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 Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:28 pm
Another wave of deja vous rushed him, bringing with a chill that he hoped that he could pass off as being brought on by the weather. He let the last pebble fall from his fingers before adjusting his cloak, drawing it a bit more comfortably over his shoulders. Something changed and I'd stopped being me... The source of the words had been his voice. Rikard was who he'd been when he had said that, but to who? Cordelia. Corvus. They were one and the same. A hospital room. Head pounding, mind swimming. The Cosmos Knight brought a hand up, fingers running through his hair as though that would somehow clear everything out of his head. It wouldn't, of course, but it would give him a means of steadying his hand. "Your friend was at the nightclub? XS. It closed after that-- The owners sold what was left of the building and left DC, from what the papers said."
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:40 pm
"Yea." He nodded, brushing a bit of nonexistent dust off his sleeve before looking over at the knight. He didn't look all that good himself all of a sudden. Reaching over he set a hand gently on the Knight's elbow. "Are you okay? You look a little white ... and you're shaking." He didn't know what about the conversation would be bothering the other man. Unless he'd been there too and didn't want to think about it anymore.
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 5:30 pm
"I was there. It's..." How did he say it? How could he explain? At one point he'd been asked what he remembered about that night and the only thing to come to mind was tossing back a shot with a pink haired beauty before everything went blank. He assumed that had been when he had stopped being Rikard Colby that night, trading drinks and laughter for Captain Richterite. Everything after that had been second hand; people dropping into sleep from energy loss, the youma, the fire. Mag Mell closed his eyes tightly, hand sliding from his hair so that he could rub at the bridge of his nose. His temples were pounding and it felt like everything was closing in on him. There was a hand on his elbow, Arachne was touching him; kind and gentle in ways he didn't deserve. He jerked away from the other man's touch, taking a staggering step back. "I'm sorry for your loss. If I hadn't..." If he hadn't cared. If he hadn't decided to try so hard to be what he wasn't. If he hadn't what? He couldn't say because he couldn't remember if there was anything he could have done as Captain Richterite for the events of the evening to have gone any differently. He couldn't remember.
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 5:40 pm
He was surprised when Mag Mell jerked away from his touch and he frowned as his hand dropped back to his side. He was going to ask what the other man meant before something the knight had said in their last conversation came back to him. Mag Mell had been a Negaverse agent. His head snapped up and he stared at the Knight for a moment. "You ... were you there as Mag Mell or who you were before?" Arachne's hands clenched into fists as he waited for the answer. He didn't want to be angry at the knight but if he'd been there as one of them...
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 6:07 pm
The Cosmos Knight couldn't bring himself to look at the Senshi of Spiders. His lips pressed to form a line, jaw clenching as he waited for whatever the other man had to say. It wasn't as bad as he'd expected-- Could have been worse, really. It could have been more than just a question that he knew he had the answer to. "It was my operation." His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke, although he knew the other man would be listening for the answer. "I was the commanding officer," he spoke a little louder this time, pausing briefly before adding on, "and things got out of hand." The last part he didn't know for certain. He couldn't say whether or not the night had gone as intended because he couldn't remember anything that had happened to him when he'd been Captain Richterite. All he knew about that night was what Corvus had told him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 6:16 pm
Arachne had hoped that Mag Mell would say it wasn't him. He was supposed to say he was there as his Knight incarnation, that he'd tried to help and couldn't. He wasn't supposed to hear the words he didn't want to hear from the Knight. He shouldn't have asked, he didn't want to know Mag Mell or whoever he'd been before was responsible. "Things got out of hand?" His voice got louder as he spoke. "That's a brilliant way to put it." He snarled as he ran a hand though his hair, tugging on one of the longer strands as he tried to actually get a leash on his emotions. All of the anger for not being there for Rik bubbled up in the face of the knight's revelation. Letting go of his hair he took the couple of steps toward the knight, grabbing his shirt with one hand and lashing out with a fist at the other man's jaw with the other. " Do you know how many people's lives you ******** up!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 7:25 pm
The force behind Arachne's left him swaying on his feet and he might have gone down with it if it hadn't been for the hold the other man had on the front of his uniform. His jaw ached now to go along with his throbbing head, but none of that seemed to matter when compared to how much Arachne's words hurt. The pain of the words ringing true struck harder than the blow and he tensed up, waiting for the next hit, should their be one. He wouldn't fight back or try to defend himself... He couldn't really. "Yes. Yes." To an extent he knew, at the very least. He had read the articles once he'd recovered because he'd needed to. Dozens injured, mostly superficial, some serious... More property damage in one night than he had probably caused during his entire five years of service to the Negaverse... Casualties? That was a number he couldn't recall, despite knowing that he had technically been one of them. "I made a bad call. I put people in danger, good people. Do you think I would be here right now if I didn't know what I'd done?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 7:39 pm
He wanted to hit the knight again, really wanted to, but Mag Mell just standing there like he was just going to take it took away some of the desire. Despite how angry he was, how hurt he felt, deep down he knew the knight had to know what he'd done. The knight wouldn't be wandering around with medals from his life before if he was trying to hide from what he did. He wouldn't admit it to someone obviously hurting. Snarling again he shoved the knight away from him, half hoping the other man would trip and fall into the lake, and ran his hands over his face hoping to muffle a string of curses. Where was the justice in this? There wouldn't be any justice or revenge for Rik's death. "I should have stayed in Cali." He managed a half manic laugh. "But no. I had to come back and rip open old wounds I thought were closed." He could feel the tears on his cheeks again. "And ******** prince charming's the one with the knife."
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:22 pm
"I never claimed to be Prince Charming." The knight's voice was low as he spoke, lifting his gaze just enough to let it follow after the senshi as he was shoved away. He couldn't really do anything, certainly couldn't say anything. It would serve him right if the Senshi if Spiders lashed out again, no matter how much he didn't want to have to explain away a split lip or any other bruises to the people who had been looking out for him. "Staying away from Destiny City wouldn't have changed what happened while you were gone. Something made you look him up again... Are you saying that you wouldn't have if you'd stayed on the other side of the country? One." he paused, clearing his throat as he straightened himself out again before continuing. "One thing I've learned is that you can't hide, no matter how hard you try. Something, or some one, will always find you."
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:41 pm
"Because I was back here!" He snapped, looking back over at the knight. "It's been -years-. I only looked him up because I was back here. And maybe I could let him know and we could actually talk about what happened. Even if it still didn't work out. I could have..." He knew he was crying at this point and for once didn't care. He couldn't have change anything but if he hadn't come back he may never have gotten the urge to look Rik up. He hadn't all those years and he knew it was only because he could have actually talked to him again that he'd done it. "Must make you feel so much better telling yourself that when someone who loved one of your victims finds you then? Cause you let me tell you something. Standing in front of the grave of someone you loved, standing in front of the person responsible for putting them there ... you try that some time and see how you feel. Cause I'd have preferred to stay ******** hiding."
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:20 pm
"I'm not saying any of this to make me feel better. I've been at my worst-- <********>, I've read my own obituary." He might have tried to attend his own funeral if it wouldn't have been so dangerous for him to do so; not because he wanted to know just who would miss him, but because he wanted to remember who he had been responsible for hurting-- Who he needed to step up and protect. "Are you mad at me for leading that operation? Go right ahead and be mad. You should be, just as much as the senshi and knights who stood against me were that night. I'm sure the agents who were under my command are plenty mad too. Are you mad at that friend of yours for falling off the face of the earth? Happens a lot in this city, probably pisses a lot of people off and I bet you're not the only one." He stepped closer to the senshi as he spoke, reaching out as though he was pondering resting his hand on Arachne's shoulder, drawing his touch back just shy of doing so. "Or are you mad at yourself for not looking him up sooner? For not being here to save him from himself-- Or from me, if you want to keep the blame there just to give you something tangible to swing at? That's fine too, but don't hide from it, Arachne. Don't hide. Grab that anger and ******** do something about it."
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:39 pm
Most of the things the Knight said hit their mark. He was mad at Mag Mell for being the one who'd caused the incident, he was mad at himself for not finding out sooner what happened, mad at himself for letting things just go without getting a real answer, but one thing the knight said stuck out. He had been trying not to hit the knight again despite his desire to and he'd been able to keep the urge under control until he started talking about Rik again like he had any right to. Before he could really think about it, before Mag Mell's words had really sunk in, his fist was already on a course for the knight's face. "Don't you ever talk about Rik like that again! He didn't need saving. He wasn't some damsel waiting for a prince to rescue them." His voice was still a snarl under the rest of the tangle of his emotions. "I know what he had to put up with, how strong he was to deal with what he was going through. Rik didn't need someone to come rescue him and he'd have torn whoever you were before to shreds and come out stronger for it if he had the chance." If Rik had just been one of them that night at the club might never have happened. "You don't deserve to talk about him." He didn't deserve to have what time he did with Rik given all the other things he was doing at the time. He wasn't going to let some a*****e who didn't know him say anything about him though.
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:50 pm
The senshi's fist clipped his jaw before he could properly deflect it or duck out of the way. He'd been ready for it at least and that seemed to make all of the difference between rocking with the momentum and hitting the ground hard after the hit. Mag Mell shifted his stance, debating briefly whether or not to hold his ground or swing back. Knowing what kind of strength he had in his arms and not wanting to physically hurt the senshi more than he had to, Mag Mell went for an alternate idea. He lowered his shoulder and charged, rather certain he could take the senshi down to the ground with a well aimed tackle. Football hadn't exactly been his favorite activity in highschool, but he'd been in enough scuffles to know how to knock someone off of their center and he went for it. "Like you'd know what he needed. Wasn't like you were actually there for him, was it?" The name that the Senshi of Spiders kept growling between words hadn't quite sunk in yet or he might have chosen his own more carefully. As it was, he felt like he was doing a damn good job at persuading the senshi to let it all out.
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:47 am
Arachne hadn't expected the knight to really fight back, not after the way he'd just taken the first swing. The only thing that kept him from being completely taken off guard when the knight charged him was his habit of fighting youma. He'd tangled with enough of them that he knew how to roll with something as it happened. That didn't stop him from going down though. He almost kept his footing, scrambling back a few steps, before the slight wet rocks won and he crashed back. The knight was going with him though and he grabbed onto Mag Mell's shirt to make sure of it. His back hit the grass an knocked the air out of him for a moment before he was shifting hoping to use the momentum to roll them over. "I was the only one who was there for him! I called him every night, texted him, skyped when we could. He was the one who pulled away from me."
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:47 pm
Although larger than the Senshi of Spiders, both in height and in mass, the other had the intelligence and knowledge of fighting to roll with the blow. Mag Mell was dreadfully out of practice when it came to fighting-- This was his first tumble in the past year outside of a few spars with Corvus, and he happened to know that she'd been going easy on him. As his back hit the grass he found himself wishing briefly that she hadn't. The thought didn't last long, however, forced out by the strong sense of deja vous that returned as Arachne continued to shout at him. Phonecalls every night before bed; staying up later and later to make up for the difference in time zones. Texts between classes; little things just to make time pass faster. Skype dates, but not real ones. Darkness. Alone, alone, alone."Still took you this long to come back to find out what happened, didn't it? What was his name, Arachne?" His hands came up to take hold of the senshi's wrists as the other man pinned him to the ground, hoping that if he kept his grasp firm he wouldn't get another punch to the face before he got an answer.
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