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Arc F1.8 | Chapter 6: Consent Can’t Exist When There Are Implications

Darrian poked and prodded at Levi through their relay, asking for more information about the man and children he had suddenly found himself travelling with, trying to figure out how worried he should be about his friend’s safety. A lot worried, that was where he landed, and he wanted to leave—wanted to follow Codeth’s lead and charge through the city, seeking out Levi. He wanted Levi back in his arms—Emilia too, each of them a spark of love and hope within him.Having Baylor near him was helping, the other boy’s chaos and madness as infectious as Emilia and Levi’s, but Baylor was a monster—the sort of person who, if they ever came across someone capable of killing him, they were all fucked. For as chaotic as Baylor was in life, in a battle, he was the most skilled of any of them. Emilia and Levi? They were a bit more wild in their common sense. Sometimes, Emilia could be sensible; every few years, Levi could have a working brain cell.

Currently, Emilia was working her way through some sort of murder machine. Clearly, her common sense had been left on the airship—possibly, it had been left back in Baalphoria. As for Levi? Darrian to trust his friend’s opinion of his new companions. It was difficult, especially given Bireth and Vantril’s concerns that Levi had hooked up with one of the city’s most powerful crime lords.

There was also a good chance that Levi had hooked up with Gëon, not that he was going to be telling that, some bit of information about law of consent and age difference laws sliding into his head, courtesy of the aethernet, which suggested that, according to Lüshanian law, Levi was legally too young to be having sex with the criminal. Did Darrian care? Not really—the nation’s laws were weirdly intense on the point of age differences—but it did show that the man really was a criminal, willing to bend laws that he didn’t like.

At the same time… they were like that as well, weren’t they? Spoiled little Penns brats, bending and shattering the law, whenever it didn’t suit their needs. From the perspective of so many Baalphorians, he imagined they were just as much criminals as Gëon, even if their to Baalphoria was likely far less than the trafficking of goods and drugs that Gëon got up to—those were really the only two things that the Drinarna interns could say definitively about what sort of criminal activities Gëon had his hands in.

Much like Fräthk, Gëon had many people with irregular deviations working under him, but from everything they had learned—from the Drinarna interns, from Emilia’s conversations with her new friends, and then, from Levi —the man didn’t force anyone to work for him; rather, he offered them safety. That was nice, at least, although Darrian knew it wouldn’t be so simple.

There were power dynamics and desperation at play, after all.

As… unsure about his own sexuality and preferences as Darrian was, he had still poked around on the aethernet a bit, looking for information. Thankfully, Baalphoria was an extremely sex-positive nation, so finding information about his specific desires hadn’t been too difficult—hadn’t been something he’d been forced to search the blackaether to get information on. What he had learned had largely revolved around and .

Honestly, even after so much time searching about, he still wasn’t sure exactly he wanted in the bedroom or in a partner. Mostly, he knew he liked people like Levi, Emilia, and Baylor— who would push against him because they knew that, no matter what they did or said, he would still love them. Beyond that, Darrian had no idea he would to do, were he to ever talk a brat into his bedroom—into accepting his heart.

People like Levi, Emilia, and Baylor… they would all be easy to love in a more romantic way—easy to smother with affection and kisses. Levi didn’t want him like that. Baylor had both Emilia and his brothers—as much as Darrian often thought the triplets didn’t think many people realized what they were doing with one another, he thought the majority of their friend group knew or suspected enough.

As for Emilia… Darrian wasn’t stupid enough to think he was enough for her. Even were he to share her with the triplets and anyone else she wanted to drag between her legs, Darrian knew what he was: boring and bland.

In no world would he ever be good enough for someone like Emilia.

That didn’t mean he didn’t love her as a friend—didn’t adore every moment that she splattered her affection over him; let him cover her with his own in turn. If friendship with Emilia was all he would ever have, he was fine with that—a world with Emilia’s friendship was far better than a world without her because he’d been stupid and allowed himself to love someone who would never love him back.

Emilia was meant to be surrounded by people much better than he himself was; really, he should consider himself lucky to be allowed her friendship.

This was all a digression from the point that Darrian knew at least some of what he enjoyed— enjoy, one day—in bed, and so much of it would be a dance of consent and working to equalize power.

People might choose to work for Gëon over Fräthk, but many of them would have no choice about working for —and within such a situation, their consent was nothing but a fabrication. was never an option, the implication that a would lead to their death, abandonment, or suffering a reality that no amount of from one of the criminals of the city could soothe. Briefly, Darrian had poked at Bireth a bit, trying to learn if Gëon removing people from the city or Lüshan as a whole was an option, had anyone not wanted to work for him at all.

Bireth had stated that it was difficult, but not impossible—their group had managed to get through the cave system, after all, and the group who had attacked them worked for Gëon. According to Levi, Gëon, and the latter’s —whatever that meant—that group had been acting oddly, and the crime lord

Regardless, getting people out of the city using the man’s smuggling route possible, but Bireth didn’t it happened often—it wasn’t like, as a Drinarna intern, he had the most information, however. Both Baylor and Sorvell had suggested another factor was simply that getting on as an immigrant in another nation would have been difficult, especially if the person had a highly visible irregular deviation.

Sorvell had pointed out as they slipped through an alleyway, growing closer and closer to the building Emilia was located within. Once they reached it, they would have to decide what to do: go in or wait.

Darrian didn’t think the triplets would be inclined to wait, regardless of Emilia’s demand no one chase after her into

Baylor had agreed, rambling off the current state of the relations between Lüshan and its closest neighbours, which ranged from horrific—Dion—to being virtually non-existent—Norvel.

Sorvell had scoffed, even if he had been of the same opinion: Norvel had a relatively large immigrate population, due to the Dread Coliseum. It would be a rough life, but could it be worse than living here? Especially for the adults? They definitely couldn’t leave the kids that Olivier had connected with to such a fate, nor Westrial or the teenager with Emilia’s group, but the adults be better off trying to make a life for themselves in Norvel? Maybe?

It was worth giving them the option of deciding their own fate, in any case. From what Levi was saying, the preteen he had found and the little boy who was likely being dragged through the city had both become attached to Olivier de la Rue. At the same time there was something in way Levi was speaking of the preteen, Porsq, that was strange.

Mostly, it was strange because he was only talking about it in a smaller group relay, which only included the more sensible, cold-hearted, and level-headed members of their group—in other words, people like BJ, Janie, Coral, Polianna, Mikhail, and his cousin weren’t included, while Sorvell and Doctor Vickers were excluded due to their age and liability to prioritize their group members’ lives over anyone else’s.

Essentially, for as much as his friend trusted Gëon, he didn’t trust the man’s opinion on Porsq.

[Levi:]

[Levi:]

[Levi:]

[Levi:]

[Levi:]

[Taelie:]

[Levi:]

For a long while, Levi had gone silent—long for him or Emilia, anyways; really, it was only a minute or two. Eventually, he had replied that he had a feeling that, if Gëon wasn’t completely certain they could protect the kid, he put up a fuss.

[Levi:]

[Levi:]

[Darrie:]

[Baylie:]

Within him, Darrian’s mind pointed out that swiping up the child was also potentially removing his ability to consent to what happened to him. With kids and their well-being, it was a little more complicated, of course—one example he’d read about consent and children, which had stuck in his mind, was that it didn’t matter if a child consented to eating cake: they couldn’t Sometimes, consent or a lack thereof, meant little when it came to making sure someone was safe.

Still… if the kid was dangerous? If he was going to have criminals seeking him out? What sort of life would he ever manage to live? One tucked away in hiding? Surrounded by guards and babysitters and never allowed to breathe and live whatever life he wanted?

Fuck was that complicated. Fuck did it suck that they had potentially been drafted into designing a prison of safety for an innocent kid, simply because his genetics had gifted—cursed—him with an ability that seemed to be able to affect the minds and actions of others—and given how old Porsq were? What sort of monster would the kid become, once he fully grew into his abilities? Once he had better control of them?

Darrian sucked in a deep breath as they moved through the city, skirting the few Drinarna officers they were coming across. The number of officers was dwindling, to say the least, Bireth guessing that it was because they had finally reached Fräthk’s territory.

Bireth had noted, soon after joining their group and discussing what to expect as they moved through the city.

Not being involved in any of this would be nice. Unfortunately, they were already here, and two of Darrian’s dumbass friends needed help. Levi was too far away for them to help—Codeth, Mikhail, the Crisharian man, and Byron Hyrat were far closer to his location, although the latter three would be heading to the suspected location of Olivier de la Rue directly, Codeth and Levi’s groups meeting up with them whenever they could. Given Codeth and Vantril now suspected they were close to the potential paths the other people Olivier de la Rue had helped escape, Darrian doubted they’d be meeting up any time soon.