FINN DE LA SALLE
Phoenix
Posts: 266
Age:
651
Occupation:
French Teacher/Mercenary
Status:
Widowed
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Oct 20, 2024 15:21:40 GMT
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Post by FINN DE LA SALLE on Aug 29, 2021 17:01:47 GMT
Grocery bag tucked under his arm Finn walked out of the store and started back in the direction of his apartment. This time of year had never held much significance before, the military, life in the castle, even in the small croft he’d worked on Bridget’s father’s land had never been tethered to the same sort of calendar. One day was no different to any other, what had to be done demanded by the daily circumstances rather than a strict timetable but as a teacher it was all marked out in those neat little boxes on a timetable.
Right now it was marked out in his head, ready to be transferred painstakingly onto paper when he got back to his apartment. Pinned to the wall above his desk with other notes, each of a far grimmer nature, handwritten in the same cramped writing he’d first developed when Gadifer had insisted he learn how. The language had changed but the angle, the same intense focus went into the writing of each.
A roadmap to war pinned right up alongside the scatter of French classes. The two halves of a life that had been shattered more than once, each iteration of it going up in flames before bloomed afresh from the ashes.
Too deep, Finn thought with a sigh as he adjusted the bag he held, but after almost 700 years of life it was impossible not to be. Lips curled as the parents of a student of his from last year passed with a wave and a bright greeting. More faces that would fade like old photographs when he did eventually move on from Mystic Falls. More followed, some he knew in various guises from the town, others new, strange, to be looked at warily given what he knew was coming here. Mystic Falls might have looked like some small town idyll on the surface but the white picket fences and pleasant smiles something far darker lurked. It was stacked like cordwood in the trees, bodies of people, things, killed here in Mystic Falls and hidden away despite his best efforts to mark a trail back to them. Questions stacked right alongside them without answers.
As he approached his building Finn contemplated making contact with Jordan again. He had no more answers for the man he’d once served with but perhaps Parrish had been able to track something down that he hadn’t.
Propping the bag awkwardly on his hip as he walked past the last half dozen homes before he got to his building, squatting on the corner like a castle turret, higher than those family homes surrounding it, Finn tried to work his keys out of his pocket. He was pulling them free, juggling them in his hand to fish the right one out when he saw the smoke drift over the sidewalk at his feet.
Maybe if it was a few weeks earlier, the nights a little lighter at this time, he wouldn’t have been able to see it but in the dark the thin grey shreds of it were painfully obvious. The scent caught him as he turned towards the house. Detached from the others around it, that almost cliched white picket fence doing little to hold the smoke back. The lights were out inside of it, at the front of the house at least, but the flickering orange light was dull behind the drapes.
Fire. That sickening constant in his life.
The bag was shoved aside again, fingers dipping into his jacket for this time for his phone before he heard the holler from the back of the house. Quiet but shrill, what he was sure was a child’s cry that echoed all too much like the ones in his dreams. Bridget and Alec trapped somewhere far more primitive than this, the English setting the thatch alight. Even as he saw movement down the sidewalk, approaching him rapidly, Finn was dropping the bag, ignoring the crash and crunch of his groceries as he gestured to the young man he saw. ”Someone’s in there. Do you have a phone? Can you call 911?” He was already fumbling at the front gate of the house with one hand, tugging at his Henley with the other to draw it up over his mouth. ”I’m going in.” No question of it. The flames couldn’t hurt him anymore than anything else could, his flesh impervious, the very thing consuming the house what had burned in his body for centuries.
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ELIAS ALVAREZ
Phoenix
Posts: 56
Age:
20
Occupation:
Salvatore College Sophomore
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Nov 21, 2024 2:19:01 GMT
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Post by ELIAS ALVAREZ on Jan 26, 2022 23:12:39 GMT
 For the first time in Elias’ life he felt settled. He had found his biological dad but not before he had been adopted by him and his husband, he had two sisters he adored along with an extended family and he was at a school where he was surrounded by others like him. It all seemed far too good to be true and even now Elias still found himself thinking that it could be ripped away from him at any moment but he was doing his best not to feel like that. He knew that Ethan had felt awful when they had learned that they really were father and son but Elias had never blamed him for anything that had happened. He hadn’t known that his mom was pregnant when they broke up and even though Elias knew that his dad would have done the right thing and been there for him if he had known, it wouldn’t have been right for him to stay in that relationship. Elias knew that he was never going to forget the horrors of his past but he was doing his best to move on from them and he was trying to live his life to the full. He knew now that he had a long life ahead of him, it had been taken from him once the day his dads had found him in the fire that had been started in his apartment by the men that had killed him and his foster parents, and he knew that he wanted to make the most of it. Elias was heading home after hanging out with Raf when he caught sight of the smoke coming from a house down the road and he took off at a run. He couldn’t see any fire trucks but there was another man there and he looked like he was already on the verge of bolting into the house. “I’m on it,” Elias said, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he came to a stop and dialling the number. Giving dispatch the details and the location, Elias hung up and pocketed his phone before hearing people shouting from one of the upstairs bedrooms. It was Elias’ parents who ran into burning buildings for a living but in that moment Elias knew that he couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. He had learned about what he was both from his dad and during his time at the Salvatore School, he knew that the flames wouldn’t hurt him so he didn’t even think about it twice before heading into the house himself, checking the downstairs rooms first and making sure that they were clear before heading upstairs. That was where the flames were the thickest and he covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve to try and stop the smoke from getting through. He heard movement in one of the bedrooms and he spotted the man that had rushed in inside what appeared to be a child’s room. “I heard the parents from outside. I’ll get them out, you worry about the kid,” he called, not giving the man enough time to argue before checking the other rooms. It was in the last room that he found the parents but the door was jammed and he had to break it open. Finally they were free and he kept himself between them and the flames as best he could as he helped them through the house and out into the fresh air. FINN DE LA SALLE
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FINN DE LA SALLE
Phoenix
Posts: 266
Age:
651
Occupation:
French Teacher/Mercenary
Status:
Widowed
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Oct 20, 2024 15:21:40 GMT
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Post by FINN DE LA SALLE on Apr 9, 2022 15:09:47 GMT
It always came back to the flames. The fire his ‘father’ had rescued him from, the pyre Joan had practically been sacrificed upon for her beliefs, the nightmare that had claimed his wife and child, already cold by the time he had reached them. This blaze now raging behind the curtains of a family home. Perhaps the universe was taking some sort of glee from it. The man born of those flames, who had them running through his very veins, plagued by them for an eternity.
The stone the cottage he left Bridget and Alec behind in would have withstood the flames for a time but it would’ve been an inescapable prison once the thatch and wooden door were set alight. This house was as bad, all those modern comforts inside nothing but fuel for searing nightmare. It was late enough at night that the family more likely than not would’ve been there. Happy small town lives about to burn up.
Groceries rolled across the sidewalk at Finn’s feet as the kid’s scream rolled out of the house, high and plaintive over the crash of broken jars and that growing crackle of flames. Without thought he was leaping over them, kicking at the gate when it refused to give way. The shirt over his mouth would do little but it all for show really. He could lie in the middle of that fire for hours and still walk from the house in a few hours looking as though nothing but the smoke had touched his skin. Dark eyes met the young man who’d approached, watching him pull his phone from his pocket. The details of what he told the voice on the other end were lost as Finn sucked in a deep breath and kicked the stubborn gate open.
The heat was already rolling out of the house and across the porch. Up above shouts came again, the voices confirming that the child wasn’t the only one in the house. Finn gritted his teeth, braced himself as he kicked at the door too. It took three hits just above the lock to have it slamming inwards. As though they were drawn by the sudden rush of air, the fingers of smoke became plumes, rolling down the stairs like something alive. Hoping that the firefighters would arrive in time to stop the loss of the entire house, not bothering to recoil away from the flames that crawled down the bannisters, Finn charged upwards.
He found a linen closet first, then the bathroom, nobody had taken refuge there, hiding in the inadequate cover of the bath. A spare bedroom that he searched on his knees, throwing back the bed covers in case the kid had taken refuge. The closet was empty. Not a kid’s room anyway. It wouldn’t be much at all once the growing flames consumed it. Finn charged back out of the door with his arms up in front of his face like he could beat them back. The next door gave access to the kid’s room. Bright blue walls, toys littered across the floor, smoke already thick enough here that he couldn’t even see into the space beneath the bed. As he threw open the closet door, dropping to a crouch to thrust his arms into the space to check it there was a noise at the door. The guy he’d seen outside right there. ”Tell them I’ll find him,” he growled, coughing as a breath dragged in hot smoke. ”I won’t come out til I do.” He wouldn’t let another boy die like Alec.
The guy was gone then, crashing down the hall proof that he was doing what he’d said he would. Hopefully the two adults were in a state where they could get out mostly under their own steam. Finn crept across the floor, arms spread. ”Son, are you here? Call out? I’m gonna help you get out OK? My friend’s already find … your mom … and dad.” He was practically impervious but the heat was already growing strong enough that Finn could feel it searing his throat. The covers were torn off the bed, thrown aside, but there was no sign of the kid beneath it. Had he gotten out into another part of the house? There didn’t seem to be anywhere else…
Finn was about to crawl out, to check further along the hallway when he caught the flash of bright red sneakers up near the head of the bed. A small form crouched between the wall and the bed, balled up, whimpering now. He dove forward, wrapping the kid up in his arms to drag him out. That little boy fought him as he ran for the door but went still as Finn charged out into a hallway that seemed more like a tunnel of flames now. He wrapped his shirt around the boy’s face, shielding him best he could until he was stumbling back out the door. Finn made it down the stairs before the kid kicked free, running straight to his parents. Dragging in lungfuls of air, he bent, his hands braced on his knees. ”Were … they … the only ones … in there?” he panted, his throat still feeling scorched as he looked up at the guy. ”Are you … OK?” One smoke blackened hand lifted to rub the back over his mouth, trying to wipe away the feeling of heat still crackling on his skin.
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ELIAS ALVAREZ
Phoenix
Posts: 56
Age:
20
Occupation:
Salvatore College Sophomore
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Nov 21, 2024 2:19:01 GMT
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Post by ELIAS ALVAREZ on Sept 30, 2023 20:30:17 GMT
There was a part of Elias that knew that he should have stayed outside, his dads both ran into burning buildings on a daily basis but they were firefighters and it was what they were trained to do. Elias wasn’t, he was just a teenager who had arrived in time to see the house going up in flames but he knew that he couldn’t just stand outside waiting to make sure that everyone was alright. He had called 911 and after that he had taken off, heading into the house in search of those stranded inside. Elias knew that he needed to be careful, he had already died once and found out that he was a phoenix and he knew that he didn’t want to die again. He was fortunate in that he would be reborn if he did die but it wasn’t a pleasant experience and he knew that he would much rather avoid that if he could. Right now he wasn’t really worried about himself, though, he was worried about the people inside and he knew that he couldn’t take the chance and hope that the guy who had gone in before him would be able to get everyone out. The flames were intense but Elias was a phoenix so he knew that they wouldn’t hurt him. He still did his best to avoid them, though, because he knew that he would much rather have to avoid trying to explain why his clothes were burned but there wasn’t a mark on him. Making his way through the house it didn’t take him long to find the guy who had gone in before him and Elias nodded. “I’ll tell them. Be careful,” he warned, the smoke making him cough as he moved away in search of the parents. Elias didn’t know how the fire had started but for a moment he was taken back to the day he had found out that he was a phoenix. He had already been dead by the time the people his latest set of foster parents had wronged had set fire to the apartment they had been living in but his dads had told him about how they had found him afterwards. He had been in a room that hadn’t yet been consumed by fire but it would have been a few minutes later and that would have made it that much worse. He knew that they would worry about him when they found out what he was doing right now but his dads had saved him that day and he knew that he needed to try and do the same for the parents he had heard screaming from outside the house. Elias kept calling out for the parents as he made his way through the house, he had already heard them screaming for someone he now knew was their child but they had been quiet for a while and that worried him. He knew that it wasn’t just the flames he had to worry about hurting them, the smoke could silence them far too easily and then it might be too late. Checking room after room, Elias finally found one that he couldn’t get into. He threw himself against the door a few times before it finally began to budge and from there he was able to break into the room. He found the parents huddled in a corner and he took hold of both of them as he led them out of the house. Once they were outside he checked on the two of them after he got his breath back, reassuring them that the other man was going to find their child and asking if there was anyone else in the house. Fortunately it was just the three of them and Elias had them sit down on the grass away from the house as they waited for the ambulance and fire service to arrive. They were just pulling into the road when the man emerged from the house and his heart swelled with relief in his chest as the boy ran to his parents. “Yeah, it was just the three of them,” he nodded, his voice a little raspy from the smoke as he took a concerned step forward. He hadn’t been in the house as long as the man had and it looked like that had made all the difference. “I’ll be fine. Are you okay?”FINN DE LA SALLE
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FINN DE LA SALLE
Phoenix
Posts: 266
Age:
651
Occupation:
French Teacher/Mercenary
Status:
Widowed
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Oct 20, 2024 15:21:40 GMT
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Post by FINN DE LA SALLE on Nov 14, 2023 20:47:56 GMT
Be careful. Finn almost laughed. How was he gonna explain that this wouldn’t hurt him? Not for long, anyway. After more than a dozen depths not even the pain phased him any longer. Unless someone knew what he was and had prepared with one of the few weapons that would work on him, it wouldn’t be anything more than just a brief taste of what was final for others. There’d never been a trip to the Other Side, or brief visit to Heaven – although he’d ached for it the first few times. He’d have given anything then to see his wife’s face one last time, or his son’s, to tell his father that he’d long ago forgiven him for taking him away from anybody who might have had answers about who he was. Now he’d give what he did have to save the family from the families – including any sort of life here. If he did die, he would end up starting over again, somewhere thousands of miles away from here.
The guy who had followed him was already coughing. If he didn’t find this kid soon he was gonna have to send him out. He could take the heat, the smoke, but he couldn’t take another life on his conscience. As soon as he was gone, he was searching the room again, desperately calling out, trying to find some sign of the child in here. He hadn’t met his son before he’d died, but his grief had almost eaten him alive. For these parents it would be worse, knowing they were so close and yet not able to find their way to their son.
Finn almost sobbed out his relief when he’d finally seen the boy’s red sneakers. Not wanting him to be in here for a second longer than necessary, he dove for the boy, holding on despite the fight that was still in the kid. ”We’re g-getting out,” he promised. ”Your parents are gonna be waiting r-right outside f-for you. Shallow breaths. H-hold on.” He kept up that babble of reassurances as he stumbled down the stairs. The house was crumbling around him, the cracking sound of falling ceilings from upstairs putting on an extra burst of speed.
He’d barely reached the door when the kid finally scrambled away from him. If he didn’t feel like the fire was in his lungs now, he might’ve laughed. The kid was strong, he’d have needed to be to survive the way he had. Sirens and lights filled the air as the kid ran towards his parents. The professionals had arrived just in time to get them checked out. Finn bent over, trying to draw clear air into his lungs as the guy assured him that they hadn’t left anybody else in there. ”I almost didn’t get … him…” he admitted, the sting in his eyes easing as he watched the paramedics leap down out of their rig.
As his question was flipped back around on him, Finn nodded. If he’d been human, he might not’ve been. The flames had scorched his skin as he’d gotten out of there. He’d protected the kid’s airway as much as possible but his own had taken the brunt, super hot air scorching its way down towards his lungs. ”If you’re gonna … try and get them to check me out … you don’t n-need to,” he panted. He pressed the heel of his hand against the centre of his chest. ”Did you suck in any smoke … you should let them check you out if … you did.” The tightness in his chest was easing, but the rest of him was taking its time healing. If he wasn’t careful he’d have questions to answer that he didn’t have many ways around.
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ELIAS ALVAREZ
Phoenix
Posts: 56
Age:
20
Occupation:
Salvatore College Sophomore
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Nov 21, 2024 2:19:01 GMT
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Post by ELIAS ALVAREZ on Nov 29, 2023 23:01:30 GMT
Elias had never really understood why his parents and uncle all ran into burning buildings for a living but the truth was that the moment he had realised that there were people trapped inside the house he had known that he’d needed to help. He had called it in but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to just stand there and watch while the guy tried to save them all on his own. He had known that he wouldn’t manage it, there was too much space to cover and not enough time when factoring the smoke into it all so Elias had known that it would be much better to split up and search different parts of the house. As it was he had managed to get the parents out and then there was the agonising wait to see if the other guy was going to make it out of there with the boy. Waiting was something that Elias wasn’t very good at especially when it was something as important as this and he was tempted to run back in there and look for them both but he knew that he couldn’t just leave the parents on their own in case they did something stupid like going back in there themselves. Elias knew that if anything happened to him inside the house then he would be fine, he was a phoenix after all, but as far as he knew the family were all human so he knew that he couldn’t risk any of them getting hurt. Thankfully two figures eventually emerged from the house, the guy Elias had been before carrying the boy, and relief flooded through him as the parents and son were reunited. Moments later Elias heard the sound of sirens and he let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding as the fire fighters and paramedics emerged. He didn’t see his family among them but Elias assumed they were on another call. Either way he knew that he would have to fill them in later and even though he knew that they would understand why he had done it, he hoped they wouldn’t be too angry with him for putting himself in danger like that. Normally Elias was so careful, he had died the day his foster parents were killed and his dads had found him and taken him in after he spent some time in hospital. He had died again when the same people responsible for killing him the first time had found him again and he knew that he didn’t want to go through that a third time if he could help it. Looking up at the guy he had seen earlier, Elias’ expression softened as he said he almost didn’t get the boy out of there. “I’m glad you did. Where did you find him?” he asked, not sure where the boy had been hiding. The guy had been inside the house for longer than Elias had been so it wasn’t a surprise that he was in worse shape than Elias was but that was still enough to worry the boy. “I don’t think I did, I’ve spent enough time around firefighters to know what that’s like and I don’t feel that bad,” he assured the man. “You were in there a lot longer than I was, though. I know you don’t want to but you really should get yourself checked out,” he said, his expression turning to one of concern as he looked over at the man. “I’m Elias,” he said as he held a hand out to him to shake. FINN DE LA SALLE
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FINN DE LA SALLE
Phoenix
Posts: 266
Age:
651
Occupation:
French Teacher/Mercenary
Status:
Widowed
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Oct 20, 2024 15:21:40 GMT
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Post by FINN DE LA SALLE on Dec 21, 2023 19:51:48 GMT
There’d been plenty of people around who would have tried to douse the flames that had consumed the cottage, but the presence of the English in the town had them too terrified to move. Doing anything to stand up against them then would have been just like painting a target on your own back. The English had been determined to stamp out any sign of rebellion in those that lived north of the border. A handful of years later they’d started to clear the Highlands, outlawing the tartan they saw as a flag of the rebellion of sorts. Allow the Highlanders their traditional dress and you might as well open the door to their king too. It had been bullshit. Most people were just trying to leave peaceful lives, as he had been. Bridget might have tried to fight herself if she hadn’t been pregnant, but she had been and Finn knew that she would have done absolutely anything possible to try and get their son out of the cottage once the blaze had started. Alec hadn’t been old enough to tell anybody what had happened, how it had happened and in a way Finn was grateful for it. He wouldn’t have the memories of losing his home, or losing his mother haunting him for centuries afterwards.
Seeing the boy reunite with his parents, Finn hoped that the memories wouldn’t stay with the kid either. The blaze had been hellish, the sort of thing that would linger in nightmares if it clung to him the same way the smell of the smoke would for days. His parents would help, but they would definitely remember what their son hadn’t – just like he did with what he had seen of the burned cottage. Finn squeezed his eyes tight shut for a moment, letting the relief from the young man’s words bleed through him. Everybody who’d been in there was safe now, thanks to the two of them. He concentrated on dragging in breaths, in letting the scorched feeling in his throat and lungs bleed away as he exhaled. ”I am too,” he puffed. His brows were drawing together as he glanced up at Elias’, his dark eyes narrowing. ”Behind … his bed. Squeezed up against the … wall. Saw his … sneakers…” A bright red beacon that had drawn him close. Finn shook his head, feeling a laugh try and work its way through him. If it wasn’t for the almost luminous clothes kids wore now the kid might not have been found until far too late.
In a few minutes he’d be well enough to try and disappear into the crowd, but he wasn’t sure if the young guy could say the same thing. Finn studied his face as he gradually worked his way upright, his hand pressed against his chest like he could force the breathless feeling away with a thrust of his hand against his ribs. ”You’re a firefighter?” he asked, sure the guy would’ve led with that earlier if he actually was. ”This isn’t my first time I’ve gone through something … like this,” Finn explained, finally peeling his hand away from his chest. He took Elias’ hand as it was offered, dropping his gaze for a moment to see if there any burns littering Elias’ skin beneath the smudges of soot and smoke. ”Finn. I’ll be fine in a … moment, Elias. I’m breathing better already. No … burns either. See…” He held his hands up as he let go of Elias’, one corner of his mouth lifting. ”I guess they’re lucky we were both … here. I don’t think I could’ve got them all … by myself.” The kid perhaps, and he knew that any parent would have wanted their child saved before themselves.
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ELIAS ALVAREZ
Phoenix
Posts: 56
Age:
20
Occupation:
Salvatore College Sophomore
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Nov 21, 2024 2:19:01 GMT
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Post by ELIAS ALVAREZ on Jan 25, 2024 1:21:09 GMT
This definitely wasn’t how Elias had thought that his day would end up going but if he was honest he was glad that he and the other guy had arrived when they had done. He was already dead by the time the apartment he had shared with his foster parents was set alight but his dads had told him about the fire afterwards and Elias had felt glad that he hadn’t been trapped in the apartment as it had burned. For the first time he understood why so many of his family members had become fire fighters, they were all supernatural so they were able to do things that humans couldn’t in order to save people who might otherwise be lost. He had always been proud of the work that his family did and he knew that they would all be worried about him running into the burning building the way he had done without the proper equipment but the truth was that he didn’t regret it one bit and he had a feeling that they would understand. He knew that he could have stayed outside and waited for the fire brigade to arrive but if something had happened to the parents while he waited where it was safe then he knew that he would never be able to forgive himself. Seeing the family together once more as the other guy brought the boy out was enough to bring a smile to Elias’s face and relief swelled within him. He knew it would have destroyed the parents if they had lost their son and he didn’t doubt that the same thing would have happened if the outcome had been the other way around. As it was they were all safe and now the fire fighters could focus on putting the fire out without having to worry about anyone being trapped inside. “I can understand why he hid there but it didn’t make finding him easy,” Elias nodded. It sounded like the boy had tried to get as far away from the flames as he could and Elias really couldn’t blame him for that. Thankfully his sneakers were bright enough that the guy had been able to see them and that was something that Elias was definitely grateful for. The smell of smoke still filled Elias’s nostrils but any difficulties he might have had from inhaling the smoke had been able to heal in the minutes he’d spent waiting for the other guy to emerge from the house with the boy. As the guy asked if he was a fire fighter, Elias shook his head. “No, I’m still in college but a lot of my family are fire fighters. Both of my dads, my uncle and my grandpa all work out of the fire station here in town,” he explained. He had ended up watching them in action a few times when he had accidentally stumbled across incidents they were working and he had always found himself wondering how they could stand running into burning buildings like that but the truth was that now he understood. Elias had already died once and he wasn’t in a hurry to do that again but if it was done right then it was possible to use abilities to save people without risking exposure or dying again and Elias was starting to see the appeal of that. “Really? It isn’t my first time either. What happened?” he asked, unable to deny that he was curious. He might not remember his dads pulling him out of the fire at his old apartment building but as far as everyone outside of his family was concerned he had survived that fire so it was a story that he knew he needed to keep up. Seeing the guy’s gaze drop to check his arm, Elias offered him a small smile. “I’m fine, honestly,” he promised, not wanting the guy to worry about him. “It’s good to meet you,” he nodded as Finn introduced himself. “You should still get yourself checked out, just to make sure,” Elias protested, knowing that he didn’t want anything happening to Finn because he’d tried to save the boy. “They were definitely lucky, I don’t think either of us could have got them all out on our own,” he agreed. “At least now their family gets to stay together. The boy deserves better than the foster system.” Elias didn’t know whether the boy had any other family but if not then that was where he would have ended up if Finn had arrived on his own and had only been able to get the boy out. Elias had spent almost all his life in the foster system and he knew that he wouldn’t wish it on anyone, let alone someone who had been through something like that. FINN DE LA SALLE
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FINN DE LA SALLE
Phoenix
Posts: 266
Age:
651
Occupation:
French Teacher/Mercenary
Status:
Widowed
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Oct 20, 2024 15:21:40 GMT
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Post by FINN DE LA SALLE on Mar 3, 2024 20:12:23 GMT
Entering the village and finding the temporary home he had made with Bridget burned to the group, Finn had wondered if he was always doomed to repeat history. He’d desperately searched the local area, questioning all of those who were left in the vain hope that his son had been as he was. Alec had not been old enough to see the danger coming, but now he wondered if his son had instinctively tried to hide from the fire in the same way the boy had. Had he when the invading soldiers had torched his family home? Gadifer had said they’d found him standing among the ashes when they had returned. They hadn’t known the meaning behind what they had discovered, had just assumed that somehow he had survived the flames, but there was no way any human could’ve survived what had happened that day. Thankfully it had been different for this family.
”At that … age it’s an … instinct,” Finn spoke, as though he had as much experience of it as the men and women who were already going to work to take care of the family. Others would attempt to quench the flames, to save what was left of the home and the memories that had been made there. Finn swiped the back of his hand over his mouth, glancing back into the flames. He'd started over so many times that he no longer mourned the small things he left behind. You learned to leave them behind, holding onto the important things in your heart and mind … and in the thin gold band he could feel solid against his palm as his fingers curled inwards.
Without the young man there it might have been another boy that was orphaned today, left to wonder why he had been the one to survive the flames. Some wouldn’t have followed him into the fire, but this one had and Finn was glad he’d had the help, even if it meant more questions now. ”A family vocation then,” he said hoarsely. ”Do you intend to follow in their footsteps?” In a way he had followed in Gadifer’s until war had become more important than just the exploration of the world. Without a clue who his father really was, Alec had followed in his. It was not a life he would have wished for his son, but Geraint had made certain he had no say in how Alec would turn out.
Finn’s expression grew more serious as he let go of Elias’ hand. It was rare that he dug out the worst parts of his past to reveal them to anybody, especially when his presence in their lives was likely to be fleeting at best. The man had helped him today though and that deserved some sort of an explanation. ”I was that boy when I was younger,” he admitted. ”There was a … fire at my home. I was the only survivor.” Now he likely would’ve been put into some sort of foster system, then he had been Gadifer’s ward, a prize to take home from their conquests of the heathens.
He looked back up at Elias’ reassurance, offering him a brief nod and a return of that small smile. It looked as though both had been lucky here, although his was only due to what he was. Had he been human he would’ve been doing more than clearing his throat now. ”It’s really not needed,” he promised, forcing himself to take clearer breaths. A cough had the taste of smoke rising into his mouth again, but with each one his breathing eased a little. ”Fate smiled on them today.” On all of them. He hadn’t believed in it for a long time, seeing only a curse in all that had happened to him, but with time Finn had realised that there was no way to be struck with only the blessings in life. ”You sound like you have experience of it…” he started before he bit back the rest of the thought. That was as sore a spot as the loss of his parents, of the loss of Bridget and for so many years, Alec too. He had no place poking at it.
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ELIAS ALVAREZ
Phoenix
Posts: 56
Age:
20
Occupation:
Salvatore College Sophomore
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Nov 21, 2024 2:19:01 GMT
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Post by ELIAS ALVAREZ on Jun 28, 2024 0:09:53 GMT
“Yeah, I guess so,” Elias nodded as Finn said that at the age the boy was it was just an instinct to hide there. It hadn’t made finding him any easier though, that was for sure. Elias had been lucky with the parents because they had been together in one of the rooms but then again it wasn’t as easy for adults to hide as it was for a child to do so. Just the thought of any of them not making it out of the fire hadn’t sat right with him and the truth was that Elias appreciated the lengths that so many of his family members went to that much more because of it. That was always a possibility for them, that someone would end up losing their life in the fire, and Elias wasn’t sure whether he would be able to have that hanging over his head on a daily basis. Elias had only been in one fire himself and he had already been dead before the fire had even been started. The people his foster parents had owed money to had lit the fire to cover up the murders of Elias and his foster parents and he knew that if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was a phoenix then he wouldn’t still be here now. He had died again when those same people had found out that he was alive and had decided to make him suffer for refusing to work for them and he had no desire to go through that a third time if he could help it. “Yeah, it is. I know they love it and I’m really proud of them for it,” he admitted. He would be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about following in their footsteps but he really wasn’t sure whether he could do that again. “I’m not sure,” he said, knowing that it would be best to answer honestly. “I’ve thought about it but seeing how easy it would have been for that family not to make it out of there, I’m not sure I could do that again.” Elias knew that might change in the future and he might decide to follow in his dads’ footsteps after all but for now he was happy just going to college and taking it one step at a time. “That must have been awful, I’m really sorry,” Elias said sincerely as Finn explained about the fire that had happened when he was younger. Elias couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like for him but it certainly explained why he had been so quick to run into the burning house to help out the family that day. “Are you sure about that?” he challenged as Finn said that he didn’t need to get himself checked out. He really didn’t sound good so Elias didn’t understand the reluctance but he knew that he couldn’t push the man into seeing someone for the smoke inhalation if he really didn’t want to. “Yeah, it did. I’m so glad they’ll be able to stay together,” he said sincerely as he looked over at the family. It was clear that they didn’t care about the possessions they’d lost in the fire, all they cared about was the fact that they were together and it was heart warming to say the least. As Finn said it sounded like he’d had experience of the foster care system, Elias nodded. “More than I would have liked,” he admitted. “I was just a baby when my mom died and the man everyone thought was my dad abandoned me outside the local fire house. I spent my life moving from one home to another until a couple of years ago when I was finally adopted after my latest set of foster parents were killed in a fire. Like you, I was the only survivor,” he explained with a sigh, knowing that he should open up this once considering the man had told him about the fire when he was a kid. “I wouldn’t wish growing up in foster care on anyone.”FINN DE LA SALLE
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FINN DE LA SALLE
Phoenix
Posts: 266
Age:
651
Occupation:
French Teacher/Mercenary
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Widowed
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ANGE
Last seen Oct 20, 2024 15:21:40 GMT
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Post by FINN DE LA SALLE on Jun 30, 2024 18:49:41 GMT
Later, once they were assured that their family was really safe, the boy’s parents would probably pick apart every moment that had led up to the near tragedy in their home. What if they had taken their son out to dinner, what if they’d been in the living room with him when the fire had broken out, what if they’d chosen to stay in the house and keep looking for him. A thousand tiny choices where things could’ve ended differently. It was hard to put those what ifs aside, Finn knew that. He’d done the same after he’d reached the burned out cottage in the village where he’d last left his wife and son. The questions had torn at him even after he’d rushed north to get his revenge on the man who’d damned them. In the decades that had followed he’d tried to avoid looking into that dark heart of himself, but you couldn’t avoid it. The only thing that ever started to soften its razor sharp edges was accepting what had been, perhaps making up for it where you could. He never could’ve known that it would all change one day. The parents couldn’t have known that either. Hopefully when the time came, the boy would be able to accept what he had done on the night that had terrified his parents.
”If they were my parents, I would be too,” Finn assured Elias. His lips twitched faintly as he thought of Gadifer. His own life would have likely taken a very different path if he hadn’t decided to try and follow in Gadifer’s footsteps. The first trip he’d taken with Gadifer had seemed to seal his fate. There had been a few times since he’d arrived in Mystic Falls that he’d wondered if this was him trying to make another permanent change, but he wouldn’t know that for centuries, more likely he’d head out to battle again, war calling to him like a voice on the wind. Finn’s gaze flicked to Elias, the back of his hand rubbing over his mouth again. ”Something like that will stick with you,” he said hoarsely. ”Maybe one day you’ll see it differently and you’ll want to make sure nobody else is lost to the flames.” One thing he was certain of was that the flames would come for him again in some form or another. From his birth onwards they had always been there for him, just waiting for their moment to flair up around him.
Nodding appreciatively at Elias’ words, Finn dipped his head. It had been seven hundred years ago. If there had ever been a part of it that had lodged in his memory, it was long gone now. ”Thank you,” he rasped. ”It was a long time ago. I was lucky to have found a home with the man who rescued me.” The one who had plucked him from the ashes. He should have just been charred bone like his parents, but somehow he had survived, taking with him more questions that Gadifer could ever answer – like how he had survived when the people he believed were his parents had both died. One of them at least should have been like him, but who knew. Finn drew a deep breath it through his nose and let it out slowly, like he had to prove to Elias that it wouldn’t send him into another coughing fit. ”Definitely.” There was some residual wheezing, the occasional cough, but his body was already healing the damage the fire had done.
Finn made a low sound in his throat as he followed Elias’ gaze towards the family. They’d have to start all over again, but they would do it together as a family. People in this town were the sort to help them to get back on their feet. By the time night fell they would be bundled in clean clothes, somewhere safe. It was the sort of thing it seemed Elias had probably wished for a time or two. A frown creased his brow as Elias started to fill him in. It seemed as though fire was in his blood just as much as it was in his. ”Sometimes it’s better than nothing at all,” Finn said tightly. ”I’m sorry to hear what you went through. Were your fathers part of the crew who rescued you?” Drawing another breath into tight lungs. ”The man who fostered me was the one to pull me from my home when my parents were killed. I don’t know where I would have ended up without him.” Not here, he thought. And not in Scotland at the time he’d met Bridget. Fate had smiled on him occasionally and he wouldn’t wish that away.
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hope to see you in the discord! 
