Post-Lune

## Mob Boss Peggy08/19/2018

Leo paced. He had sent out a few messages to the other group but they weren't replying. Damn that ridiculously handsome asshole Mithra. Did he not think it was important to inform the others about what was happening? Leo's stomach churned, and he ended up in the spare room in his lonesome, staring at his phone.
He had done the same thing. Did he fuck up by not telling the others about Kyle? They were going to be so fucking pissed at him. *Shit*.
He tossed his phone on the bed and that very second, it chimed with a new message that Leo snatched up immediately.
The man's heart nearly stopped when he saw who it was from. Puzzled, he stared at the message until his brain caught up. Leo's jaw clenched with anger. Who did that asshole think he was?
Leo was so angry that he dialed the wrong number twice because he couldn't get his hands to work right.
The third time, he waited for this 'DDV’ *puto* to pick up.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis08/19/2018

Vindaya didn't spend much time here, but boy was she glad to be back at HQ. With Mithra having disappeared sometime during the mission and Sam still stuck being tiny, Vindaya had felt mostly alone taking the bus back to Pembina, even with Sam in her pocket (*not* the one with her phone in it). By that time, it was past dark - not normally something that bothered her, but now that she wasn't focused on work, she couldn't stop thinking about what happened. And she was terrified all over again.
Her shoulder was sore, but nothing unmanageable. Still, the whole thing didn't sit well at all. Too many hows and whys and whats that kept her looking over her shoulder every other second. It was clear that they'd interrupted whatever plan those villains had had, which made Vindaya think they'd try again, and what was she going to do then? What if they did something worse?
HQ had never felt so safe and warm. She walked in, called out to anyone who might be around (she was pretty confident she heard someone in the other room, at least), deposited Sam gently on a coffee table, and went to write a note in her usual cursive for Saana letting her know that Lucius Greene had been successfully recruited. For good measure, she included his phone number too, so he could be reached by anyone. That done, she rejoined Sam.
She didn't mention Mithra's unexplained disappearance. Instead, she asked, "Sam, where are you hurt?" It was something she should've known just from looking at him and it was endlessly frustrating that she didn't. "Do you think you'll be able to return to full size any time soon?"

August 20, 2018

## whipding08/20/2018

The journey back had been somewhat uncomfortable to say the least. He knew Vindaya had meant well, and was just trying to keep him both safe and out-of-sight, but being shoved into a woman's pocket for almost an hour didn't exactly do wonders for his self-esteem. Not to mention the heat - from both being so close to her body and being effectively wrapped in a fabric prison.
Needless to say, he was quite relieved to be released onto the table at HQ. He almost immediately flopped onto his back, just giving time for his muscles to relax. He hadn't really noticed until now, but he'd been tense ever sense he'd woken up.
He'd sat back up by the time Vindaya had returned, and had removed his still-gunked hoodie, leaving him wearing just a t-shirt. Not so bad, now that he was somewhere he both had room to manoeuvre and was relatively warm. He mildly surprised by her questions, but he supposed she was a doctor after all; it probably came naturally for her. He hadn't really been thinking too hard about it until now.
"CHEST!", he shouted, making up for his size, gesturing his hands around said area. It was somewhat painful to speak, mainly due to that particular injury."HEAD!" He gestured again.
A shrug was his only response to her second question, genuinely having no idea why he couldn't, or what had caused it. Whatever it was, he hoped it wasn't permanent - he'd had enough of being this helpless for a long time.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis08/20/2018

Even with Sam shouting, Vindaya really had to focus to hear him. It didn't help matters that she could hear Leo shouting in the background, loud enough for her to know it was Spanish, a language she didn't speak. With the amount of detail Sam was currently capable of giving her, he probably could've done with just the gesturing. Still, "chest" and "head" were vague and not all that helpful and it was so *bloody* frustrating. Her powers were supposed to help her here and she couldn't get used to not having them as a sort of sixth sense.
"That's not very helpful, Sam," she said, but tried not to be too severe. It wasn't his fault, none of this was. If anything, she felt like it was *her* fault.
At any rate, since Sam was up and talking his condition likely wasn't *too* severe, and even if it was there was little she or anyone else could do about it now. Recognizing a dead end when she saw one, she decided to move on to the next thing: tracking down Mithra. She would've urged him to do exactly what he did if she'd had a chance to do so, so she wasn't outright angry, but it was hard not to feel something. The promised ride home aside, she was exhausted, sore, beyond frustrated, and most of all scared, and while she wasn't one to rely on others, it might've been nice to have him there.
So she pulled her phone out of her pocket, saw the few notifications for rpdex posts she'd missed that she noticed earlier and would have to check later, and dialed Mithra's number.
#calls-and-texts-2 @Sapientes Gladio

August 21, 2018

## whipding08/21/2018

Sam was equally frustrated by his situation at this point. He'd been this size for much longer periods in the past, but that was different - he'd always had the option of turning back whenever he wanted. Not being able to just made him useless at best, a burden at worst. He couldn't even really communicate properly, so he couldn't blame Vindaya for being a bit snappy, even if it did make him feel a little bad.

Eventually she ended up on her phone anyway, largely paying much less attention to him. Not wanting to piss her off any further, he decided to tackle his next problem alone - it'd been a while since he'd eaten anything. Unfortunately, the only thing edible on the table was a half-eaten sausage roll, most likely left by one of the... slobbier members of the team. Not to name any names. Well, he wasn't fussy. Ignoring the pain in this chest, he slowly made his way towards it, eventually climbing on top of the pastry.

## Mob Boss Peggy08/21/2018

With a huff, Leo chucked his phone halfway across the room. It bounced off the pillow on the spare bed and settled on the sheets. "*Coño!*" He cursed. What the fuck was he going to do? He had failed to get *any* kind of information from flower-boy thanks to his temper, so he didn't know where to look first. Not that Kyle's captor would have given away any information anyway.
With the plastic wastebasket still tucked under his arm, he paced the room, mind turning as wildly as his stomach was.

August 22, 2018

## whipding08/22/2018

Sam was relieved that Vindaya had offered some other food, the say the least. On closer inspection, the roll seemed to coated in places with some kind of... residue. It didn't exactly look the most appetising.
He was equally happy to hear Mithra was, well, alive. If anything had actually happened to him, he would've felt guilty, considering it was kinda Sam's job to watch him while he was ghosting or whatever. The Dart situation worried him a little though. Had he gotten hurt by those masked people? Well, there was nothing he could do now.
He listened to the list of food Vindaya was presenting to him, not entirely sure how to signal what he actually wanted. In the end, he settled for just waving a thumbs-up when she mentioned 'yogurt pots'. It was bit crude, but it was much less painful than the alternative.
Of course, as he lowered himself down from his pastry pedestal, a much simpler solution occurred to him. So simple that he would've slapped himself if he hadn't still been feeling so fragile. Upon reaching the table - and moving a safe distance away from the morsel - he pulled out his phone and began typing.

*thanks for all the help daya, I really appreciate it. I'll make it up to you somehow once i get fixed :)*(edited)

## Mob Boss Peggy08/22/2018

So caught up in the situation at hand, Leo had almost forgotten that he had heard others come into headquarters during his call with the blossom-bastard.
Leo stretched his arm across the room to snatch up his phone on the way out and strutted through the hall and into the living room, tucking the device into the pocket of the cheap, spare pajama pants.
"Eyyy, Doc!" He greeted, with his trademark smile, which fell immediately after. He held his non-wastebasket-clutching arm out questioningly toward the woman who was half-buried in the refrigerator, completely missing the fact that there was a tiny man walking around on the table. "Where the heck is everybody? How did it go? What happened to the rest of your team?"

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis08/22/2018

Vindaya caught the motion and pulled out a yogurt pot, set it on the counter, and then went about trying to find a utensil small enough for Sam to use. Behind her, she heard Leo enter, but if she wasn't mistaken, he didn't sound quite as chipper as normal. When she turned to look, she saw Sam on his phone, felt her own buzz, and put two and two together. How silly, she hadn't even thought of it. Giving up on finding a small enough utensil - Sam would just have to use his hands, so she grabbed a napkin too - Vindaya returned to give Sam his food and napkin and take a seat.
"Hello, Leo," she said, reaching for her phone and reading the message Sam had sent her. It was the first and only genuinely nice thing that had been said or done for her today and while the frustration and impatience were all still there, it took the edge off a little bit. "Don't mention it," she said to him, then put her phone away and looked up to Leo.
He needed to know all that had happened, for sure. That had been an ambush, which implied a lot of very bad things, the least of which was that she was still a target. But for now, looking as he did and with the wastebasket suspiciously in hand, Vindaya decided it would wait. "Sam's here, he's stuck like this for a bit," she said, gesturing to him. "Dart's grounded. Mithra is on his way back from dropping him off at home. Lucius Greene is on our side, though." She took a moment to more closely examine Leo and then said, "Are you sick?"
Just great, another thing she not only couldn't detect without her powers, but another ailment she couldn't fix.(edited)

## Mob Boss Peggy08/22/2018

As Leo's gaze followed Vindaya from the small kitchen to the living room, he listened to her run through the updates regarding the others, but his mind and eyes quickly became completely fixated on the tiny figure on the table. It first he looked like a roach or a spider. The man couldn't help but rush over. He got on his knees and peered onto the table, setting the empty wastebasket down beside him.
"Ohhhh my Goddddddd." He exclaimed in a higher-than-normal pitch. "Samillito, you look soooo cute." He lifted an index finger, threatening to prod at the shrunken hero. "Oh, man, I hope we don't lose you, *hermano*."
Eventually, his attention shifted back to Vindaya, and he plopped himself right down on the floor where he was. It was unfortunate about Dart, sure, but in hindsight it was probably good that a kid like him wasn't involved in these dangers. "It's a long story, but don't worry about me, *cariña*. We have a big problem." Leo said, choosing his words carefully during the next part. "During our mission, we got ambushed and they took Kyle. I have a week to find him and apparently I got a judge watching my ass, too. Well, all of us do. Dude is suspiciously well-informed."(edited)

## whipding08/22/2018

Sam just stared up at Leo indignantly, hands on his hips. Although it was mildly entertaining to see a grown man lose his shit like that, he couldn't help but remember it was at his expense. If he thought he could break the skin, he would've bitten his finger.
Thankfully, his attention was drawn away by Vindaya soon enough, and Sam had time to starting enjoying his 'meal'. It was a slight challenge to climb up onto it, the lip presenting something of an obstacle, but he was used to it by now. Soon enough he was standing on the edge of a pool of strawberry pink.
He used his hands to scoop out the viscous yogurt and sucked up mouthfuls. The sugar and fat was enough to rejuvenate him a little; especially after all that had happened, it was pretty nice.
The conversation above was certainly interesting - another ambush? A *kidnapping*? Was that what they'd been trying to do with Vindaya? There were a heck of a lot of questions, and not many answers.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis08/22/2018

Vindaya was less than amused by Leo's antics. Sam was *stuck* like that, and it was probably a good part of the reason why he was injured. And Leo was being lighthearted about it? Besides, it couldn't feel good for Sam, who did look a little comical with his hands on his hips. But Vindaya was in no mood to be laughing, even when Sam had to eat yogurt without a spoon. He looked a little like the proverbial fly in the ointment.
Sam seemed to be faring well enough. Vindaya turned her attention to Leo, to whom she gave a deadpan look and said, "Leo, it is *literally* my job to worry about you. Although if that bloody woman hadn't taken my powers, I wouldn't have to *worry*." Lest she snap at Leo too, Vindaya took a deep breath and thought about what he'd told them. So little had actually gone well today. She told herself that she did the right thing, not telling Leo about what happened to her, at least not right now; she'd deal with it later. Kyle was in more immediate danger, wasn't he?
Wait. "Judge?" Vindaya asked, blinking. "That wouldn't be Judge Willoughby, would it?" That would make sense; he would've been notified as soon as the police knew there were supers involved in a scene. Those cases usually made it to his court, after all. And he'd been allying himself with and supporting super powered people long before Vindaya had ever considered getting involved. He usually preferred to do things quietly though, without getting directly involved. The fact that he'd spoken to Leo didn't bode well, either.
"He's always been on our side, but... how badly did things go? You weren't alone, were you?"

## Mob Boss Peggy08/22/2018

Leo looked at Vindaya as she spoke - a pretty face that always seemed sour. Although, perhaps she had reason to be at the moment. It was barely possible for a man like Leo, who carried his heart on his sleeve, to have a pokerface like she did. It was hard sometimes to gauge whether she was being sarcastic or not. Leo assumed that she wasn't, and he was upset as well.
"Yeah, that's him. Nice guy." The Mexican shrugged. "Never heard of him otherwise, but then again you won't catch me in any courtrooms."
He looked back down at little Sam, who was scooping up yogurt in the most adorable way possible. *Look at 'im!* This was serious, though, so Leo actively resisted speaking his mind at every moment as he usually did. He thought that Vindaya, the beautiful and serious doctor, probably thought he was an idiot already.
"Look at you, worrying about little ol' me. You're so sweet." He teased, somehow finding it easier to cope with a little humor. Something that the doctor said had stuck with him though, and he was very quick to point it out. "I'm fine. The girls are fine-- what do you mean, *that woman took your powers?*" He looked up at her, squinting suspiciously.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis08/22/2018

Leo must live under a rock if he'd never heard of Judge Willoughby, especially as someone with powers, but then again, she couldn't blame him from avoiding law and politics. If she could, she'd do the same thing. But sometimes it seemed her entire life revolved around the stuff. Well, *somebody* had to worry about it, and better Judge Willoughby than Leo, she supposed. Better anyone than Leo, really. For a few moments, Vindaya let herself envy how free Leo was, but didn't let it last long. That just wasn't who she was.
She wasn't going to bother responding until he asked about the woman she'd mentioned and then she frowned. Had he not been wondering why Sam was stuck the way he was? Or why Vindaya hadn't been able to tell if Leo was sick? If he really was so oblivious, maybe she shouldn't have mentioned it; they could've gotten away with only focusing on Kyle. Maybe they still could. "They'll return soon," she said with more confidence than she felt. "Our powers, that is." She didn't want to think about the alternative - or the possibility of their, or rather *her*, attackers returning. Bigger fish to fry and all that. There wasn't time for her to be afraid.
"What are we going to do to find Kyle, then?" she asked, knowing fully well that there was almost no way she'd be able to take off work. Medicine, especially emergency medicine, just didn't work that way. In fact, if she didn't get home sooner than later, she wouldn't be going home at all; she'd be going straight back to the hospital. Still, she was determined to *do* something. She couldn't just sit by. Even without her powers, she could still be useful. Right?...

## Sapientes Gladio08/22/2018

Finally arriving after so long of driving and being left to deal with his tumultuous thoughts, his roommate and other fellow sex worker texted him asking why there was 5-0 at #the-lune-d’or-condo-complex . He gave a similar story to what he told the receptionist, figured that would quell her thoughts since she had to come up there with a client of her own.
Turning the heater on a bit more since he knows how Daya gets cold fairly easily and allowing his car to warm up further, as he parked himself while feeling the thrumming of his vehicle.
Swiping and unlocking his phone, he went to recent calls and chose to text Daya that he was there and ready to take her home. They had a lot to discuss and he can only imagine the type of bullshit she was put through.
> "I'm here. HQ sounds like it's loud tonight and I really don't feel like being bothered. And I'm sure you don't either.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis08/22/2018

Just then, Daya's phone buzzed and, figuring that this quiet moment was a good a time as any, she actually took it out and thoroughly checked her notifications. There was the text from Sam, and all the rpdex posts she'd missed - mostly referring to events she now already knew about, including Sam's rather cryptic message that hopefully wouldn't direct too many questions her way. At least the others were active and paying attention. Perhaps she'd been wallowing too much tonight.
More pressingly, there was a text from Mithra. She studied it for a few moments before tapping out a quick reply: *A lot happened today. Are you making good on your offer to drive me home?* As soon as she sent it, she checked the time; she could still manage a few hours' sleep before work, maybe. Depending on whether she wanted to eat or not. In all honesty, even though she'd helped Sam, she'd kind of forgotten about it with all the activity. Not to mention showering. But Mithra driving her home would certainly save her a lot of precious time that she could use for actually taking care of herself.
"Mithra's outside," she told Sam and Leo, resting her phone on her lap so she'd immediately see any new notifications. "I think he may be giving me a ride home." Saying it out loud, she really hoped it was true. The adrenaline was gone now and she was absolutely knackered.

August 23, 2018

## Sapientes Gladio08/23/2018

He shot another text,
> "I am outside making good on that ride offer. I may be mysterious, but at least I keep good on my offers."
Rubbing his hand over his face, he received an immediate phone call from his aforementioned "roommate". Sighing, he figured now a time was as good as any to answer before Vindaya got into his car. Looking around he, he was glad it was still clean from Dart being in there earlier.

*"Bitch, what the fuck happened?"*

Yup, this is exactly how this was going to start.
"I already told you what happened." Exasperated, he just gave the exact rundown of what he said earlier, and already feeling exhausted. Astral projecting earlier while he was semi-idle in his physical body was annoying. Luckily he didn't do it for long, but he needs to sleep. The less people he surrounded himself with after today's events, were for the better.
The not quite easily convinced woman on the other line pursed her lips, before choosing to change the subject. *"Your favorite submissive boy flew in tonight from Australia and he called me, instead of you, to book you in the upcoming days. Make sure you respond to that."* Sigh, the annoying pet was here. He'll need a few days before having to tend to his needs.
"Fine, but I have to go. I'm giving someone a ride home." Saying their goodbyes, Mithra just ran his fingers through his hair and waited.

## Mob Boss Peggy08/23/2018

Leo blinked with confusion. Was this woman really changing the subject on him and acting like she didn't hear what he asked? “No, no, don't ignore my--”
Her phone conveniently went off, effectively ending their conversation. Leo stood and folded his arms. He wasn't about to start an argument with Vindaya tonight. There were plenty of questions and answers to go around, and Leo thought it best to air them out in a way that their whole team could see.
No use in having to repeat the same things over and over again.
“Fiiiiine,” He hummed airily. “I'm going home too. It's getting late anyway. We'll talk later, okay, *chica*?” With a wink toward the doctor and her tiny companion, Leo went to retrieve his clothes and his shoes and left the building.
“Coooñoooo,” Of course, naturally, he had forgotten that there girls had taken his car. Well, it was the big city after all, so public transportation, it was.
Leo gave a little wave to Mithra in his car before setting off, typing out a direct text to Anastasia.
'bring my car back to my place, if its scratched you die'

@Vodka Aunt