A year since he had been banished. Three hundred and eight-nine days since he was tried and found guilty. Nine thousand three hundred and thirty some odd hours since he was forced to watch one of his captains was ordered to pull out his mother's starseed and feed it to his superior officer because he had been wasteful and careless.
One year and approximately three weeks had passed since he had been left to the whimsy of the vastness of the Rift where they had expected him to die.
And yet, here he was back on the streets of Destiny City after a six month trial that had literally taken everything he had to overcome. He had been back for approximately five months and a handful of days and yet he was still recovering.
Some days, he was better; he had that finesse of control that he prided himself on and strength rippling through him like he had never lost it.
Other days, he relapsed; Labyrinthite became a feral thing of a man, one who was at risk of being consumed by the wild beast that rattled it's cage against his bones and demanded set me free. Chaos crawled like an insatiable itch beneath his skin and that wildness returned to glisten in whiskey gold when he looked ahead of him.
Tonight was one of the nights when the itchiness spread until his entire being threaten to be consumed by the humming of the force that made him General Labyrinthite. Agitation settled between his shoulder blades and threatened to make a home in the spaces between the slots in his spine.
Each foot step was heavy, the heel of his boots thumping against the pavement with enough force to echo in the alley as he ambled forward. The edge of his mouth was twisted upward on one side, smile sharp and cruel as his prey cowered before him. Chiiiiiiiink was the grating sound of his scythe as the metal dragged across the ground nearly loud enough to drown out the quiet sobs from the figure crumpled on the ground.
"It looks like luck is not in your favor," he taunted, his laugher dark and twisted as it filled the air.
xxwhimsical blue
Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2017 5:34 pm
It had been nearly a year now since the crystal walls and broken doll had held her captive.
The seasons marched on, summer waning into fall and while she had regained so much of herself in the last few months, the shortening of the days sometimes cast a foreboding pall across Ida's mind. It drove her out of the quiet walls of her room into the light and bustle of the city at night, comfort found in activity, exertion and the sounds of life all around her.
Defending that life gave her own purpose and helped draw back the curtains. The feel of a powerful signature called her to her duty and Sailor Ida turned from her current path and headed towards it. Negaverse signatures never just hung around, doing nothing... especially the higher ranks. If someone was here, they were up to something.
Her white boots took her across the roof tops in a smooth run, her jumps arcing easily over the gaps. She crested the next parapet and below picked out a dark figure with a scythe and another that cowered against the ground. The senshi didn't wait any longer than it took to identify which figure cast the aura she sensed before she was falling over the edge, her legs bent for impact even as she swept her arm up in front of her. Glowing petals formed and gathered, taking the shape of a bow as she hit the ground.
"Heavenly Orchid Arrows!" She called as she drew back the invisible string and a glowing bolt formed between her hands. As she released it, the bow dissolved back into the energy that had formed it and the arrow winged towards her target, roaring across the space that divided them.
Nuxaz
Eternal Sailor Attack: Heavenly Orchid Arrows! [What it does] An out-flung hand casts a trail of petals that form a bow-like shape. She takes it up and uses it to fire arrows of light with hardened petals as arrow heads. The arrows have an 'aura' of power to them and explode on contact. The explosion is more concussive, causing a pressure that can push a target backwards a foot or two, but doesn't do much in the way of actual damage. Unbalanced enemies could be knocked over, if they were caught unaware. Particularly heavy opponents may not be moved by the attack, but could be distracted or slowed by the pressure of it. Each arrow takes a lot of power to cast and her limit is three, which exhausts her and can force her to retire until she's rested.
He felt her before he heard her. It was nigh impossible not to feel the bursting and bright, nearly blinding if he focused on it too long, aura of an eternal senshi. White Moon auras felt as oppressive as he assumed his own did though it did not swirl and choke him as he thought chaos' might to someone on the other side. Were it a tangible thing, Labyrinthite thought that it might sting, burn even, but the man was a glutton for punishment and pain, like pleasure, was one of the few things he could feel in spades.
And when you hardly felt anything, you welcomed the things that made you feel because it reminded you that you were alive.
His weapon swung, the blade heavy despite the way he wielded it expertly with one hand. A scream filled the spaces in the alley as surely as Ida's petals formed the bow that launched bright arrows of light soaring through the air. One pierced his back sending him stumbling forward and the scythe tumbling into the ground before his swing could be completed. CRACK. Concrete splitting beneath the weight and force of the bird skull blade was a shattering noise in the air but he paid no attention to it.
No, there was an explosive arrow crackling against his back and sending him staggering off balance. Luckily, the wall was not far from him and a hand shot out to steady himself. Boots shuffled against the ground as he righted himself, his turn slowly as shoulders rolled back and the cracking of his spine settling back into place might have been heard.
"My, my," he croaked, his voice a grating gravely sound as whiskey-gold sought out his assailant. "Didn't think I'd see you any time soon. Did Alkaid let you leave or did she finally tire of you?"
whimsical blue
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:37 pm
The young woman straightened and she was very nearly another person from the one he had met in the cell. The line of her cheeks was rounded, rather than sunken, and her skin wore a healthy, rosey color under the bright glow of the markings that curled up her arm and over her face. She stood as tall as her five foot five stature would allow, and while her heart beat in her chest with a tinge of anxiety, there was only determination and rejection in her dark eyes.
Last time, he'd brought fear out of her... this time, she tried to tell herself, she wasn't afraid of him. They were on equal footing now, and she'd drawn first blood, so to speak.
The dark figure straightened against the wall and Ida's lips thinned as her jaw tightened, a flicker of anger springing to life at the mention of Alkaid.
"Neither." She said as she approached, her hands still up before her protectively and her steps cautious. The civilian still lay on the ground, too terrified or hurt or unconscious to escape on their own. If she could get close enough... get between them... "I escaped, with the help of some friends. They beat her soundly... enough to send her into hiding maybe? It doesn't sound like you've seen her recently."
Maybe she had crawled into her hole and expired there. Ida could only hope that monstrosity was gone from the world... that with her gone, maybe that poor lost planet might have a chance to recover. The perversion of what had been done to it still ate at her, even now.
For the moment, Ida's arrow had rendered him winded but not quite wounded and he wondered what else the senshi had hidden in her gloves.
Bright eyes flicked across her form in a slow sweep as she spoke, lips quirked upward in a slanted smirk. "Ah, but it took multiples to best her? Pity, I had hoped for more from you." A half-truth because he could only imagine the weakened state she had been in when she had finally broken free. "I wouldn't concern yourself where the Ascendant-General has been. As I've told you once, she is far kinder than I am."
When he was done with her, if she lived, Labyrinthite did not doubt that she would wish to be in Alkaid's possession instead of his.
Noting the way the senshi grew close only served to make him grin brighter, the sharp points of his canines flashing. "I see the canary has found her voice and she thinks herself confident enough to escape the collapsing mind." His palm shoved his body away from the wall and he put himself directly between her and the civilian, boots carrying him forward.
He did not need his scythe to be a threat.
"I should put you in your place."
Stomp out that light, the beast within snarled.
His shift forward was swift, elbow thrown towards her gut with one arm and the other reaching for her face.
whimsical blue
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:38 pm
The young woman stopped as he moved, unwilling to get too close to him with her plan foiled. She hadn't been keen to let him touch her before; she still wasn't willing to do so now. Not that the Generals needed touch to hurt her... Alkaid had been able to drain at a distance and that was still one of her weaknesses.
Maybe he didn't know that though? She wasn't sure how many of them knew all the sides of transcendence. He didn't seem like the type to throw away a weapon.
Her brows drew together in a scowl.
"You can try." She snapped back, unable to help the little stab of anger his words gave her. Her place... So arrogant! Ida knew she was better than what he thought of her. She just had to prove that now.
She jerked back as he rushed her, startled he attacked with his hands and not his heavy scythe. Maybe it wasn't good in short range? She didn't have much time to think about it, too intent on avoiding the hand to her face as she twisted and felt his elbow glance painfully off the point of her hip. She threw a punch in response, aiming for his smirking mouth as her bracelets clattered around her wrist.
Labyrinthite found that he liked the little canary more now that she had found her voice than when she'd been nothing more than a plaything in the dungeon of Alkaid's castle. Of course, he liked it when people fought back in whatever capacity they could manage.
Iris had her fists and Hvergelmir had her words and kindness.
It appeared that his little canary had words and fists that she was attempting to use against him and it made him laugh. The sound was startling, more jovial than what could be expected of the reaper general but also darker than laughs had the right to be.
Ida's arms blocked his attempt at her face but he still landed a solid hit which left him grinning as he pushed further into her space, seemingly unbothered by the closeness that left him more vulnerable for retaliation. Her fist came at his face and he jerked, barely, and was cuffed by her knuckles and the bangles on her wrist from his jaw and across his cheek.
Labyrinthite grunted, but didn't stagger outside of a head jerk, instead reaching to grasp the offending wrist while he cracked his neck to twist her arm behind her back. "Come on little canary, show me more of that fight."
whimsical blue
Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:29 pm
She didn't like how he laughed... but it wasn't surprising. They all seemed to have something a bit like that. The Bad Guy laugh. Ida scowled, but despite the hairs it raised on the back of her neck, she pressed forward, refusing to be put off.
He felt larger, this close up, the space between them narrowing as he pressed his size and weight advantage. Hand-to-hand was not normally Ida's way of doing things and the grip on her wrist was a reminder of that. Fingers closed like bands of metal, and the twisting put her off balance as she struggled to respond.
Pain flared up her joints as her arm bent further than it was used to, but the senshi had enough presence of mind to move with it and ease the pressure. The spin even provided it's own answer and she threw her other elbow up with the momentum, though aiming backwards wasn't a very accurate affair. Anything that made him loosen his hold as she twisted her wrist in it, fighting the grip.
She didn't have any words for him. She wasn't the type to taunt while she fought, and Ida had never been good at thinking up witty things to say while under stress. Maybe it made her seem more stoic and serious... rather than the fluttering, mile-a-minute-heartbeat she was inside, her mind racing on what to do next, what move to make.
Every time the small woman attempted to struggle against him, his grip would tighten even when her elbow made to clock him somewhere. Labyrinthite had made the mistake of leaning in too closely, wanting to encroach on Ida's space in a way he knew would leave her uncomfortable-- the little canary didn't seem keen on being touched after all -- and he was treated to an elbow against his jaw.
To her fortune, his grip was lost but his closeness was not.
A low snarl rumbled from his throat as he pressed closer, hand reaching for short brown locks until he could grip them in her hand. "It's a pity," he growled, making sure he was close enough that she could feel his breath against her skin. "You were so much prettier when your hair was long."
The reality was that he didn't care, but he thought it might strike a nerve and he was a man who enjoyed playing with his food before he ate it.
"You can't tell me you got this far if you can't fight back." He was laughing again. "Shame, I expected more from you little canary."
whimsical blue
Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:11 pm
The grip... his closeness... the heat she could feel as he got into her space was enough to send alarms ringing in Ida's head, above and beyond just the fight between them. He was too close and it was hard to think around it clearly. It made her heart beat too fast, pounding in her ears, and her skin crawl...
Ida yelped as he got a handful of her headscarf and the hair beneath, the grip awkward enough it wasn't really solid, but more painful for it as it pulled at fine hairs rather than the whole. She grabbed for his wrist and goosebumps crawled down her neck as he got in closer yet... the rumble of his voice telling her how pretty her long hair had been.
It called up uncomfortable memories of another hand buried in her hair, pulling her head back as words were breathed into her neck with an accent so thick she couldn't pick out the meanings...
The flash of it left her scared. She hadn't felt that sort of sensation in... years, and she'd thought it long buried and dust by now. A wash of anger, that he'd make her remember these things she'd laid to rest, rose up to clog her throat with a sense of bitter futility. She hated this helpless feeling, the fear, and him for bringing it...
"Get OFF OF me!" She spat as she twisted, ignoring the pain as she threw her body into elbowing him again, lower this times where the ribs met the muscle of his side and where her height made natural.
His mouth was open, some taunt on the tip of his tongue and his foot ready to nudge one of hers further from the other when she began to squirm more violently. Her movements forced him to shut his mouth, eyes narrowing while she twisted and lashed out and her shout rang in his ears as an elbow caught the fleshy area of his side.
A hiss slipped between teeth and for a moment, Ida was given reprieve.
Labyrinthite attempted to drag her back with him, but the headscarf prevented him from being successful and he snarled in response. His fist collided with the building beside her, leaving a shattering of brick when he moved to trap her once again.
Canary wouldn't be escaping her cage so easily this time.
"There's the fight I was looking for," he cooed, voice low and dark when he reached for whatever part of her he could get to before she tried to flee. Maybe it was her arm, or part of her fuku-- what it was didn't matter, what mattered was making sure she couldn't escape.
"I'm afraid playtime isn't over yet."
whimsical blue
Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:59 pm
It was enough, thankfully, to loosen his hold and yank her head from it, even if it took a few hairs with it and let her scarf hanging down her back, her hair mussed and tangled. The senshi spun, managing to get him in front of her this time, and she had to wonder... was he playing with her? This grab and hold and taunt... If he'd wanted to really hurt her, to put her down, she was sure he had much more efficient ways of doing it. This was just for fun, that she could tell, and it bothered her that she was struggling just to fend this little bit off.
Wall cracked and crumbled as she stumbled backwards, trying to keep the distance between them as he in turn tried to grab her.
This wasn't working. She was getting too worked up to be useful and in such close quarters, he had the advantage in height, reach and weight. If she let him get too close, or if he managed something more effective, things were going to go badly.
How often do I tell people don't patrol alone? And how often do I take my own advice? Ida wondered, her mental tone sarcastic. She flipped her hand out and a phone appeared in it, slick plastic in purple, covered with the orchids of her sphere. She thumbed the home button and then smashed it down again on the little app she'd downloaded forever ago, liking the concept but so rarely using it.
Suddenly, the phone began a shrill, shrieking alarm sound. It was a painful noise, but Ida knew it meant phones and rings within distance would be lighting up with her distress signal, and God willing, help would be making its way here. She felt... slightly stupid for doing it, as though she should have been able to handle this on her own, but she firmly hushed that voice with the thought that surviving undamaged was more important than inconveniencing a few people.
She held her phone up and behind her, where he could see but not reach.
"This distress signal is going to call every Senshi and Knight within a mile down on your head." She snapped, trying to look calm and resolute when she felt anything but. "I suggest you start running... unless you think you can handle all of us at once. Is it worth it, Labyrinthite?"
If Ida was miserable, Labyrinthite was almost joyful. Or as joyful seeming as the general was capable of getting. It wasn't hard to deduce how much she despised that close proximity and how she wasn't nearly as proficient in hand to hand the way he was, if he had been trying.
The beast rattled behind the bars of it's cage, demanding blood to be drawn and for him to sink his teeth into her skin.
Labyrinthite had to admit the idea was tempting. He had too much to move out of the way to do it where he'd like so the idea was shelved for now.
Pull out her heart, his beast encouraged but he pushed the desire away. Not yet. Playtime's not over, he chided and the creature seemed to settle.
For now.
In his temporary distraction, and while he was busying himself with attempting to actually grab and hold the senshi, her phone was pulled out and--
Labyrinthite hissed as the sound echoed in his ears. He recognized that sound. That stupid dragonfly senshi had--
"So that's what it does." He had wondered how so many had arrived to her aid so quickly. Now if he could get to her phone and break it... The general weighed his options, still crowding her space to the best of his abilities.
"You don't know what I'm capable of handling." Danger flashed in the gold of his eyes before he forced himself to take a step back. Every instinct was coaxing him forward, demanding that he finish the fight she had started but logic and reason managed, somehow, to win the war waging in his head. One hand reached out to drag fingertips down the side of her face.
"This isn't over my little canary, you'll see me real soon," he sneered, even going far enough to wink at her before he was gone.
