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 Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:05 pm
Eternal Senshi auras were Kerberos's least favorite thing. Except, maybe, for the one time he had felt a Princess. They were stronger than him, and they felt so pure and clean -- and this one, especially, made his skin crawl. It was so...so clean, like the Senshi Avalon had tried to kill that night in the warehouse, the one whose starseed had blown her back. It was terrifying, and part of him wanted to bolt, but the part of him that recognized his circumstances realized that given that he was drunk -- as he spent most of his time, lately -- all that would end in was him tripping over his own fuku.
So instead he leaned back against the wall of the nearest building, exhaled, and started praying that the Eternal chose to pass him by, or that if she didn't, she wasn't looking for a fight.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:32 pm
Corrupt senshi were a particular creepy feeling to the senses, that sensation of something familiar, but wrong... Ida had only run into them a few times since awakening and it had never gone well, particularly after the city had been lost. Too many of them had fallen further into chaos than any sane person would allow, giving up the very core of their power to Metallia's hungry maw. It made her skin crawl to think about it... to think about pristine, innocent Ida awash with Chaos... A deep instinct in her rebelled against it. She'd never done well around ascendeds, and that was before one had killed people she cared deeply about.
This signature she felt was typical of its kind, as far as she knew, and was just as repulsive as any other. A lower level than her own, but there was a measure of safety in that. Not complete, but some. Even as broken as she was lately, she could handle a corrupt super senshi, she felt confident.
What she would do with this corrupt once she found them, she wasn't entirely sure any more... things like this used to be a lot easier. Make sure they weren't hurting anyone and send them on their way had been her policy, but even she could see now that it was a useless effort. They only came back later to do it all over again. Nothing she had ever done had made any difference, really, only prolonged the struggle... but there was no appeal in the alternatives either; ignoring the enemy or putting them down for good. The former was no option at all and the latter... well, she didn't know how she felt about it any more. Her heart was so firmly set against it, but her head? Her head whispered justifications and it only left her feeling torn.
When she rounded the corner of the building to find the source of the signature, Ida was fully prepared to face whoever it was. Ready for a fight or to save someone, or whatever else... but seeing the bedraggled figure slumped against the wall gave her pause. He was alone... she didn't see any starseeds or balls of energy... and he looked more like the tail end of a fight than someone ready to start one.
"Hey!" She called as she stepped away from the building, watching the super with a wary expression. "What are you doing here?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 2:49 pm
Kerberos let out a tiny groan when he realized that no, she was not in fact going to pass him by. He pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead and then stepped away from the wall. All he wanted was to avoid getting into a fight when he could barely stand without wobbling, never mind defend himself.
He stepped out with his hands upraised in obvious surrender. "Look, I don't want to fight you, so if that's what you're after - oh, s**t." He knew this girl. He'd known her better as a Princess, but he knew her, and he had murdered someone she cared about right in front of her. He'd caught her with Adonis and...
He wanted to throw up, but instead he staggered backwards. "s**t. s**t, it's you."
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 5:51 pm
His voice... his hair and his outfit... She knew this person.
Anger flared up, pain... and memories that made her chest tight. Bohlinia... laying on the ground. This man, standing over her with her starseed in his hand...
"YOU." She hissed, her mouth twisting. The space between them was not that great for an eternal and she had closed the distance before she realized she had moved. All she could see was his face, all she could remember was her sister at her feet... and Ida hauled back her fist to swing hard for his face.
She never used to attack first... never used to take a swing unless provoked... But the years were a heavy weight. Years of struggle and fighting and watching people die... and it was just too much.
"You KILLED HER." Ida shouted as she stood with her hands clenched, shaking all over as emotion surged inside of her. It never occurred to her to wonder how much he remembered... he had recognized her face, he knew why he was significant to her.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 8:05 pm
Kerberos didn't even make an attempt to defend himself. With an Eternal's strength and a lot of anger behind it, the hit was enough to send him stumbling back a few steps, and only then did he reach his hand up to press it lightly to the side of his face. Nothing felt too out of place, which was good, because a fist bruise would be enough to explain to Luka - he didn't need a broken jaw or knocked-out teeth too.
"Did that feel any better?" He asked, his tone slightly sharp. He didn't even know the Senshi's name (just that her death would surely hurt the Princess and anything to break her resolve ---) and yet he knew, in a twisted sort of way, what her soul tasted like. He had never really quite connected with what it meant to take a starseed, to destroy one, until after he had Ascended, and by then he hadn't cared.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 8:38 pm
Ida shuddered when he spoke, trying to push down the anger she felt, the fear... A glance at him was enough to tell her he wasn't ascended yet and she already knew he wouldn't kill her loved ones for years yet... but that didn't make the sight of him any easier to stand.
"No." She bit out, a tilt of her head sending her bangs to curtain her face. What was she doing? What was she accomplishing like this? Nothing. Like always. It didn't make her feel better and it wouldn't stop anything.
"Who are you? I want to know what your name is. You will cause me a lot of pain some years down the line, and I want to know your name. I want to know the name of the planet you're going to sacrifice to her..." Even saying it made her skin crawl. "And... I want to know why."
The last came out softer, some of the air seeming to leak out of the eternal. Why? All that pain and suffering, all that death... why? Even Bischofite... Even Alois was a person, corrupted by chaos. What twists someone so far that they can do these things? It was not something she understood well, never had. What drove a person to give up even their humanity... and what did they even gain from it?
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:02 pm
"Kerberos." It was almost comforting to have her act as if that terrible future was set in stone, because he still hadn't quite adjusted to the possibility that Hver had presented - that he could change things, could escape the terrible end waiting for him. It was easier to think that his future was already set and he was doomed, because then he didn't have to try and fight to change it.
"I don't know." He said, truthfully. "I don't know why. Something must have happened because I know I snapped, but..." He pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead again, eyes squeezing shut as he tried to dig for the memory. Everything else was so clear, why not this?
"I don't know what it was." His voice cracked slightly. He had a suspicion -- but he couldn't confirm it, and he didn't want to prod Des for more details of what he remembered.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:43 pm
It was incredibly frustrating to hear him flounder about like this... like he was just some young man, clueless to how he became a monster. It was sobering and it pulled at her heart, but she fought that softening.
"The things you did... will do... They're unforgivable." She said as she forced her hands to unclench, the fingers flexing restlessly. "Do you understand that? You took lives... people I cared for... that I loved. People who were just... trying to survive. To live. That's all we ever wanted... to live without being preyed upon by your kind. And your poor planet... its out there, untouched and pure... Giving it to Metallia was like feeding a baby to wolves. It depended on you, it needed and deserved your protection... and you betrayed it."
"Do you regret it, any of it, even a little bit? Were you ever human enough to?" She knew there was a chance he would laugh right in her face for her words... Bischofite would have, Painite would have too. The Negaverse... Titan was the only one of them who seemed to have retained his heart, even if he claimed the killing was just, that battle was a fine way to die. She didn't want to believe they were all like this, but save for one lone person, they all had been... she had never met one who wasn't out to suck humanity dry and feel righteous for doing so.
Ida ached, thinking of it. How could people serve such an organization? But even as she thought that, she remembered Castor and she wondered. Was her own side so clean? She remembered looking the other way and closing her ears to reports from the Mainstay and the Shadows... hadn't wanted to know of the bloodshed. Even her own hands were stained... but at least she still had enough heart to regret... to want to be better. Did he have that?
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2014 10:00 pm
Kerberos could have punched her. The way she was talking, she cared more about his damn planet than she cared about him - which was just fine, because all she knew was him as an Ascended, cracked wreck that barely qualified as human anymore.
"Don't act like you and your people are the only ones who ******** suffered, Flowergirl," he said sharply, and he took a step back to give himself a little space away form her. "I lost everyone I cared about - either because I murdered him or because they ******** ran off toyour side. Of course I have regrets! I regret all of it!" He hadn't then, but he'd had everything that made him human scooped out and replaced with Chaos.
"Goddamnit, I don't want that to happen any more than you do - I don't want to have the blood of my parents, my sisters, my boyfriend on my hands. Never ******** mind Hvergelmir, and your girlfriend." He couldn't even list all the people he'd killed, not by name, but those two would make a good start. He couldn't even be sure she knew Hver, but the Knight had stuck herself into his head. If he needed any motivation to never Ascend, it was that she definitely did not deserve to die the way he'd killed her.
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:40 am
Her own temper flared as he yelled at her, but it was the words he said that took the wind out of her, cooling her till there was only sadness and her own regret left. Her shoulders slumped, her lips thinning.
"We both lost everything... And this city is full of people just like us. Did you ever ask those who joined our side why they did so? Purification is something that can only be done willingly... There was a reason each one of them chose to leave." Reaching up, Ida shoved her hair back and held her head, trying to bring herself back to something approaching stable.
He wasn't the same person she had fought in the future... And he regretted what he had done. There was still a measure of humanity in him, even if it was small. It was hard to forgive... But coming back was an opportunity. A new chance to do things better.
"The future can be changed." She said slowly. "Or why would we get this knowledge of it? Some things have changed already, but if we want a different outcome... We can't stop here. We have to keep trying."
Dropping her hands, the eternal gave the corrupted a long, serious look.
"If you want things to turn out differently, if you really don't want any of that to happen... Then you need to do something about it." Or so she kept telling herself. It didn't make her feel any better about any of it, but at least it gave her moments of motivation. Never quite hope though...
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:29 pm
Kerberos let out a tiny, frustrated growl. She said it like it was so simple. Just ask Gabriel why he'd fled - because it wasn't like he didn't know why Des had, Des had chased Gabriel as he always would - because that was an easy conversation to have with someone.
"Hey, so, why did you abandon me and everyone else on the Chaos side? Moral stand?"
"Keep trying, sure, that's easy for you to say, you have a lot more freedom." He crossed his arms and shrank slightly into himself. "What am I supposed to do? I mean, other than not sell my ******** soul." Which felt pretty obvious. "And-slash-or do a better job of hanging onto my goddamn sanity." Because swearing was going to get him so far.
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Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 5:38 pm
"Freedom... if you can call it that." Ida said with a huff that might have been a laugh, if it weren't tinged with irony and desperation.
"Keeping your soul and your sanity is exactly what you're supposed to do. How you go about that is really up to you. Find a way. Persevere. Do what has to be done, like a god damn adult. The alternative isn't something I'm willing to consider, and neither should you."
It was hard to feel truly sympathetic for his plight... she had her own problems, her own fears and pains to deal with, and her own mental instability. Hver would have been better at this... she was better at setting aside her own feelings to bolster someone else and she always seemed to know the right thing to say. She would have handled this differently... better, undoubtedly. But that was why Hvergelmir was the peace-maker and Ida was just the healer.
"I'm sorry I punched you... you haven't done any of the things I remember you doing yet, you didn't really deserve that. I know who you are now, though, and I know what you look like... I'll be watching out for you." She shrugged and spread her hands, the symbol of Ida glowing in one palm. "If I ever see you near any of my people... you can be sure it'll be a lot more than a punch that you'll get from me. I'm not going to let what happened, happen again if I can help it."
Threats were not really something she was well-versed in, but... what the hell. She'd already punched him, it wasn't like she could make this encounter all that much worse... and he needed to know she was serious, whether or not he took it seriously.
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Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 8:37 pm
"Oh, take your self-help bullshit and shove it," Kerberos snapped, "you arrogant, self-centered b***h. The only reason you give a ******** about what happens to me is because of what I might do to someone you're close to, or maybe just because you're actually more torn up about a ******** hunk of dead rock at the edge of the solar system than an actual human being." At least Hvergelmir gave off the pretense of actually caring about him as a person when she tried to convince him to fight the future he'd seen.
He wanted to hit her back. He actually sort of wanted to introduce her to the lesser version of his magic - but that was probably more energy than he needed to waste. So instead he just let out a tiny, quiet snarl.
"And like I'm going to take any threat from you seriously. You sat there and cried while I murdered your girlfriend; clearly you're not as hot s**t as you want me to think, Flowergirl. So maybe try that s**t when you've actually got something to back it up - and I don't mean punching me once when I'm drunk and am lucky I'm still ******** vertical."
He might have stormed off in a huff, but he retained enough of a hold on his temper to know that if he did he would end up making a fool of himself. So instead, he reached for his reserve of energy and teleported himself away - hopefully to somewhere he could drink himself the rest of the way into a stupor in peace.
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