was a car from far off coming closer on the quiet road.
They paused him in the middle of the boulevard, covering him so when the very edge of the car’s headlights touched where his shadow should be, there was nothing. “Oh, God,” he murmured, cautiously pressing a hand against his confines, the movement beneath his palm causing him to jump back. The movement was ceaseless, but it was as if the shadows weren't all connected, with pauses between them. Escape was unthinkable. It would’ve been like walking through a giant fan. Danny swore vehemently and waited for his doom.
A fraction of a second, however, before the impact, a radiant glow lit up the shadows in a way the car lights couldn’t. The shadows let out brutally high screeches, the car swerved abruptly away from him-and the shadows disappeared, as if afraid of this inhuman light.
Frantic, Danny turned, but there was nothing to see. He couldn’t have imagined it all! Not this time.
“Hey!” A large, burly man got out of the SUV that was now slanted across the road, blocking any other cars, if they were to pass. “What’s the big idea?!”
Danny opened and closed his mouth. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. He could feel the tell-tale signs of an attack coming on; his fingertips itched and his skin tingled, muscles tightening and expanding. But he inhaled sharply, fighting against it, ignoring the man’s muttering.
---
Danny had gotten home, showered, read through a pile of diagnoses from a number of doctors (all saying that he had a very common from of panic syndrome, nothing to “panic over”, they all joked tastelessly), and his heart still wasn’t back to its normal rate. He felt like he did a year ago when his mother died and his long-term boyfriend asked him to marry him soshe wouldn’t be alone, among other reasons. Wondering if he’d imagined it all, torn between two equally strong emotions, wanting to know if he could crawl his way out of his skin, if his stomach would stop feeling like it was full of live grenades.
It was raining outside. Normally he’d be either out in it, or watching it fall, but tonight he had too many thoughts tumbling around her head, like lead bullets.
A burst of colorless neon illuminated his bedroom and he was standing with his switchblade out from under his pillow and out, back pressed against his doorframe before he realized he was up. The luminescence materialized into a tall man. He had a majestic air about him, with a laconic charismatic presence that couldn’t be pulled off by someone completely human.
Danny opened his mouth to speak, but a particularly loud clap of thunder beat him to it and he closed his mouth again. A crack of lightning showed the man's face now that his own incandescence had dissipated. He had an expression of years of schooling himself into an undeviating poker face; porcelain skin and brown marble eyes.
Danny found his voice. “Who the hell are you?” he snapped.
"I am Tom.” Even his voice was supernatural, frightening; paranormal in a way that couldn’t be explained.
Danny quirked an eyebrow at that. He sort of reminded him of the statues that had gotten him interested in mythology back in fourth grade. He was suddenly reminded: finals were coming up.
“I am… here to help,” Tom, apparently, clarified. “I am your guardian.”
Decidedly, failing senior year of college was the least of Danny's troubles.
a/n: let me know if i should continue this. *-* all comments and constructive criticism are <3
Author:crayolacat89
Rating: pg for now.
Pairing: eventual flones
Part: 1/?
Summary: Tom is a fallen star, sent to Earth in the highest stigma to celestial beings as a last ditch resort to keep from becoming a black hole and to keep humans safe from the Titans, black holes who feed on death and catastrophe.
Disclaimer: fiction. tom and danny would probably nevermake out for my entertainment. selfish brats.
“And when you get extinguished I will cover (the) heavens and darken their stars.” - Ezekiel 32:7
Prologue
Tom never thought it would come to this. Beings not quite lesser than him but certainly not as powerful taking what was rightfully his. Making him choose between Decadence and a perpetual state of Tartarus. Losing him his ground. Tearing down his reason.
“Let me try again,” he implored.
Valdis pressed her lips together and shook her head. “You’ve neglected your obligations for thousands of years!”
Kieran looked at him hard. “You’ve had this long based solely on your influence, but if you haven’t even been using it for what you must, then you’ve given us no choice!”
“I-“ Tom tried, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on and he knew it. He lowered his head and accepted the Council’s utterance.
“Decadence!”
Tom'd spent his whole life watching stars fall and lose their place in the sky; seen it too many times to let that happen to him. But when the day came where his world skidded to a halt, he realized that letting it happen or not wasn’t going to make any difference.
He was falling.
Danny shook his head as his boyfriend’s voice-ex-boyfriend, now, he supposed-invaded his head, yelling the lyrics to one of Katy Perry’s heinous Top 40 singles in a year old voicemail. He sighed, snapped his phone shut and saw Ryan come into the crowded bar, eyes seeking out his immediately. He jerked a thumb towards the back door and Ryan nodded, waving him off. Danny walked into the backroom to grab his keys and jacket.
Just short of the back door he ran into Tillie, who was coming back inside from her smoke break. “Hey, darlin’,” she drawled with her Southern charm, and placed a many-ringed hand on his arm. Somehow the three years she'd been in England hadn't lessened her Texan accent. “You alright?”
Danny threw his hands up. “Why does everyone keep asking me that? I’m fine. I’m fine, I am.”
Tillie raised a dubious eyebrow. “You’re never fine when you confirm it three times.”
Danny sighed. “Thank you for caring.”
Tillie nodded, hearing the sincere gratitude as well as the unspoken but cut it out. She smiled and said pushing past him, “Well, gotta go, darlin’, or Mr. Bossman will have my hide.”
The back door led to an alley and outside Danny leaned back against the building, rubbing his hands over his face.
---
The clashing of realities was nearly a real, physical jolt, and Tom felt the world reverberate around him. He had time to stand and take exactly one breath before a heavy sheet of tangible negative energy covered atmosphere around him.
They were after him.
---
When he opened his eyes, he thought he saw the faintest hint of a shadow in the already dark night, followed by another, and another and another. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if he’d imagined it, but then the shadows went back in the direction they’d come from, each with a small gust of wind that had Danny pulling his jacket tighter around him. He couldn’t tell what they were; but even with how fast they were going, he could see that they moved with a creeping morbid grace; all odd angles and gangly limbs.
“Mama,” Danny heard a mechanical voice say, and he turned to watch a raggedy doll stumble towards him. “Mama,” it paused to say again, and then resumed its jerky movements. The doll opened a mouth Danny was positive had been only sewed on moments ago to reveal row after row of needle-like teeth, mouth gaping far wider than it possibly could, till the top half of the doll head fell back. The entire head began spinning, mouth moving incessantly.
“Mama. Ma…ma. Dan…ny. Danny. Danny...” the doll chanted. Danny couldn’t blink, knew it was a hallucination, knew it; the doll was fuzzy around the edges like a smudge in a nightmarish reality, but it wouldn’t. Go. Away.
“DAnny. Danny. Danny,” the doll continued, winds chiming in, voices blending in a sickening harmony, and then the shadows were back; tens of them in a circle around him. A candle snuffed in a cyclone.
They moved forward and he walked to keep up so he wouldn’t-quite literally-get torn to pieces. It seemed to Danny that they were leading him to the street; there was a car from far off coming closer on the quiet road.
They paused him in the middle of the boulevard, covering him so when the very edge of the car’s headlights touched where his shadow should be, there was nothing. “Oh, God,” he murmured, cautiously pressing a hand against his confines, the movement beneath his palm causing him to jump back. The movement was ceaseless, but it was as if the shadows weren't all connected, with pauses between them. Escape was unthinkable. It would’ve been like walking through a giant fan. Danny swore vehemently and waited for his doom.
A fraction of a second, however, before the impact, a radiant glow lit up the shadows in a way the car lights couldn’t. The shadows let out brutally high screeches, the car swerved abruptly away from him-and the shadows disappeared, as if afraid of this inhuman light.
Frantic, Danny turned, but there was nothing to see. He couldn’t have imagined it all! Not this time.
“Hey!” A large, burly man got out of the SUV that was now slanted across the road, blocking any other cars, if they were to pass. “What’s the big idea?!”
Danny opened and closed his mouth. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. He could feel the tell-tale signs of an attack coming on; his fingertips itched and his skin tingled, muscles tightening and expanding. But he inhaled sharply, fighting against it, ignoring the man’s muttering.
---
Danny had gotten home, showered, read through a pile of diagnoses from a number of doctors (all saying that he had a very common from of panic syndrome, nothing to “panic over”, they all joked tastelessly), and his heart still wasn’t back to its normal rate. He felt like he did a year ago when his mother died and his long-term boyfriend asked him to marry him soshe wouldn’t be alone, among other reasons. Wondering if he’d imagined it all, torn between two equally strong emotions, wanting to know if he could crawl his way out of his skin, if his stomach would stop feeling like it was full of live grenades.
It was raining outside. Normally he’d be either out in it, or watching it fall, but tonight he had too many thoughts tumbling around her head, like lead bullets.
A burst of colorless neon illuminated his bedroom and he was standing with his switchblade out from under his pillow and out, back pressed against his doorframe before he realized he was up. The luminescence materialized into a tall man. He had a majestic air about him, with a laconic charismatic presence that couldn’t be pulled off by someone completely human.
Danny opened his mouth to speak, but a particularly loud clap of thunder beat him to it and he closed his mouth again. A crack of lightning showed the man's face now that his own incandescence had dissipated. He had an expression of years of schooling himself into an undeviating poker face; porcelain skin and brown marble eyes.
Danny found his voice. “Who the hell are you?” he snapped.
"I am Tom.” Even his voice was supernatural, frightening; paranormal in a way that couldn’t be explained.
Danny quirked an eyebrow at that. He sort of reminded him of the statues that had gotten him interested in mythology back in fourth grade. He was suddenly reminded: finals were coming up.
“I am… here to help,” Tom, apparently, clarified. “I am your guardian.”
Decidedly, failing senior year of college was the least of Danny's troubles.
a/n: let me know if i should continue this. *-* all comments and constructive criticism are <3