Collapsed World [MxM, Non-Con, Mpreg]

Part 30 [Julius]

Julius had to see things in black and white when it came to the salvation of his people, any grey area could give the Corvines the push they needed to completely dominate the planet, or completely destroy it, which seemed like their idea of the next best outcome for the occupation of the Avaen world. It was no surprise that they were a race of scavengers that were incapable of terraforming a home of their own. It was obvious that they had little knowledge, or interest, in cultivating anything other than death and destruction. They had already burned and sucked dry most of the moon's valuable resources to the point that it seemed like they weren't even actually interested in creating a home for themselves and simply wanted the rest of the universe to suffer the same loses that they had with the catastrophic disaster that wiped out their own home world, a cancer to everything that they came in contact with and it was Julius' life devotions to eradicate said cancer from his world and every other world that felt its infectious influence.

The ideal that Julius held onto that those that were not with him had to be against him was not something that actually came natural to him. His ability to see when others were lying was not an easy thing to describe, like trying to explain the high and low notes of music to someone that couldn't hear. Like the ability to hear, it was always with him, something that he couldn't just turn off or on, sometimes a helpful asset and at others a harmful source of unnecessary paranoia.

The way that he differentiated honesty from the dishonest could be best described as colorful auras that people carried around that only Julius, or others with similar abilities, were capable of actually 'seeing'. At the bottom of the scale were auras of black and red, usually seen on those who were professional liars, con-artists, and those with such deep trust issues that they couldn't hardly remember how to be honest. A step above those colors were the shades of dark blues or dark greens, blues were those that deceived through blatantly leaving out important information, and greens meant that the truth was being warped for personal gain of some sort. He could also see lighter shades of blues and greens in people that were dishonest in the same ways, but usually weren't completely aware that they were even doing so, or didn't have so much personal gain or malicious intentions with their dishonesty. Most of the people that Julius trusted and depended on had auras that were grey with the occasional wisp of blue. Honesty was a very important trait for Julius, and he liked to keep honest company, though there was far less of it in this era of hardship.

Though even before the Corvines came down from the sky, greys were the most common, and it was a rare thing to see or know anyone who was so completely truthful with nothing to hide to have the brightest of auras, which Julius saw as a almost translucent yellow light. Iris had been one of those few, giving off such a light that Julius could have sat for days at a time just looking into the radiance. However the world was no longer a place for gentle and simple people like Iris, and Julius knew very well that his own kind were also quite capable of buckling under the pressures of captivity and torment, leading them down a dark path of betrayal and misguided Corvine loyalty that hurt the cause of people like Julius. Dealing with those that didn't have the mental capacity to remain loyal to their own people in the face of hardships was perhaps the hardest thing for someone like Julius, who held the Avaen race up on such a high pedestal. They were a danger to the world that he wanted to rebuild because even if he succeeded in extracting Corvine rule, those who no longer trusted other Avaens, or had grown accustomed to or even comfortable with their Corvine masters would never allow the rest of them to live in peace without remembering the dark times, or worse, going so far as to attempt to bring those times back.

Blue eyes rose to meet Taj's gaze when he entered the room. As the other started off talking about Milo, there were obvious fluctuations in whatever the intentions were of his spoken words, and perhaps if Taj had continued speaking, he might just have spoken himself right back onto Julius' bad side, but for the time being, he kept his thoughts to himself and instead listened to the rest of what Taj had to say about his mother and his situation. Of course he believed what Taj said about his mother, and Taj was wrong if he thought that Julius didn't care about individuals, because they were the heart of the movement, individuals were who Julius counted on, saving mothers, lovers, friends, and those that were dear to the people that served him was what fueled the flames of resistance. Everyone had someone that they wanted to save or protect, it was those individual links that gave them strength to become a whole.

Julius let out a sigh and reached out to run his fingers through the smaller male's hair. "You have so much to learn, my child." Even though there were many things about Taj that made it hard for Julius to trust him, he could still see that he had a good heart, he didn't need any abilities to see that clearly, and he indeed thought of Taj as one of his own children, someone that Julius wanted to teach and guide along his path, he just hoped that any youthful mistakes made on Taj's part wouldn't be paid for by an entire race.

As for the matter of the poisoning, Julius was not so rash as to blatantly blame Taj without any evidence, though he had his suspicions about the matter. Regardless, he had a plan that might shed some light on the situation, at least for him anyway. It seemed very unlikely that any hard evidence would surface that would indite anyone in the case, but really that wasn't Julius main goal. He only needed to be sure of himself and his own conclusions, because in a matter like this, it was better that these things be dealt with quietly, as to not make the overall moral of his people suffer with undue thoughts of treason and internal betrayal.

"Taj, I want you to conduct your own quiet investigation into the matter with Milo. In a situation like this, there is no way to know who I can trust, even the internal investigators can't be overlooked. Report your findings directly to me. I'm counting on you. And as for your mother... I have been known to order special missions for the extraction of Avaens whose lives are in danger... if I never helped those that I could to get their loved ones back, no one would follow me. If there is something that I can do help, all you have to do is ask."