Microstory 1153: Elder Caverness

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Nothing in Elder Caverness’ life was ever easy, but he thought that was exactly how it needed to be, because he was always taught that hard work was all that mattered. He was raised with so-called traditional values, and it took him a long time to get over the terrible conventions his family indoctrinated him to believe. If it don’t hurt, his father would always say, you’re not doin’ it right. Well, being gay must have been the most right thing he could have done, because that same father sure made sure Elder was hurting pretty much every day. He was one of those people who claimed to be from a different generation, so even in time, he never accepted his son’s identity. But time should have worked, if nothing else, because it’s less about where you’re from, and more about where you are now. In the world of Elder’s day, sex positive was the name of the game, and no excuse for being anything less than a moderately compassionate individual was a good one. Nevertheless, he managed to get away from that toxic atmosphere, and move on with his life. He joined the Navy right out of high school. He served two years on active duty, four years in the reserves, and two more in IRR. When he wasn’t actively working in the military, he worked in private security, as many in his position will do. There he met, and formed a bond with, Kolby Morse. They connected with each other for their similar viewpoints on the world, and how people should behave in a civilized society. Their primary concern seemed to be corporate corruption, which they discovered in the company they were already doing security for. They felt they had to do something about it. To insulate them both from scrutiny, Kolby remained outside the investigation. While Elder was on the inside, should anything happen to him, Kolby would be there to pull him out. They weren’t trying to take down the people they perceived as criminals in any official capacity, so they had no further support in this matter. The executives they were monitoring had special temporal powers, which gave them a virtually insurmountable advantage over anyone who would try to compete with them. Elder’s assignment was long and taxing, but they were playing the long game here. They couldn’t just arrest anyone they thought was involved. He was carefully and delicately collecting evidence, while simultaneously preventing the rest of the world from uncovering the truth about their abilities. If these bad people had powers, then surely others would too, and Elder didn’t want those hypothetical innocents to be exposed if they hadn’t done anything wrong. It took a long time for him to make headway, but he did, and his efforts proved to be vital to sending the guilty to the other side of some heavy bars.