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12-3amproductions · 6 years

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Ritual Murders: The Adrian Lim Case

Hello everyone! Welcome to another bizarre case study. Today, we will be covering a murder by a Singaporean who was madly obsessed in deities and the rituals that came along with them, to the extent of killing innocent victims and offering them to the idols as sacrifice.

Two children were killed in the seventh-story flat, in Block 12, Toa Payoh Lorong 7.

In the early 1980s, Adrian Lim, a charlatan medium seen by many as the very embodiment of evil, and his two “holy” wives (Tan Mui Choo and Hao Kah Hong), kidnapped, tortured and killed a pair of children (Agnes Ng Siew Heok and Ghazali bin Marzuki).

Background of Adrian Lim

Born on 6 January 1942, Adrian Lim was the eldest son of a low-income family. Described at the trial by his sister as a hot-tempered boy, he dropped out of secondary school and worked a short stint as an informant for the Internal Security Department, joining the cable radio company Rediffusion Singapore in 1962. For three years, he installed and serviced Rediffusion sets as an electrician before being promoted to bill collector.

In April 1967, Lim married his childhood sweetheart with whom he had two children. He converted to Catholicism for his marriage. Lim and his family lived in rented rooms until his 1970 purchase of a three-room flat—a seventh floor unit (unit number 467F) of Block 12, Toa Payoh.

Lim started part-time practice as a spirit medium in 1973. He rented a room where he attended to the women—most of whom were bargirls, dance hostesses, and prostitutes—introduced to him by his landlord. Lim's customers also included superstitious men and elderly females, whom he cheated only of cash. He had learned the trade from a bomoh called "Uncle Willie" and prayed to gods of various religions despite his Catholic baptism.

The Hindu goddess Kali and "Phragann", which Lim described as a Siamese sex god, were among the spiritual entities he called on in his rituals. Lim deceived his clients with several confidence tricks; his most effective gimmick, known as the "needles and egg" trick, duped many to believe that he had supernatural abilities. After blackening needles with soot from a burning candle, Lim carefully inserted them into a raw egg and sealed the hole with powder. In his rituals, he passed the egg several times over his client while chanting and asked her to crack open the egg. Unaware that the egg had been tampered with, the client would be convinced by the sight of the black needles that evil spirits were harassing her.

Lim particularly preyed on gullible girls who had deep personal problems. He promised them that he could solve their woes and increase their beauty through a ritual massage. After Lim and his client had stripped, he would knead her body—including her genitals—with Phragann's idol and have sex with her. Lim's treatments also included an electro-shock therapy based on that used on mental patients. After placing his client's feet in a tub of water and attaching wires to her temples, Lim passed electricity through her. The shocks, he assured her, would cure headaches and drive away evil spirits

Background of Tan Mui Choo

Catherine Tan Mui Choo was referred to Lim by a fellow bargirl, who claimed the spirit medium could cure ailments and depression. Tan, at that time, was grieving the death of her grandmother to whom she had been devoted. Furthermore, her estrangement from her parents weighed on her mind; having been sent away at the age of 13 to a vocational centre (a home mostly for juvenile delinquents), she felt unwanted by them. Tan's visits to Lim became regular, and their relationship grew intimate. In 1975 she moved into his flat on his insistence.

To allay his wife's suspicions that he was having an affair with Tan, Lim swore an oath of denial before a picture of Jesus Christ. However, she discovered the truth and moved out with their children a few days later, divorcing Lim in 1976. Lim quit his Rediffusion job and became a full-time medium. He enjoyed brisk business, at one point receiving S$6,000–7,000 (US$2,838–3,311) a month from a single client. In June 1977, Lim and Tan registered their marriage.

Lim dominated Tan through beatings, threats, and lies. He persuaded her to prostitute herself to supplement their income. He also convinced her that he needed to fornicate with young women to stay healthy; thus, Tan assisted him in his business, preparing their clients for his pleasure. Lim's influence over Tan was strong; on his encouragement and promise that sex with a younger man would preserve her youth, Tan copulated with a Malay teenager and even with her younger brother. The boy was not her only sibling to be influenced by Lim; the medium had earlier seduced Tan's younger sister and tricked her into selling her body and having sex with the two youths. Despite the abuses, Tan lived with Lim, enjoying the dresses, beauty products and slimming courses bought with their income.

Background of Hoe Kah Hong

Born on 10 September 1955, Hoe Kah Hong was eight years old when her father died; she was sent to live with her grandmother until she was fifteen. When she returned to her mother and siblings she was constantly required to give way to her elder sister Lai Ho. Under the perception that her mother favoured her sister, Hoe became disgruntled, showing her temper easily.

In 1979, her mother brought Lai to Lim for treatment, and became convinced of Lim's powers by his "needles and egg" trick. Believing that Hoe's volatile temper could also be cured by Lim, the old woman brought her younger daughter to the medium. After witnessing the same trick, Hoe became Lim's loyal follower. Lim desired to make Hoe one of his "holy wives", even though she was already married to Benson Loh Ngak Hua. To achieve his goal, Lim sought to isolate Hoe from her family by feeding her lies. He claimed that her family were immoral people who practiced infidelity, and that Loh was an unfaithful man who would force her into prostitution. Hoe believed Lim's words, and after going through a rite with him, she was declared by the medium as his "holy wife". She no longer trusted her husband and family, and became violent towards her mother. Three months after she had first met Lim, Hoe moved from her house and went to live with him.

Loh sought his wife at Lim's flat and ended up staying to observe her treatment. He was persuaded by her to participate in the electro-shock therapies. In the early hours of 7 January 1980, Loh sat with Hoe, their arms locked together and their feet in separate tubs of water. Lim applied a large voltage to Loh, who was electrocuted, while Hoe was stunned into unconsciousness. When she woke, Lim requested her to lie to the police about Loh's death. Hoe repeated the story Lim had given her, saying that her husband had been electrocuted in their bedroom when he tried to switch on a faulty electric fan in the dark. The coroner recorded an open verdict, and the police made no further investigations.

Despite her antipathy towards Loh, Hoe was affected by his death. Her sanity broke; she started hearing voices and hallucinating, seeing her dead husband. At the end of May she was admitted to the Woodbridge Hospital. There, psychologists diagnosed her condition as schizophrenia and started appropriate treatments. Hoe made a remarkably quick recovery; by the first week of July, she was discharged. She continued her treatment with the hospital; follow-up checks showed that she was in a state of remission. Hoe's attitude towards her mother and other family members began to improve after her stay in the hospital, although she continued to live with Lim and Tan.

The murder:

The first victim was little Agnes Ng - curled up in the fetal position inside a travel bag by the lift landing. She was discovered by a 25-year-old carpenter at the ground floor of Block 11, Toa Payoh Lorong 7, as he headed back home after a night out at the movies on Jan 25, 1981.

“They found the bag, opened the zipper and out popped her head,” said retired police officer S.K. Menon, who was then the officer-in-charge of the CID’s Special Investigation Section.

He did not know it then, but the nine-year-old girl was the first of the two ritual murder victims of Adrian Lim, an unemployed 39-year-old who claimed to be a medium, his wife Catherine Tan Mui Choo and his mistress Hoe Kah Hong.

Agnes was abducted by Hoe at the Church of the Risen Christ in Toa Payoh and taken to Lim’s flat. She was injected with a sedative and then suffocated. She was also sexually assaulted by Lim.

A week after her death, either Tan or Hoe, called Agnes’ mother threatening to “chop” Agnes’ sister up.

But with few clues at the scene where the body was found, cracking the case was difficult, said Mr Menon. The pressure was truly on when the trio’s second victim, Ghazali Marzuki, 10, was found almost two weeks after Agnes.

“He was just lying there on the grass patch,” said Mr Menon, 78, when asked how the body was found, just metres from Lim’s block.

Ghazali had been playing with his cousins in a playground in Clementi the day before when they were approached by Hoe asking for help.

Ghazali was taken to Lim’s flat, where he was drugged, choked then drowned. There were also three burn marks on his back and a puncture on his arm.

This time, there was a trail of blood leading from Ghazali’s body all the way to Lim’s residence at Block 12.

“He did not realise the body was dripping blood from the nose,” said Mr Menon. “The blood, that was his undoing.”

Officers cordoned off the area and searched the block house-to-house. When they got to the seventh floor, they found Lim, dressed in a shirt and pants, seemingly about to make a run for it, said Mr Menon.

“(The house) was very eerie, it was lit with amber light, and right in front when you go in is the altar.”

Officers found various religious items in the flat, and on the altar Mr Menon mentioned, there were crucifixes and Hindu and Chinese idols, some of which were smeared with blood.

Suspicions were aroused further when a drop of blood was spotted on the kitchen floor.

Description of victim Agnes Ng:

Agnes Ng Siew Hock was a nine-year-old who went to the Holy Innocent’s Chinese Girl School.

She was the youngest of nine siblings.

She was last seen alive by her sister Pauline and a friend at the Church of Risen Christ in Toa Payoh at about 4pm, on Jan 24, 1981.

She was there waiting for her sister to finish classes before returning home together.

Her body was found in a brown vinyl bag on Jan 25, at about 2.20am near a staircase at Block 11 Toa Payoh by a man returning from a midnight show. Adrian Lim’s flat was at Block 12.

Her home at Block 233 was not far away from where she was found.

She had been sexually assaulted and suffocated — it seems by a hand covering her nose and mouth.

According to a forensic expert during the trial, it would have taken her 10 minutes to die.

Description of victim Ghazali Marzuki:

Ghazali Marzuki, who studied in Henry Park Primary School, was 10.

He was staying with his grandmother at Block 344, Clementi Avenue 5, on Feb 6 for the Chinese New Year holidays.

While at a playground with two cousins, a woman approached them.

She asked for help to collect some things from a friend’s house.

Ghazali agreed to help, and followed her into a taxi.

That was the last time he was seen alive.

In the early hours of Feb 7, Mr Fung Joon Yong, who lived at Block 12 in Toa Payoh, saw Catherine Tan stepping out of a lift, carrying a child over her shoulder. Adrian Lim was with her.

They went in the direction of Blocks 10 and 11.

Later that morning, Ghazali’s body was found near a hedge just in front of Block 10. The boy had been drugged with a sedative and drowned — his head pushed into a tub of water.

Burn marks were also found, but these were believed to have been caused by electrocution after he died.

Arresting the 3 murderers:

In a search of the area where Ghazali was found, police were led to the lift at Blk 12 where a resident had seen Catherine Tan with the boy. A bloodstain was found in the vicinity.

The police decided to search the higher floors.

More blood stains were found between the fifth and sixth storey staircase and the staircase leading to the seventh storey.

They decided to check the units on the seventh storey, the first of which was Adrian Lim’s. He was in the corridor. They spoke and Lim agreed to a search of his home.

It was very messy inside. In the kitchen, police found what seemed to be a bloodstain on the floor.

More police were called in to conduct a thorough search.

Tan and Hoe Kah Hong had returned by this time. Lim called them his wife and girlfriend, and told police they lived together.

A pair of slippers, shorts and a handkerchief — all stained were blood — were discovered. They belonged to Lim. A bloodstained blouse belonging to Hoe was found in a pail.

Pills containing the drug found in Ghazali were seized, along with a syringe believed to contain his blood. Strands of hair that seemed like Ghazali’s were found under a carpet and under a sofa.

Lim, Tan and Hoe were arrested and the next day, charged with murder.

Why did Adrian Lim and his accomplice murder the two children?

With Hoe and Tan as his assistants, Lim continued his trade, tricking more women into giving him money and sex. By the time of his arrest, he had 40 "holy wives". In the late 1980s, he was arrested and charged with rape.

His accuser was Lucy Lau, a door-to-door cosmetic salesgirl, who had met Lim when she was promoting beauty products to Tan. On 19 October, Lim told Lau that a ghost was haunting her, but he could exorcise it with his sex rituals. She was unconvinced, but the medium persisted. He secretly mixed two capsules of Dalmadorm, a sedative, into a glass of milk and offered it to her, claiming it had holy properties.

Lau became groggy after drinking it, which allowed Lim to take advantage of her. For the next few weeks, he continued to abuse her by using drugs or threats. In November, after Lim had given her parents a loan smaller than the amount they had requested, Lau made a police report about his treatment of her. Lim was arrested on charges of rape, and Tan for abetting him. Out on bail, Lim persuaded Hoe to lie that she was present at the alleged rape but saw no crime committed. This failed to stop the police enquiries; Lim and Tan had to extend their bail, in person, at the police station every fortnight.

Frustrated, Lim plotted to distract the police with a series of child murders. Moreover, he believed that sacrifices of children to Kali would persuade her supernaturally to draw the attention of the police away from him. Lim pretended to be possessed by Kali, and convinced Tan and Hoe that the goddess wanted them to kill children to wreak vengeance on Lau. He also told them Phragann demanded that he have sex with their female victims.

On 24 January 1981, Hoe spotted Agnes at a nearby church and lured her to the flat. The trio plied her with food and drink that was laced with Dalmadorm. After Agnes became groggy and fell asleep, Lim sexually abused her. Near midnight, the trio smothered Agnes with a pillow and drew her blood, drinking and smearing it on a portrait of Kali. Following that, they drowned the girl by holding down her head in a pail of water. Finally, Lim used his electro-shock therapy device to "make doubly sure that she was dead". They stuffed her body in a bag and dumped it near the lift at Block 11.

Ghazali suffered a similar fate when he was brought by Hoe to the flat on 6 February. He, however, proved resistant to the sedatives, taking a long time to fall asleep. Lim decided to tie up the boy as a precaution; however, the boy awoke and struggled. Panicking, the trio delivered karate chops to Ghazali's neck and stunned him. After drawing his blood, they proceeded to drown their victim. Ghazali struggled, vomiting and losing control of his bowels as he died. Blood kept streaming from his nose after his death. While Tan stayed behind to clean the flat, Lim and Hoe disposed of the body. Lim noticed that a trail of blood led to their flat, so he and his accomplices cleaned as much as they could of these stains before sunrise. When the trail of blood led the police to their flat, this resulted in their arrest.

Battle of psychiatrist in the supreme justice court:

No one doubted that Lim, Tan, and Hoe had killed the children. Their defence was based on convincing the judges that medically, the accused were not in total control of themselves during the crimes. The bulk of the trial was therefore a battle between expert witnesses called by both sides. Dr Wong Yip Chong, a senior psychiatrist in private practice, believed that Lim was mentally ill at the time of the crimes. Claiming to be "judging by the big picture, and not fussing over contradictions", he said that Lim's voracious sexual appetite and deluded belief in Kali were characteristics of a mild manic depression. The doctor also said that only an unsound mind would dump the bodies close to his home when his plan was to distract the police. In rebuttal, the prosecution's expert witness, Dr Chee Kuan Tsee, a psychiatrist at Woodbridge Hospital, said that Lim was "purposeful in his pursuits, patient in his planning and persuasive in his performance for personal power and pleasure". In Dr Chee's opinion, Lim had indulged in sex because through his role as a medium he obtained a supply of women who were willing to go to bed with him. Furthermore, his belief in Kali was religious in nature, not delusional. Lim's use of religion for personal benefit indicated full self-control. Lastly, Lim had consulted doctors and freely taken sedatives to alleviate his insomnia, a condition which, according to Dr Chee, sufferers from manic depression fail to recognise.

Dr R. Nagulendran, a consultant psychiatrist, testified that Tan was mentally impaired by reactive psychotic depression. According to him she was depressed before she met Lim, due to her family background. Physical abuse and threats from Lim deepened her depression; drug abuse led her to hallucinate and believe the medium's lies. Dr Chee disagreed; he said that Tan had admitted to being quite happy with the material lifestyle Lim gave to her, enjoying fine clothes and beauty salon treatments. A sufferer from reactive psychotic depression would not have paid such attention to her appearance. Also, Tan had earlier confessed to knowing Lim was a fraud, but changed her stance in court to claim she was acting completely under his influence. Although Dr Chee had neglected Lim's physical abuse of Tan in his judgment, he was firm in his opinion that Tan was mentally sound during the crimes. Both Dr Nagulendran and Dr Chee agreed that Hoe suffered from schizophrenia long before she met Lim, and that her stay in Woodbridge Hospital had helped her recovery. However, while Dr Nagulendran was convinced that Hoe suffered a relapse during the time of the child killings, Dr Chee pointed out that none of the Woodbridge doctors saw any signs of relapse during the six months of her follow-up checks (16 July 1980 – 31 January 1981). If Hoe had been as severely impaired by her condition as Dr Nagulendran described, she would have become an invalid. Instead, she methodically abducted and helped kill a child on two occasions. Ending his testimony, Dr Chee stated that it was incredible that three people with different mental illnesses should share a common delusion of receiving a request to kill from a god.

In their closing speeches, the defence tried to reinforce the portrayal of their clients as mentally disturbed individuals. Cashin said that Lim was a normal man until his initiation into the occult, and that he was clearly divorced from reality when he entered the "unreasonable world of atrociousness", acting on his delusions to kill children in Kali's name. Jeyaretnam said that due to her depression and Lim's abuse, Tan was just "a robot", carrying out orders without thought. Isaac simply concluded, "[Hoe's] schizophrenic mind accepted that if the children were killed, they would go to heaven and not grow up evil like her mother and others." The defence criticised Dr Chee for failing to recognise their clients' symptoms.

The prosecution started its closing speech by drawing attention to the "cool and calculating" manner in which the children were killed. Knight also argued that the accused could not have shared the same delusion, and only brought it up during the trial. The "cunning and deliberation" displayed in the acts could not have been done by a deluded person.Tan helped Lim because "she loved [him]", and Hoe was simply misled into helping the crimes. Urging the judges to consider the ramifications of their verdict, Knight said: "My Lords, to say that Lim was less than a coward who preyed on little children because they could not fight back; killed them in the hope that he would gain power or wealth and therefore did not commit murder, is to make no sense of the law of murder. It would lend credence to the shroud of mystery and magic he has conjured up his practices and by which he managed to frighten, intimidate and persuade the superstitious, the weak and the gullible into participating in the most lewd and obscene acts."

Judgement:

On 25 May 1983, crowds massed outside the building, waiting for the outcome of the trial. Due to limited seating, only a few were allowed inside to hear Justice Sinnathuray's delivery of the verdict, which took 15 minutes. The two judges were not convinced that the accused were mentally unsound during the crimes. They found Lim to be "abominable and depraved" in carrying out his schemes. Viewing her interviews with the expert witnesses as admissions of guilt, Sinnathuray and Chua found Tan to be an "artful and wicked person", and a "willing [party] to [Lim's] loathsome and nefarious acts".The judges found Hoe to be "simple" and "easily influenced". Although she suffered from schizophrenia, they noted that she was in a state of remission during the murders; hence she should bear full responsibility for her actions. All three defendants were found guilty of murder and sentenced to be hanged. The two women did not react to their sentences. On the other hand, Lim beamed and cried, "Thank you, my Lords!", as he was led out.

Lim accepted his fate; the women did not, and appealed against their sentences. Tan hired Francis Seow to appeal for her, and the court again assigned Isaac to Hoe. The lawyers asked the appeal court to reconsider the mental states of their clients during the murders, charging that the trial judges in their deliberations had failed to consider this point. The Court of Criminal Appeal reached their decision in August 1986. The appeal judges which consist of Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin, Justice Lai Kew Chai and Justice L P Thean reaffirmed the decision of their trial counterparts, noting that as finders of facts, judges have the right to discount medical evidence in the light of evidence from other sources. Tan and Hoe's further appeals to London's Privy Council and Singapore President Wee Kim Weemet with similar failures.

Having exhausted all their avenues for pardon, Tan and Hoe calmly faced their fates. While waiting on death row the trio were counselled by Catholic priests and nuns. In spite of the reputation that surrounded Lim, Father Brian Doro recalled the murderer as a "rather friendly person". When the day of execution loomed, Lim asked Father Doro for absolution and Holy Communion. Likewise, Tan and Hoe had Sister Gerard Fernandez as their spiritual counsellor. The nun converted the two female convicts to Catholicism, and they received forgiveness and Holy Communion during their final days. On 25 November 1988 the trio were given their last meal and led to the hangman's noose. Lim smiled throughout his last walk. After the sentences were carried out, the three murderers were given a short Catholic funeral mass by Father Doro, and cremated on the same day.

The children who escaped death from them:

Before Agnes Ng and Ghazali Marzuki, there were a few children who came to the apartment of Adrian Lim.

The first one was lured by Hoe, she got a girl aged 10 to follow her from Toa Payoh Central. But Lim rejected the girl because she was Indian and the deity he worshipped, called Kaliammam, was Hindu.

Hoe picked up another girl from Clementi. She was Chinese. But Lim said she was too skinny.

The third girl she brought back made Lim panic when she called her friend on the phone, and told Lim that the friend had seen her being led away by a woman.

There was also another child who got released by Adrian Lim because she was told that “The gods do not want you”. She happened to be prayed over by a pastor who happened to be her teacher back then and was most likely covered by the protection and blood of Jesus.

Conclusion:

First of all, we have to make this clear that no religion would approve of human sacrifice except for Satanism. No god would appreciate suicides or the death of someone as a gift.

The Hindu god, Goddess Kali is a strong motherly figure in Hinduism and is well respected for her motherly-love. She is well known to ward off evil spirits and slay demons for peace to be in order. The demon Kali (which most people confuse with Goddess Kali), is source of the most cruel and evil demon in Hinduism. Thus, Adrian Lim could have been having delusional thoughts with the demon Kali instead of Goddess Kali.

Second of all, religious beliefs do impact someone positively and sometimes negatively depending on the influence of it. In this case, Adrian Lim was obviously the bad influence. Teaching false and negative things and bringing harm to people instead of good. No religion will ever bring harm to its own people.

Psychiatrists were brought in due to the hallucinated mind of the three killers and the different mental illness they were having. It is important to pin point if they were really affected by their unconscious state of mind or just for their own evil joy. Adrian Lim showed no regrets or remorse towards his actions and could even smile before the death sentence. It is hence also important to understand the different religious teachings and their beliefs to avoid misleading people into the negativity.

Well, rest assured 12-3AMProductions will be doing articles on the different religions to educate people about the different magic circle groups created by us humans. Of course, words are a really powerful tool which many people use to brainwash others and mislead them into believing ridiculous things. In this case, the murders’ reasoning by Adrian Lim and his accomplices was of total bullshit with the claim that the sacrifices were requested by God. Justice has been served to the victims and religion will never be a strong reason to escape killings.

Thirdly, we do want to mention about the punishment of these vicious murderers after they have perished in hell. They are not going to be given a chance by god obviously. And all of them will be going to purgatory if they had REALLY been converted to Catholic. Otherwise based on their skin color and nationality, they will be facing the Buddhism hell and accept the punishment there. Their pain will never stop even when they are dead, the worst pain is given by god and not in the living world.

That is all for the case on Adrian Lim, we hope that you all have gained knowledge and awareness from this case study and do remember to like and reblog. Thank you once again for the amazing support, we will see you in our next article and case :)

#cases #murder #cold blood #Godness Kali #crime #sad #pain #suffering #occult #medium

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bscworks · 3 years

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About Us

Hello! Warm greetings and welcome to our blog! Our agency BSCWorks consist of 5 talented people running it, all on different sectors of the agency.

Starting with Choong Boon Phin, He is the social media manger here at BSCWorks and he works diligently to keep up-to-date information and events from universities/colleges all served to you on your digital platform. Moving on, Adrian Tan is a gifted worker that has talent in digital marketing. Providing some of the best online advertising to reach our more digitally inclined customers. Moving on, Lee Ting Pang and Wong Siew Yee oversee accounting and financial status of the agency. They make sure that all expenses incurred are of legitimacy and correctly valued. Lastly, Eddy Wong works as our human resource manager. He oversees the wellbeing of our team. “Where Future Begins” Our tagline, The prospect of our younger generation heading to their final step in their education needs. This is where the first step of the future begins for them, Here at BSCWorks.

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potential-fate · 7 months

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Abe bit his lip and frowned. Had he been worrying over nothing this whole time? He supposed that Lucy had reassured him multiple times that Roman was doing fine. Any time he asked, she’d scoffed and told him that Roman was good. That Roman was fine. Maybe Abe hadn’t believed her. A small voice in the back of his mind said maybe he hadn't want to believe her.

But here he was, proof that he was fine. Happy. Some obnoxious redhead was hanging all over him while he chatted with a whole group of people that Abe had never even seen before. And they were all chatting animatedly like they were friends with Roman. Who were those people? Well, maybe he recognized one of the blondes vaguely. But the redhead was new. He was loud, and clearly drunk, but he was, much to Abe’s irritation, also cute. And Roman had an arm wrapped around him to hold him from falling on the floor in the corner that the group had overtaken.

Abe looked away. Looked back at his boyfriend, who now wore a look of either concern or irritation at being ignored. He wondered what Callum had said after “Please?” that he’d missed in order to cause that look. The blonde raised an eyebrow. He wouldn't dare look back at what had distracted him now. If Callum caught on, that was certain to set him off.

“Okay. Sure.” Abe said, making a quick decision, “I’ll dance.”

“Really?” The small frown disappeared and Callum smiled happily at him. Abe tried not to compare it to the smile across the room. He ignored the other smile completely, in fact. He didn’t care. Why should he?

“I didn’t think I was actually convincing you.”

#arkhelios #sims stories #sims 2 #sims 2 stories #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 #my posts #Arkh Ch5 #Abe Chun #Callum Walton #Roman Bellamy #Pelle Nykvist #Adrian Siew #Ashe Dallas #the others are there too but you can't see them so I'm not tagging them in this one

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luverofralts · 21 days

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Arkhelios Adventures

The Bellamy household was tense. The atmosphere hadn't been this dark and dire since Roman's affair with Ulyssa. Two days had passed since the incident at Theo's school, and a decision had been made by the Pleasantview coven regarding Theo's academic future. Evren was scheduled to arrive with the verdict any second now and the Bellamys were trying not to panic. Too was taking this opportunity to destroy their kitchen cupboards, and no one had the mental ability to stop her. Evren was going to be there any minute, what did it matter what the cat did?

There had been no contact from Adam since the accident and Theo was inconsolable, thinking that his boyfriend was ending things with him by simply ghosting him. All of Theo's texts were unable to be delivered. One minute, he'd been intertwined with Adam and the next, Adam was just...gone.

Evren had dutifully brought up this silence at one of the many coven meetings he attended, and was able to confirm that Edana had taken her son's phone from him and disconnected the number. This at least gave Theo some hope that maybe Adam wasn't breaking up with him. His mother didn't want them to speak to each other, so she'd taken away that connection to protect her son. Theo had tried some small magical spells used to communicate between magic users, but those also failed. Edana had the benefit of years of experience in a coven that liked to play dirty when it came to magic. Despite his raw power, Theo couldn't compete with a witch that experienced.

"Evren's here!" Saturnia announced.

The moment she spoke, everyone over the age of fourteen hurried in the kitchen to hear Evren's news. This meeting was for adults only. Adult decisions had to be made, and Theo was too fragile to hear the discussion for himself. He hadn't left his room for the past two days anyway. Whenever someone checked up on him, he was either crying into his pillow or writing woefully in his journal.

"What was the coven's decision?" Roman asked breathlessly, pulling up a chair beside Adrian and Abe. "Are they expelling him? Do we get to keep him here?"

It was the option Roman liked best. Everything would be okay if he could just hold onto Theo and hug him until all this madness went away. He was Theo's father, and it was his duty to protect him, not some snobby school.

"No, they don't feel that he belongs in Arkhelios," Evren said gently. "He swore an oath to be an apprentice of the coven and they plan to hold him to that. Like we discussed earlier, that option was extremely unlikely."

"Doesn't belong in Arkhelios?" Roman erupted, slamming a fist on the table. "He's my son! You're telling me that I'm going broke to pay for some witches to kidnap my son from me? Abe? Tell him that we're keeping our son!"

"He's beyond our help, Ro," Abe replied quietly, putting a reassuring hand over his husband's clenched fist. "We talked about this. He's growing up and we can't teach him what he needs to know. I hate this just as much as you do, but it's not just him that's in danger. He's hurting other people now too."

"I'm a hybrid!" Roman growled. "I'll teach him. We'll learn together. It's my mother's fault that he's like this, so I have to be the one to fix it. I can fix this."

"Roman, I appreciate your openness to trying new ways to train Theo, but you can't just homeschool your son in the magic he needs to survive. No offense, but your own abilities probably couldn't get past the second chapter of his textbook. For all my experience, I don't have the skills to teach him either."

"What did the coven decide then?" Adrian asked. "Is he allowed to stay at the academy? If he is, is Edana going to be a problem? Is he being reassigned a different room away from Adam?"

"He's not going to attend classes at the academy for the rest of the semester," Evren announced. "Theo will be reassigned to a sister school for the duration of the academic year, possibly for longer depending on his progress."

"What?!"

All three of Theo's parents recoiled at the verdict, utterly baffled by the choice.

"I'm not paying to send him somewhere else! What 'sister school'? Where is it? They can't do this!"

"This is discrimination against demons! If Edana thinks that she can get away with this, I'll sue!"

"I'm calling Lucy. She'll fight this. They can't go against the Sovereign!"

"The Sovereign already agreed to the change," Evren informed them, watching their faces fall with the news. "She was at the final two meetings and she consented to the change of schools. She suggested the replacement school herself."

"Abe, do you remember giving custody of our son to the Sovereign?" Roman asked sarcastically. "She can't just send him wherever she feels like. We have custody of him. He's our child. Why is the Sovereign under the understanding that she can make decisions about our son without our knowledge?"

"I'm sure Lucy had some input," Abe said, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke. "Lucy would never let anyone hurt Theo, she's his godmother. If her wife is making decisions, I'm sure Lucy had a say."

"Where is this school? What's the campus like? When are visiting hours? Can we schedule a tour? Does the tuition change?" Adrian asked, typing notes on his phone. "Do they have a website or brochure?"

"I don't know anything about it," Evren admitted. "I've never heard of it myself or even that the academy had a sister school. I don't know everything about this universe, but even some of the other witches looked confused. There are no tours, no pamphlets, no visitations. Theo will be assigned a support team who will help him adjust to the change and provide you with notes on his progress."

"So they are charging him with something!" Roman accused. "They're jailing him for crimes he didn't commit! He's innocent! It was an accident!"

"I'm calling Lucy. This is outrageous. She'll know how to fight this."

"My love, maybe we could talk about this in private? I might be able to ask Maura for a favour."

"This isn't jail, it's a highly praised school that will help Theo learn to control his abilities. He'll recieve one on one instruction from older demons who have practical experience with blood magic. It's not so much a magic school that teaches demons, but a demon school that teaches magic. Theo will be taught by staff who know what puberty is like for demons and can help him manage the changes to his body and abilities."

"That sounds an awful lot like the military school my parents sent me to," Adrian said quietly. "I promised myself that I would never send one of my own children to a school like that, no matter what. Theo's not going. I'll pull my portion of his tuition if I need to. I'm not paying to cause suffering to a child."

Evren sighed, staring at the determined faces of Theo's other parents. All of them looked like they were about to grab a torch and go burn the Pleasantview Academy to the ground.

"I really don't think that you're describing this accurately. They seem to think that they have a choice in this matter."

Without warning, a woman descended from a shower of sparkles right in the middle of the Bellamy kitchen. While Abe and Adrian looked baffled, Roman stared at the woman, unable to place where he knew her from.

"Adriel, you're not going to help matters," Evren groaned, rubbing his temples to ward off the migraine he could feel developing.

"Adriel! You went to school with me!" Roman exclaimed. "That's where I know you from. Your mother sent you to try to force us into accepting this?"

Abe stared, vaguely remembering this woman from when she was a teen and helped them fight off Dorhack. He hadn't really gotten to know her well, but then again, it wasn't like she was trying to get to know him either. She had stuck close to her mother, the Sovereign, and had said very little to anyone else.

"Are you here to collect Theo?" Evren demanded. "I was assured that he would have several days to recover before he left."

"Are you kidding? Babysitting teenagers is nowhere near my rank. Mother sent me to reassure the parents and nothing else."

"Evren, we're not going to be intimidated into sending Theo away. Tell the coven that we're not complying, no matter who they send to steal my son."

"Are you done?" Adriel demanded. "I should have known that the kid causing so much trouble was yours, Roman. It looks like your mother's trashiness is genetic after all."

For the first time in years, Roman felt the ghost of his younger self awaken within him at the reminder of his own boarding school experience. All the games, all of the politics and mind games came rushing back to him at once. He'd been afraid of Adriel once, long before he realized that he had power too.

"All of that rank and you're still your mother's messenger, doing all the unimportant work that she finds too boring to do herself? It must kill you to have to serve your mother's human wife."

While the rest of the adults braved themselves for a demonic fight, Adriel just laughed.

"Fair enough, Dorhack spawn," she teased. "Despite his relation to you, your son is admittedly very interesting. He would have to be exceptional to be sent where he's going and despite his parentage, he is."

"Where is this school?" Roman replied, his voice surprisingly casual now that he and Adriel had gotten verbal sparring out of the way. "I want to visit him and make sure that he's well cared for. If your own mother is any example of demonic care for children, then I don't trust anywhere she would send him."

Adriel made a sarcastic grunt in response to this.

"She would never have sent her own kids there," she complained. "We were never good enough. Instead, I had to go to the same school as you." Adriel gestured towards Roman dismissively. "I think she only went there herself for a semester when her mother got sick of having her around."

"So, Theo might just be there for a semester then?" Roman asked hopefully. "If it's so hard to get into?"

Adriel shrugged dispassionately.

"It could be longer, depending on his needs, but yes. The school also doesn't offer a summer curriculum and is highly motivated to return him to his regular school before the next school year. Something about taxes and student enrollment numbers."

"Well, that's not that bad, I guess," Adrian said cautiously. "If they really don't want to have a lot of students stay and if even the Sovereign's daughter wasn't allowed admittance...maybe this could be a good thing. Like private tutoring, right?"

"Somewhat," the demon answered, losing interest in this conversation quickly. "They won't release him until he can safely control his...episodes. How long that takes is up to the child."

Silence fell over the room as each adult tried to rationalize this decision. They were all still against sending Theo away at all, but if the coven was going to enforce this ruling, there were some upsides at least.

"Let's talk in my office, Adriel," Roman said, standing up from the table dramatically. "I want to talk to you, demon to demon."

Adriel tried to repress the shudder she felt at the idea that she and Roman were anything alike. How Theo had come from this family with his abilities, Adriel couldn't understand.

"Fine."

The first thing Adriel did when entering Roman's office was poke around the room, snooping as she did.

"Oh, look. Baby Roman," she laughed, staring at a photo of teenage Roman with his grandparents. "You were different then from what I remember. You used to be better than this."

"Uh, thanks?" Roman replied, crossing his arms defensively. "My life's kinda been turned upside down a few times now. All that trauma will change a person, especially a teenager. You...well, you're pretty much how I remember you actually."

"Look, live your sad life, I don't really care," the demon said. "This is the best thing for your son, according to people who actually know what they're talking about. Theo's hurting other kids because he can't control his abilities. If he keeps this up as he gets older, the consequences may become even harsher. Everyone feels sorry for a kid. An adult incapable of handling magic? Much less sympathy. That is if he can even survive his episodes to make it to adulthood. There were no demons around to save your son from himself. He was extremely lucky that there were quick thinking warlocks near him, otherwise you might not be getting your son back at all."

"I know. I really do know how bad it was. How bad it is. Adam is a good kid and he didn't deserve to get hurt by all of this. I don't want Theo to lose his boyfriend or friends because people are afraid of him. I'm just afraid to lose my son for months because a bunch of witches and warlocks said so. I won't abandon him when he needs me. Let me go study with him. I could use a refresher on demonic magic. My tutor in college said I wasn't a complete failure at it."

Adriel let out a loud, unrestrained laugh at Roman's idea that Roman knew was genuine. No one could fake a sarcastic, belittling laugh like that.

"What? I'm half-demon. Probably anyway, no one's really drawn up a family tree for me. Theo's only a quarter demon genetically. I could do the work."

"It's cute that you want to try demonic magic," Adriel conceded, a smirk still on her face. "It doesn't matter about genetics when it comes to demons or even witches really. It's all about potential and power and how certain genes are awoken in people. Sometimes demon genes are dormant in a family for generations. Sometimes demon genes get passed along the generations that grow in power with every generation. Your mother had power. Your son has power. You do not. There's no way you'd be accepted to even audit a class at this school. And besides, what do you think Theo's going to learn with his father hovering around him, trying to baby him while he tries to achieve control over powers you couldn't even understand?"

"Can we at least call him at night after class?" Roman begged, desperate for a compromise. "When he's done his work and we won't be bothering him? Or see him on a weekend? For an afternoon?"

"Look, I'll mention it to the coven and the contact for the school. I can't guarantee anything though. There were no public phones at our school and this place is ancient compared to that. They're very strict about parents too. I'll see what I can do, but Roman, you should see this as a gift and not a sentence. These people will make sure that Theo can fix his episodes himself. There won't be any more worrying about him hurting people or having qualified people around him to save him from himself. The Pleasantview Academy can teach him magic, but only our people can teach him to be an adult demon safely."

"Is there at least a book I can read about what he'll be studying? Or one about how to help adolescent demons as they grow up? I do have many other kids with the same genetics as Theo. Who's to say that one of my girls won't need help with this as well?"

"I'm not a library," Adriel replied, rolling her eyes. "Try one of those, though I really don't think you have to worry about the rest of your kids. Dorhack's lineage really isn't anything to care about, aside from being a Great Demon. Like I said, your family tree is trash. None of your other children really have a chance of turning out like Theo."

"Dad, the Devil's here!"

Fiolett's voice rang out across the house, alerting the family to their visitor. Abe immediately bolted from the table, eager to confront the Sovereign about making choices for his son. To his disappointment, it wasn't the Sovereign in his living room, but her wife.

"Fi honey, that's Aunt Lucy, not the devil," he corrected quickly. "And really, devil's not the proper word either."

"But that's what Daddy calls her," the child replied.

Abe could hear Evren scolding his partner from the living room, something Lucy probably enjoyed.

"You call her what in front of the children?!"

"It's good to see you," Abe said, hugging his sister. "It's been a wild couple of days. I assume you're here to guilt me into handing my son over to some place I'm not allowed to visit? It's a little unnecessary. I mean, the Sovereign already forced her daughter to come get us on board."

"Ah, my lovely stepdaughter," Lucy replied. "Yes, if I had my way, that bitch would be the one heading out of the country. I'm Theo's godmother, I should be the one here yelling at you, not her."

"Yelling at me for what? What side are you on?"

"The side of common sense," Lucy stated. "Abe, Theo's at the age where this sort of behavior isn't cute anymore. He's going to end up killing himself and taking his boyfriend with him next time."

"It's never been cute, what-"

"My wife and the coven can see what's happening here. You don't really travel in the same circles that I do, so you wouldn't know, but this needs to be stopped before Theo grows up. He's trying new magic and only getting stronger every day. If he has an overload of power as an adult, it may take three adult demons to ground him instead of one. How are you going to guarantee that he's always near someone who can help him? How are you going to guarantee that he doesn't hurt someone in the future like this? What if he's holding your grandchild when he goes off? This needs to be addressed now."

"I know, Luce. I do know, it's just hard. This is my baby and I'm supposed to entrust him to demons alone for at least several months?"

"I'll keep him safe, Abe. I promised you I would when he was born. This is for the best, no matter how hard it is now. He'll be welcome back at the academy whenever he's cleared to return, so at least he's not being expelled like his father."

"How is Adam?" Abe asked, ignoring his sister's quip about Roman. "Is he going to be okay? Evren said the last time he saw something like this, someone died. If Theo goes back to that school, is there going to be trouble? Should I keep encouraging Theo to try to get in touch with him or should we just leave the family alone and hope they don't try to get Theo expelled later?"

"He's had some...complications," Lucy answered slowly. "I'm legally not allowed to discuss them with you, but I can say that he's going to live. I'd give him some space personally, if only to avoid his mother. She argued for Theo's expulsion pretty heavily and it took Master Maricourt begging the king of Strangetown to make up some bullshit mission for her to get her to leave the school. From what I gather, she took Adam for a day, but returned him to the school with his father for now. If Theo can make use of this information somehow, great, but I wouldn't hold my breath for Edana to let him see Adam anywhere else."

"Lucy! I'm so glad you're here. Adriel and I were just catching up," Roman called out. Beside him, Adriel's mood instantly soured upon seeing Lucy.

"Hello, Mother," she sneered. "It seems like you're everywhere I go lately. Always sticking your human nose where it doesn't belong."

"Just making sure that you didn't fuck up the only thing your mother asked you to do lately," Lucy replied sweetly. "She can't count on you for much else."

"She'll get tired of you one day, just like her last wife or cheat on you like she did with my mother. I wouldn't count on growing old with her, hell, I don't even give you ten years."

Lucy gave Adriel a pitying look.

"Honey, no one gets tired of me, I get tired of them. Trust me, I'm going to be your stepmom for awhile."

"Maybe you should come say hi to Theo, and give him the news yourself," Abe suggested, physically steering his sister towards the stairs and away from an angry demon. "I'm sure you can explain it to him in a way he understands."

#arkhelios #roman bellamy #abe chun #lucy chun #arkhelios adventures #adriel diablo #sim: adrian siew #adrian siew #evren thorne #saturnia bellamy #fiolett thorne

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potential-fate · 7 months

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“Come dance with me!” Pelle tugged lightly on his sleeve in a gentle demand. Roman laughed lightly.

“Go, have fun.” Adrian waved him off, “We’ll still be here if you decide you hate it.”

His cousin leaned against him and nodded in solidarity. Roman turned back to Pelle, who was just shy of pouting, and nodded slightly.

“Okay, okay. I’ll come with you.” Pelle’s pout disappeared in favor of a wide grin, and he practically dragged Roman away.

#arkhelios #sims stories #sims 2 #sims 2 stories #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 #my posts #Arkh Ch5 #Roman Bellamy #Pelle Nykvist #Adrian Siew #Maura Siew

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potential-fate · 8 months

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Roman sent a pointed look at their other friends at the end of the bar. The redhead followed his gaze before understanding replaced his questioning look.

“Ah.” Roman nodded. Maura and Jun seemed to have found more interesting things to do than pay attention to their group, leaving Adrian to sit all but alone.

Pelle grinned, “You’re a better friend than I am. I am gonna go have fun.”

Roman waved him off. That was almost definitely not true. Pelle was probably the best of them. As nice a sentiment as it was, Roman was sure he was not a better friend than Pelle was. The only reason Roman could even say he had any friends at all was because this group had been so easily welcoming to him. Pelle, on the other hand, was friends with almost every single person he’d ever met. He was easy to get along with, and people seemed drawn to him like a magnet. Roman was certainly not a better friend than him.

Roman shook his head, trying to dispel the small frown that had made its way onto his lips at the thought. Instead of continuing to wallow, he slid off his bar stool and moved over one closer to the rest of the group. He grabbed Adrian’s attention instead, starting a conversation with the other man, instead of continuing on with his own thoughts.

#arkhelios #sims stories #sims 2 #sims 2 stories #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 #my posts #Arkh Ch5 #Roman Bellamy #Ashe Dallas #Pelle Nykvist #Maura Siew #Adrian Siew #Jun Seong-Min

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potential-fate · 8 months

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The club in Copperhead City was far nicer than their usual campus dive bar was. Still early in the evening, the floors were mostly clean, and the counters weren’t yet sticky. Roman wasn’t convinced that would continue to be the case once the club became more busy as the night wore on. It was, after all, still only 10:30 on a Saturday night in a club.

While he didn’t have much experience with nightlife, he knew, at least, that most people didn’t start going out to clubs until at least 9.

The rest of the group agreed to come earlier, and stay as long as they wished, simply because getting drinks at the bar was far easier when the club was still slow in the earlier hours. As it was, Roman had watched Ashe and his friends overtake almost the entire bar with just the 6 of them.

#arkhelios #sims stories #sims 2 #sims 2 stories #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 #my posts #Arkh Ch5 #Roman Bellamy #Ashe Dallas #pelle nykvist #Maura Siew #Adrian Siew #Jun Seong-Min #me: 👀

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potential-fate · 8 months

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“Pelle,” Ashe prodded the redhead in the ribs a couple times, “Pelle~!”

Pelle turned to face them and Ashe continued, “Back me up. A Ralph Lauren dress shirt is not casual.”

“Well… It’s not casual. But I’m not complaining,” Pelle sent an appraising look at Roman, then raised an eyebrow, grinning at Ashe, “Are you?”

“Well, no.” the blonde conceded. He pushed himself off the counter and grabbed his drink as the bartender handed them out, “It does look good on you, Ro. Your taste in clothing is better than your taste in drinks.”

“Are we really making fun of my drink too?” Roman glowered halfheartedly, “what, you agree with that random guy from earlier? Who said it was too girly when I ordered the first one?”

Ashe smirked in amusement, “no, I don’t care about that.”

#arkhelios #sims stories #sims 2 #sims 2 stories #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 #my posts #Arkh Ch5 #Roman Bellamy #Ashe Dallas #pelle nykvist #Maura Siew #Adrian Siew #Jun Seong-Min #I am 100% cackling about The fact that Roman's over dressed and someone else was underdressed in the last scene

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luverofralts · 2 months

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Arkhelios Adventures

"Ro. Ro, come on. You gotta wake up. Adrian's gonna be here in an hour. Come on, Saturnia's not going to take herself to school."

Roman grumbled something against Abe's shoulder that sounded like a protest and Abe had to laugh. After actually getting Abe Jr to bed at a decent time, the evening had taken an amorous turn, ultimately resulting in his husband snoring loudly into Abe's ear in the morning.

"No, Adrian can take her; I'm staying here. We're not moving today, I'm comfy," Roman whined. He nuzzled himself even further into Abe's neck, illiciting more laughter.

"Get up," Abe laughed, pushing his husband towards his side of the bed. "You're going to be late. Adrian can't cook to save his life, if you don't go, he's going to burn down the restaurant."

"That's what we have insurance for," Roman teased. "We'll be fine."

He tried distracting Abe with another kiss, earning himself a few more seconds in their warm and inviting bed, but Abe persisted.

"You're not burning the place down for the insurance money on my watch, Bellamy. You're worse than Theo, and he at least has the excuse of being a teenager. Come on, get up."

"I finished my muffin, Daddy. How are the omelets?"

"Getting there. Thanks for helping chop up the peppers. You did a great job."

Saturnia beamed with pride, happily taking her freshly baked breakfast to the table. She did do a decent job of cutting things up for her age, and Roman just knew that when she was Theo's age, she'd be eagerly helping at the restaurant without having to be begged like her brother.

"Breakfast smells good. My favourite bakers have been busy."

"We're out of pancake mix, so it's omelets this morning," Roman announced, sliding a plate to his husband. He slid a smaller portion towards his daughter, who loved baking, but didn't love eating eggs. "Try this much, Saturnia. It'll taste better because you helped make it yourself."

Saturnia wrinkled her nose at the plate, but began carefully poking the omelet obediently. Out of all of their children, Saturnia was easily the most reasonable. She was always willing to try things and was open to new ideas, unlike most of their children. The day Theo or Luci took their father's advice would be the day Roman died of shock.

"Hey, Bellamys! It smells good in here."

"Grab a plate, Adrian, I'm running late," Roman replied, his mouth full of food. "There's plenty there."

Adrian didn't have to be told twice. He'd already eaten breakfast, but he wasn't about to miss Roman's cooking. One of the greatest benefits of being married to Roman had been having access to his cooking all day, breakfast to dinner. The man had a gift.

"So, uh, hey, while I'm here, what were you thinking for your birthday this year?" Adrian asked. "Thirty is a big number. I mean, Abe and I are already old men, having earlier birthdays and all. Maybe for yours we should host a get together and celebrate all of ours at the same time."

"My mom won't come to a party or host it," Abe immediately replied. "I'm sure I could get the rest of my family to come to a free dinner though. Would, uh, your family attend, Adrian? Hypothetically of course."

"I'm sure Trent and Cindra will want to come," Adrian answered politely. They all knew the question hadn't been directed at his entire family, just the cousin currently wearing a crown. "I'm sure Her Majesty is far too busy to attend a birthday party for someone of my rank."

"I could make something for the party!" Saturnia exclaimed, cutting through the adults' tense conversation. "I can help make the cake too, like we did for Theo's birthday!"

"It sounds like a good plan, if we can pull it off in time," Roman said. "Thirty is a big milestone and a party would be fun. You do only turn thirty once. What do you think, Abe?"

"I'm all for it. Just let me know what needs to be done, and I can make some calls during Abe's nap."

"Then it's settled. Our three in one thirtieth birthday party will be the next big social event in Arkhelios. Don't tell Wanda, or she'll try to step in and plan it for us."

Abe scoffed at the thought.

"You mean, she'll have her assistant plan it and host it at her giant mansion without asking us if that's even what we want," he said.

"That place is huge, she'd get my vote to host," Roman countered. "No need to clean up our place and lock the valuables away from your siblings. We just arrive, party and leave."

"It's a thought," Adrian conceded before Abe could protest Wanda's involvement. "Roman, we need to leave in the next ten minutes. There's a delivery of shellfish arriving this morning. There will be plenty of time to plan our shindig later."

"Have a good day with the baby," Roman said, catching Abe in another kiss before heading to the door. "I'll miss you."

Adrian raised his eyebrow at Abe as he walked by with a knowing smirk.

"Someone's in a good mood today," he snickered. "Come on, Saturnia, let's get ready to teleport while your dads say goodbye. I have a feeling that our presence here isn't going to speed things up."

Abe grabbed his husband again, pulling Roman in for another passionate kiss as Adrian walked down the stairs.

"If you make it back on time, I'll have dinner ready," Abe whispered into Roman's ear. "I can leave the kids with my mom for a few hours once they're fed and we can pick up where we left off this morning."

Despite his best efforts, Roman blushed at the idea, something Adrian would probably tease him about if he saw.

"I'd like that," he replied sincerely. "I don't say this often enough, but you make me happy, Abe. Really happy. Remember when we first found out about Theo and we had all those dreams about our future together?"

"The ones where you were going to make pancakes for me every day while Theo was the perfect, quiet baby?" Abe laughed. "We were so stupid back then, I can't even imagine what my mother really thought about our ideas."

"Nothing good, I know that much. Probably what we would think if Theo was pregnant. But seriously, Abe. My therapist keeps telling me to share my feelings with you, so you feel secure that nothing...adulterous will happen again. You're everything to me. I mean that."

"Ah, well, I'm not perfect either, you have to remember that," Abe replied. "Stop beating yourself up about the past. College was pretty rough for me, and I hurt you too. The important thing is that we found our way back to each other. That and all the mandated therapy Maura ordered after the, uh, fallout. I'm sure she had an agenda with it, but it probably saved our marriage."

"Yeah, uh, about our marriage, I had something that I wanted to ask you about. Maybe we could talk after our alone time tonight?"

"Well, that's ominous. You can't just leave me with that all day. 'I love you Abe' and 'let's talk about our marriage'?

"Well, yeah, when you put it that way. I just...it's embarrassing."

"Too embarrassing to talk to me about? You can tell me anything, Ro."

Roman took a deep breath and just blurted what was on his mind.

"Ithinkweshouldgetremarriedbydemons."

"What?"

"I think we should get remarried by demons," Roman repeated, more confident in his words now that they'd been uttered and Abe didn't suddenly run away like he feared. "I miss feeling connected to you. What we had before was special, and even when we were being forced to get demonically married by the Sovereign, I was kinda excited for it. I know it always freaked you out though, but I've been thinking about it for awhile now and I think it's what I want."

"Demonic marriage?" Abe repeated. "Theo was just a kid when we last discussed it. He's certainly improved with his magic since then, if you still wanted him to perform the ceremony."

Roman's face lit up with excitement when Abe didn't immediately shut him down.

"Really? You think it's a good idea?"

"Honestly, I'm surprised that you never pushed back against the Sovereign when she said it wasn't necessary," Abe replied. "I mean, I was a little relieved that our six year old wouldn't be performing complex blood magic on us, but the idea was nice. To feel what you feel again, knowing how much you loved me, it was a little overwhelming at first, but after everything we've been through, and all the issues that we've dealt with, I think I'd like to experience that level of connection with you. We could even have our own ceremony the way we want it, not like the one that the Twikkii Island royal family dictated."

"I could make a proper cake this time!" Roman said eagerly. "Well, if you have time today, contact your sister and see what we need to get started, and we can talk to Theo when he's home this weekend."

"Roman! Time's wasting! We have to go!"

Roman dragged his husband out to the front porch to meet up with Adrian and Saturnia.

"I'm so happy that you're open to this," Roman exclaimed, kissing Abe once more while Adrian tapped his watch in the yard. "We can start over with a clean slate."

Abe smiled.

"Yeah, I really think that-"

Abe paused, unable to take his eyes off the two men walking past their house.

"Ah, Zane, buddy, you've got to let that sandwich go. You can't eat that much cheese all at once, it's not natural."

Roman momentarily peeled himself away from his husband to stare at the men walking by.

"That man looks so much like Zane Hydes. It's uncanny."

"If he was thirty when he died. He's way too old, Zane was just a teenager. It's weird, though. Really weird. Maybe he's Zane's biological brother or cousin. Wanda always says that their family tree is a mystery that she doesn't want to solve."

"I can't imagine why, with her mother."

"Look, why don't we try that fancy grocery store downtown? They have all kinds of cheese there. Just try to stick to the budget, you know how much funding we get here."

"Like a nice Brie?"

"Ha, keep dreaming. Maybe for Winterfest."

Roman and Abe stared as the two men made their way down the street.

"Do you think we should follow up on this?" Abe asked wearily.

"Nope. Not a chance in hell. If you want to tell Wanda her dead brother's doppelganger is walking around town, that's your own problem."

"Yeah, no. I'm just going to pretend this never happened."

#sims 2 #arkhelios #roman bellamy #abe chun #arkhelios adventures #zane hydes #sim: adrian siew #adrian siew #saturnia bellamy #sim: saturnia bellamy #sim spice

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potential-fate · 7 months

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Roman and Adrian chatted pleasantly, while the others spent their time on the dance floor, or in Maura and Jun’s case, wrapped up in each other. Twenty minutes later, he and Adrian had moved from sitting at the bar, as other patrons felt the need to shove up to get drinks of their own, to the two of them leaning against a wall close by to chat instead. Roman wasn’t sure if he’d stayed to keep Adrian company while his cousin ignored the rest of them, or because he was, frankly, afraid to make a fool of himself. Roman had been taught how to dance as a child, but not like that. Nothing Roman knew how to do really fit the club music playing behind them, and he wasn’t really sure if the knowledge he had would translate well.

It was easier to avoid it than find out the hard way. At least for now. But that did make him curious as to his companion’s choice to not join in.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to go dance.” he voiced his thoughts out loud almost immediately.

Adrian chuckled quietly, “Sometimes I do.”

“Not tonight though?” “I think they’re having enough fun for all of us.” Adrian’s laugh was infectious, and Roman caught himself laughing along when he looked back at the two men who’d disappeared onto the floor behind them. Pelle and Ashe were dancing together again, though both had wandered off with other partners a few times in the last half hour while they were out there. It was interesting to watch. Even from here, he could tell that Ashe preferred dancing alone, or with Pelle. Sometimes other friends who he clearly recognized when they wandered up to grab his attention. Pelle on the other hand was happy to dance with anyone who was brave enough to ask. And Roman figured they’d have to be brave in order to get close enough to Pelle to actually request a dance. It wasn’t that the redhead was bad at dancing, but he was certainly… spirited.

#arkhelios #sims stories #sims 2 #sims 2 stories #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 #my posts #Arkh Ch5 #Roman Bellamy #Adrian Siew #what? story posts????#sorry guys #I've been preoccupied with non sims things

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luverofralts · 2 months

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Arkhelios Adventures

"Sorry I had to pull you away from your afternoon off. I've never received a royal summons before. You're the only one I could think of calling."

Roman eyed the imposing castle and tried to imagine any reason Claudia would have for summoning him. She'd texted him and shown up unannounced over the years without serving him a royal summons before. What could possibly be so important?

"No problem at all," Adrian assured his ex-husband. "It's what I spent my whole life studying. Who needs an afternoon to themself anyway?"

"Well, we can reschedule. I feel bad for always taking so much of your time. You were the only person I could think of aside from...never mind."

Ulyssa's name died on his lips before he could finish his thought. He was well practiced at catching himself before he spoke about her. Most days it wasn't hard. On a day like today, when he needed her political insight, Roman found himself missing their friendship.

"This is weird, right? I'm not just worrying for nothing? She's never done this before. Did Theo do something at school? I haven't been to Pleasantview outside of the kids' schools in ages."

"Given your past, it does seem a bit weird," Adrian agreed. "Maybe she wants to talk about franchising our business. That's all I can think of. Aside from...Princess Georgiana."

Adrian lowered his eyes, unwilling to see the stab of pain on Roman's face whenever his daughter was mentioned. Ever since Roman had met his daughter, the pain had lessened, but it would always be there. Along with the shame he felt for having an affair and nearly destroying his marriage.

"I don't think that Maura would let Claudia know about Georgiana," Roman said quietly. "That would mean admitting that it happened."

"There's very little the queen of Pleasantview doesn't know, Roman. My parents always said to treat that monarch like they knew your darkest secrets, because odds were that they already did. There are levels of secrecy and orders of deviant devotees under the Pleasantview throne. Don't underestimate Claudia because of your past. She is the most powerful person in the world, no contest."

"She's a nice person with the world's most sickeningly in love parents," Roman said, waving his hand dismissively. "It's not in her character. Maybe her ancestors were dangerous, but I know Claudia. She's not like that."

"That remains to be seen," Adrian murmured to himself. Roman was already halfway up the stairs when he spoke. There would be no way to convince him to be on his guard.

"Good morning, Your Majesty."

Both Roman and Adrian bowed deeply in front of the queen. Her throne room was impressive, filled with imposing statues and gold trim. This room alone must have cost a small fortune. None of it reflected the woman Roman thought he knew.

"Duke Siew, Mr. Bellamy. We've been expecting you." Claudia's voice was cold and distant, something that Roman hadn't been expecting. Those intense gold eyes of hers drilled into his mind layer by layer until he felt nothing but exposed. Whoever this woman was on the throne, Roman had never met her before.

"Though I only recall summoning Mr. Bellamy," the queen continued. "I suppose he is entitled to counsel. History has proven that he does not make good choices while on his own."

Roman balked at Claudia's words while Adrian kept a straight face. Roman clearly thought that he knew Claudia Goldman, but they weren't speaking to Claudia Goldman. This was the queen of Pleasantview before them, and like every noble raised in Twikkii Island, Adrian was on the defensive, desperate not to imperil his country and family by getting in the monarch of Pleasantview's way.

"Thank you for allowing me here," Adrian said quickly, before Roman could open his mouth. "It is an honour to meet with you."

Roman looked like he was about to object, but caught the glare Adrian was giving him and thought better of it.

"It is. I'm glad to extend that honour to you, Duke Siew. You may need to remind your companion of that fact. He seems to not know his place here."

"My place?"

The words slipped out before Roman could stop himself, earning a withering glare from the queen.

"I'm sorry, was there any confusion about who is in charge here? You are a guest here, Mr. Bellamy because I will it so. There is a matter that I need to discuss with you."

Adrian nodded solemnly and beside him, Roman did the same.

"Yes, Your Majesty. We'd be honoured to discuss whatever you wish," Adrian replied. Roman nodded.

"Now, the matter at hand is somewhat...personal," Claudia continued. Her confident stare wavered for a brief moment as she chose her next words. "It involves Mr. Bellamy and my's prior relationship...or rather our brief experiment."

For the first time, Claudia faltered. Her eyes fell, unable to look at Roman while she tried to downplay their previous connection. Adrian made sure to note this stumble so he had an advantage if he needed to make a quick retreat from the castle. The queen did look like she had an attachment to Roman when her guard was down, which would come in handy if he and Adrian had to make a quick retreat back home.

"I always thought that we would be having this conversation years from now," the queen continued. "When more time had passed at least. When the crown princess was older and possessed a more mature overlook. But no matter, we're here now."

Another pause lingered in the room. Beside the queen, her fiancée cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Your Majesty, perhaps it's better just to rip the bandaid off," Miruna suggested. "It would save us all time. We do have that appointment in an hour that cannot be missed."

Miruna's words were a lie meant to leave their visitors feeling small and unimportant. It was just one strategy that had been proposed to crush any ideas Roman might have about approaching Victoriana in the future. The queen's secretive demonic councilors had several suggestions to break Roman's spirit enough to drive him away from Pleasantview, though most of them were also intrigued by the thought of pushing him too far. A low level demon hybrid launching an attack on the queen out of rage was not only entertaining, it would also gauge Claudia's ability to defend her throne. The ruler of Pleasantview could never lower their guard after all.

Claudia looked at Roman's anxious face and was immediately pulled back into their short lived romance, if they could even call it that. They'd held each other on the Twikkii Island beach and dreamed together about the future what seemed like an eternity ago. He'd sobbed against her shoulder about being cheated on and left with an infant to raise; she poured out her many concerns and fears about ascending to the throne.

It really wasn't the romance Claudia had implied to her daughter. Nothing she'd felt for Roman matched any of the feelings she felt for Miruna. They had simply been there for each other during a stressful period of their lives, giving each other physical comfort. The lie was important to maintain for her daughter. No child wanted to hear that her parents had conceived her while her mother listened endlessly to her father's sobs over Abe Helios while trying to cram thousands of years of Pleasantview history into her brain. Had she dialed Roman's number once the pregnancy test was positive? Of course. She'd never completed the call though. She never would. He didn't love her and she didn't love him. None of the joy and passion and warmth her parents had for each other seemed possible with Roman. His heart would always belong to Abe and hers she had sworn to Pleasantview.

"My father always said that you had the right to know all these years, and maybe it was a good thing that he never ruled Pleasantview," Claudia said quietly, her strong facade fading for the briefest of moments. "My mother adored her grandmother, the former queen of Strangetown, and inherited her keen political instincts. There was too much uncertainty, too much death in Arkhelios. The reapers there told horror stories about...."

The queen trailed off before catching herself. Beside her, Miruna nodded her head slightly in a show of solidarity. This was going off course quickly. Too much of Claudia was seeping out and not enough of Pleasantview's monarch. Just say the words and this uncomfortable situation can end.

"Roman Bellamy, the crown princess is your genetic offspring. Your genetic donation will shape the future of Pleasantview, and our nation thanks you for it. The princess has been informed of this and politely requests that your contact be limited in the future. Your demonic heritage will help her rule our people fairly."

"Thank you for arriving on time and have a pleasant trip back to Arkhelios," Miruna said cheerfully, looking proudly at her fiancée. "Our office is always available for inquiries, just speak with reception. You are dismissed."

A silence fell over the room as the two men processed the revealed information. Roman looked like he was about to throw up, while Adrian's brain struggled to sort this news into anything recognizable.

"The crown princess is Roman's daughter?" he said finally, looking for any sign that this was just a cruel prank.

"He's her genetic donor," Claudia replied. "She is my daughter and the future of this nation. Mr. Bellamy does not have a role in her life. He is merely a citizen of a foreign land with no legal rights in my nation."

Roman remained eerily silent beside his ex-husband. Adrian had never seen him this quiet before in all their time together. For his own part, Adrian had been blindsided by this revelation; he could only imagine what Roman must be feeling.

"Roman? Are you okay?" Adrian whispered, stroking Roman's back worriedly. "Say something. Say anything."

Roman's eyes raised slightly, daring to look at the mother of his child for mere seconds before turning away. He still remained silent.

"Mr. Bellamy, Duke Siew, thank you for coming today," Claudia announced, gesturing for her guards to be at the ready to remove her guests. "I look forward to our next meeting. Have a safe journey home."

The two men rose to their feet and Adrian was fairly certain that he'd bowed and followed the protocol that had been drilled into him from birth. It certainly wasn't anything he could perform consciously at this moment.

He grabbed Roman's hand and escorted him out of the throne room; he remembered that much at least. Roman had shuffled beside him wordlessly. Adrian's head was swimming with questions and reeling from shock, but he couldn't voice any of that while Roman was in this state. Needless to say, his conversation with Evren was going to be interesting tonight.

Roman made it down the last steps into the hallway before collapsing on the floor, still wordlessly staring at empty space. His shoulders shook as he wept, but still no sound emerged.

"Roman? Roman do you need help? Are you feeling okay? Talk to me, let me help."

Adrian's words did nothing to comfort Roman or inspire him to move. He still sat there on the floor, silently weeping outside the entrance to the throne room.

"Hey, hey. It'll be okay, we'll get through this," Adrian said, holding his ex-husband in his arms as he sobbed.

Adrian had suspected that something big was going to be revealed with this summons, but never anything like this. It was unprecedented in Pleasantview history as far as Adrian remembered. Maybe during the civil war where Princess Georgiana's paternity changed the succession of the Pleasantview throne, but even then, both of her parents knew the truth. One of them never tried to hide her paternity from the other. King Mordred hid the paternity of his youngest daughter after his husband's affair, but she had been so far down the line of succession, her paternity had only been revealed a century later by a routine maintenance of the genetic library of Crystal Cove. For a monarch to hide her heir's paternity from both her subjects and the heir's father, well, Adrian couldn't think of a historical example.

"At least she told us. We could have spent our whole lives not knowing," Adrian continued, which only made Roman sob harder. "We can try to work with this. Maybe she wants to meet with you and you could have a relationship with her. It's certainly possible."

"If that were true, Claudia wouldn't have told us like this. She wasn't even there. If she wanted to see me, she would have been there. Adrian, it's happening again. The Crown is taking away my daughter, just like with Georgiana. I'll never have a relationship with either of them."

"This isn't the same as Georgiana," Adrian said soothingly, despite doubting his own words. "This wasn't an affair, you both were single at the time. Hell, it was before you even met me. You were both young and on different paths. It sounds like her parents told her to do this, seconded by whatever sinister shadows whisper to the throne. She didn't do this to hurt you; she's not Maura."

"H-how many more kids do I have that I have no knowledge of? How many more lies have I been told?"

"Well, how many other people have you slept with? Especially rich or royal people?" Adrian asked. His words only made the tears flow harder.

"You're really going to slut shame me now?" Roman sobbed. "I was young, I don't know. Abe cheated on me and dumped me, and I was angry. No other royals- aside from you anyway. I had a kid to take care of, my college experience was rather unconventional."

"Hey, I was in college too, I get it. You weren't my first either, and there were a few others that I 'dated'. I only wanted to be sure that this was the last surprise to pop up in your life. We've made progress with Georgiana, we can make progress with Victoriana. This isn't the end. Plus, you have a beautiful, intelligent daughter that you would otherwise know nothing about. This is a hard thing to hear now, but it won't always be. Who knows how the future will go?"

"Why didn't she just tell me?" Roman groaned, leaning further into Adrian's arms for comfort. "We were friends. She could have told me. Her parents couldn't stop her from telling me, she's the queen of the largest country in the damn world!"

"She slipped up, remember?"

"No, nothing I've heard today makes sense. Everything has been a lie."

"She mentioned the reaper team in Arkhelios scaring her parents about something in Arkhelios," Adrian said softly. "What was happening in your life when you were with Claudia? I'd bet anything that they were talking about Theo almost dying after he was born and-"

"And my mother. Of course, is there any part of my life that she hasn't ruined?" Roman groaned, pulling away from Adrian to massage his now throbbing temples. "If Theo was pregnant with the child of a half demon who was using their shared bloodline to gain power, I'd hide him too."

"I would do the same," Adrian replied gently. "Any parent would. It sounds like the Goldmans were scared of losing their daughter and granddaughter, just like you almost lost me and the girls to your mother. We can work with this, this is good news. They didn't hide Victoriana because they hated you, they wanted to protect her. Now that your mother's gone, we can appeal to them. From what I hear, her parents are incredibly family oriented, just like Claudia is. We can use that. We won't win any custody battles, but maybe we can get some visitation rights. Maybe we could set up a call schedule or email correspondence to start out. This isn't Maura we're fighting. We'll figure this out."

"Do you think my mother could sense her in the end?" Roman asked, an all too familiar horror enveloping his thoughts. "She wanted Theo, but she still damaged Luci and Saturnia somehow. Neither of them have any supernatural abilities because of her. If I had been able to kill her, they might be as powerful as Theo or Rien. She took from them something precious. Did she hurt Victoriana too? Am I to blame for putting her in danger without even knowing it?"

"Hey, hey, don't even think about it," Adrian said. "Your mom's not coming back, and Victoriana looks healthy. We don't have to worry about her. Maybe she just didn't inherit as much from your family as Theo or Rien did. If we just let things settle down for a while, I know we can negotiate with Claudia. Things will work out."

"Adrian?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you call Abe? I...I want him here, but I don't... I don't want to tell him what happened. I...I can't. W-what if he's triggered by this into reliving the affair? I don't think he sees his therapist anymore like I do, but...what if...."

Roman trailed off, unable to even complete his thought. In an instant, Adrian's arms were wrapped around him, holding him tightly.

"Of course I can get him and of course he'll understand. You don't need to feel guilty about this, Roman. It happened when you were single, a long time ago. Abe loves you, he'll understand."

In an instant, Adrian disappeared, leaving Roman alone outside the palace doors. There was no way that Roman wanted to go home to the place he and Abe had fought over his infidelity. Not with news like this. No matter what Adrian said, Roman couldn't shake the deep feeling of self-loathing he felt for himself. He had been too wild as a teen. He'd been too careless about birth control. His family had scared away any chance of a connection to his daughter. He would have gotten Claudia killed just as easily as he had Adrian. There was something wrong, something unlovable about him that his parents had seen. They hadn't loved him because he didn't deserve it. Victoriana was probably better off without him in her life.

"Roman! I'm here! Adrian told me everything. I'm right here for you."

"Abe? You're not mad?"

Abe shook his head incredulously and took Roman into his arms.

"Of course I'm not mad," he said. "Why would I be mad? You were just as blindsided by this as I was. I love you, Roman. We'll get through this together. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"Who's watching the kids?"

Answering Abe's question was the last thing Roman wanted to do. How did he feel? He didn't. There was a gaping hole in his chest that was burning him from the inside out and he could hardly breathe. Crafting that feeling into words didn't seem possible.

"Adrian's with them. He teleported me here and then went back. When you're ready to teleport us back, he'll be waiting, probably with Evren. We'll all sort this out at whatever pace you want."

"Abe, I was never serious about Claudia, I promise. I was just trying to get back at you and you don't have to worry about me running back to her or anything, I never want to be with anyone else and-"

Abe silenced his husband with a gentle kiss.

"Ro, I know you're not about to run off with the queen of Pleasantview. We've rebuilt a lot of trust these past few years and I know you. You're having a meltdown and hating yourself, not trying to hide a love affair with a woman you see maybe once every few years in passing. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Then let's go home and make you some tea. I'm sure Evren has one of his concoctions that will help calm you down. Having a warlock in the family certainly helps sometimes. Theo may have him beat for pure power, but damn does that man know how to brew a potion."

Roman smiled slightly, until he thought about Abe's words.

"What are we going to tell Theo?" he groaned, his despair catching up to him once more. "He's going to hate me. How do I tell any of the kids? Theo might run into Victoriana at a school event. What if they hate each other? What if-"

"Magic tea now, worrying about the kids after," Abe insisted. "I'm sure Evren or Adrian will have an idea. Hell, even Lucy might have an idea or two. In the very unlikely event that Theo or the girls are angry, Aunt Lucy can set them straight. She knows a thing or two about hiding parentage from her kids and she doesn't worry about it."

"Your sister is a sociopath," Roman replied, the hint of a smile starting. Abe smiled back at him.

"A sociopath who cares about you. Give her an afternoon, she'll have Claudia's monarchy in ruins."

"Thanks, Abe. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"And you'll never have to know. I'm not going anywhere. Let's go home."

#Arkhelios #arkhelios adventures #roman bellamy #sim: adrian siew #adrian siew #claudia goldman #miruna maricourt

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