One thing that needs to be known about Dew, is the fact that he's basically nocturnal.

Dew likes to draw. Art is essentially his entire life, outside of Spikes and Bandy's. He's not sure why, but his mind always feels the most creative at night. Therefore, he spends most of his nights awake and drawing, falling asleep somewhere around 5 AM.

That said, he tends to sleep all day as well. He works night shift, anyway, so he typically doesn't even wake up until 4 (or 5, on the days he's late) in the afternoon.

That's why, when his doorbell rings at 8:00 AM, and Dew is forced to answer his door running on three hours of sleep, he probably looks less than appealing.

It's Captain Lux. Even though the man is unbelievably interesting, Dew still feels rage.

"What the fuck is so goddamn important that you're waking me up at 8:00 AM on a Friday?" Is how Dew greets the military captain.

The Captain maintains his upright posture, eyes landing on Dew, who is in nothing but sweatpants and a t-shirt with a blanket over him, strategically covering his arms. His hair is an absolute mess, circles under his eyes, and Spikes is attempting to get outside. Dew has had to move the cat with his foot at least twice already.

"I'm here to follow up on the discussion from yesterday. The king has requested we begin our search for the origin as soon as possible."

The origin. Right. Okay. Dew did not look at a single file the king gave him. Oops? Sorry, he got an idea for a drawing, then Spikes wanted to play with the laser, then he had to go get dinner... he lost track of time, okay?

"Okay, whatever, but next time come later. I got shit to do." More like Dew needs far more rest than he's had if he's expected to work. Oh god, and to use his abnormality.

Should he even be talking to this guy like this? Would it be insubordination to tell this captain guy to fuck off? The title 'Captain' is a bit scary, plus they are supposed to be working together, so maybe Dew should be nicer?

Nah. This guy woke him up. Fuck him.

Dew turns around, leaving the door open so that the captain can follow him inside.

Dew leads the man into his kitchen, dropping by his room to slip on his compression sleeves. He thinks about asking the guy if he wants a refreshment, but decides against it. Captain Lux is currently on Dew's bad side.

The files are still on the table, where Dew left them untouched the night before. Captain Lux glances at them, then back at Dew. "Did you look through them?"

"Duh," Dew replies, even though he didn't.

The Captain examines him for a moment longer, before finally taking a seat and opening up one of the files. He begins to look through a few of the papers, while Dew walks over to his coffee machine and starts to make a cup, anyway.

The manners that the maids taught him growing up are very unhappy, so Dew internally groans before giving in, "do you want some coffee?"

"No thanks."

What? Who doesn't want coffee at 8 in the morning?

Dew leans against his counter, waiting for the coffee to brew. Finally, he asks, "what's your name, anyway?"

"Captain Lux."

Dew rolls his eyes. Yeah, no shit. "I mean your first name."

The man pauses, staring at Dew for a moment, who just raises his eyebrows. Probably realizing that Dew could just look it up if he didn't answer, the captain responds;

"Rowan."

Huh. Rowan. Dew doesn't think he's ever met anyone named that before.

Rowan Lux.

"Oh. Does anyone call you Annie?"

"No."

"Can I-"

"You may call me Captain Lux."

Dew rolls his eyes. This guy is really lucky that Dew's abnormality doesn't work on him, because if not then he'd be unbelievably boring. Honestly, what was Dew even expecting here? Aren't military people supposed to be dull to talk to?

This might be a bit more difficult than Dew thought.

Once the coffee is finished, Dew makes his way back over to the table. He takes a seat across from Captain Lux, setting his coffee mug in front of him. It says '#1 Dad' on it, some kids had given it to Dew when he was a teenager as a prank, since Dew's father isn't in the picture. Joke's on them, he got a free mug.

"What if I call you Captain Rowan?" Sorry, Dew likes his name! Why should Dew even have to call him by his title? Not like Dew's ever been in the military.

The Captain replies, "will you let it go if I say yes?"

Dew smiles, which is quite an accomplishment this early. "Sure."

"Then yes."

Dew hums, content with that answer. Finally, Captain Rowan slides a paper over to him. A closer look at it reveals that it's a printed letter.

King Marley of the Westhem, I congratulate you on your new title. I'm sorry that I was unable to make it to your coronation. I wish that this letter was arriving to you under better circumstances, but I regret to inform you that a war has officially began between Avia and Osiphia.

It is something that we were expecting for a while, but that still doesn't make it any easier. A fourth of my southern territory militia have been wiped out and, once again, I request the assistance of the Westhem. I also request that you find the Origin as soon as possible, because that would greatly aid in this conflict ending as soon as possible. Thank you.

Emperor Theodoric N. K.

After Dew spends a considerable amount of time reading it, he glances up. "I don't understand a single thing on this paper."

"You would if you looked through the files."

Dew rolls his eyes, falling back in his seat while glaring at the Captain. "Fine! I didn't. What does this mean?"

Captain Rowan folds his arms on top of the papers, and responds.

"The kingdom of Osiphia resides underground, and they are basically sick of living down there. They're looking for somewhere to move, so they're trying to take Avia—the Empire in the sky—by force. There is a probability that the person that caused the superpowers in the first place is alive and in the Westhem. King Marley believes they are the key to regaining peace. We're hiring you to help find this person."

Dew starts to clean under his nails with his other nails, thinking about what Rowan just said. Find this person. Wait. "Are we sure it's a person?"

Rowan's eyes flash over to Dew, studying the empath for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Dew sits up, resting his elbow on the table and his head in his hand. "Whoever it was that caused all the superpowers, are we sure it was a human? It could have been an animal, or a bug, or something like that."

Rowan leans back a bit. "The king says that it's a human. So that's what it is."

Dew frowns. Really, this guy is only basing it off of what the king says? What if King Marley is wrong, ever think about that?

"We need to talk about what happened when the abnormalities appeared."

Dew sips his coffee, before nodding and motioning for the guy to go on.

"There are many theories out there, but only one is correct: the Energy Theory." Rowan begins.

Obviously Dew is being let in on some serious government secrets here, but he's still kind of let down. He was really hoping for it to be the Experiment Theory, where a mad scientist created abnormalities in his lab. It's totally unlikely and really dramatic, but Dew thought it sounded pretty neat. Guess it's kind of cool to know for sure, though.

"Basically, something involving a person with an extended life span happened almost two centuries ago in the Easthem that resulted in a massive energy output, which created abnormalities."

Oh, Dew didn't even realize that. If this person is still around today, then that means they've been alive at least roughly 200 years. How is that even possible? Unless they have some sort of aging abnormality? But Dew's never heard of that before. There's no way this is a person, it would have to be an animal with a larger lifespan. Humans can't live that long! It's impossible!

Unless...

"Oh, is it a vampire?"

Rowan purses his lips. "Vampires don't exist."

"What about werewolves?"

"No."

"Well it's not a human! Humans can't live that long. Oh! You seem to have all the answers, are mythical creatures real? What about aliens? That's somewhere to start."

Rowan goes silent, and that gets Dew's attention. Dew leans forward, and he's aware that he's sort of in the Captain's space, but he doesn't really care as long as Rowan doesn't do anything about it. "Which creatures are real, Captain?"

Captain Rowan suddenly closes the file, putting all the papers inside. "I think that's enough for today."

Dew frowns, before rolling his eyes. Leave it to the boring military guy to close everything up when Dew actually starts having fun. Unlucky.

"I'll be back tomorrow. Look through the files."

That gets Dew's attention, and not the good kind. He'll be back tomorrow? What? Is this new job going to happen every day? At 8:00 AM? No, there's no way. Dew won't survive like that.

"How about you come back the day after tomorrow? I'm gonna be... Uh, busy."

Rowan stands up, looking Dew up and down. "I'll be back tomorrow, and I'd recommend you be here. This is time sensitive."

Dew rolls his eyes, standing up from his chair to follow the captain as he begins to head out. "You could at least answer my question!" Dew calls after him.

Rowan finally reaches the door, glancing behind himself at Dew. He seems to seriously contemplate it, but finally decides on, "I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Price."

Dew scrunches his nose up as the door closes behind him. Ew. Mr. Price? Yeah, they're gonna have to work on that. This is Dew's new objective, get on a first name basis with the Captain. It's gonna be totally stupid, working with the man, if he has to be professional all the time.

A glance at the clock reveals that it's only 8:30. Really? So Rowan is just gonna burst in here, get on Dew's last nerve for thirty minutes, and leave just when things are about to get interesting? How stupid is that?

Dew rolls his eyes, finding Spikes laying on his couch. Even despite the stupid coffee, Dew is still unbelievably tired.

So he goes back to bed.

-

Dew has decided: there's something fishy about Rowan Lux.

For one, the guy is ethereally attractive, which says a lot. It's not particularly important, either, but it stands out. It's weird.

This brings us to two. He is strangely young for someone that has such a high military ranking. It makes absolutely no sense. The guy has to be about twenty five at most, and he's already the Executive of Defense? It just doesn't add up.

Not to mention, he wears sunglasses indoors. What's up with that?

Also, let's not forget the biggest thing. Dew can't empathize with him. It makes absolutely no sense. Why in the world doesn't Dew's abnormality work on the military Captain? Of course, Dew's abnormality only works on people, so—

So Rowan isn't a person? No. He's not human.

Dew pauses in his activities, staring at the sunset silhouetted by trees that he currently has painted out. He's almost done, but the trees need to be taller.

That's a bit of a stretch, even for Dew's fast paced mind. Rowan? Not be human? No way! What the hell else would he be, then?

But it makes sense. It makes so much sense. It would explain why Dew can't feel the other man's emotions. Not to mention, the Captain did make quite a hasty exit when Dew started asking about other creatures that may or may not walk the earth alongside them. Though, that could also be because he genuinely just needed Dew to look through the folders on his own time.

Holy shit. Is Rowan a vampire?

No, no, he's not a vampire. Vampires aren't real, apparently. Also, don't you have to be super pale? Rowan has a healthy tan on his skin, so that can't be it. Dew makes a mental note to confront the guy with some garlic at some point in the near future, just to be safe.

Dew needs to get to the bottom of this. For his own sanity, if anything.

He stands up, placing his brush beside the canvas and stretching. Oh yeah, he's gonna figure this out if it's the last thing he does.

Dew glances at Spikes. "You need to help me."

She sits down. Dew takes that as an agreement. He and Spikes are gonna figure this out.