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 Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:38 am
It was a quiet night, the moon was up and a gentle wind had long since chased away any clouds in the sky. It was pretty really, the way the silver glow touched everything, made it shine in that ethereal way that only the moon can. Absolutely beautiful.
Navi was admiring the silvery cast on the trees in the park from her perch on the edge of nearby building. Pale fingertips tapping in rhythmic succession along the shoulder of an unconscious figure beside her. He was a common thief, a perch snatcher, and she'd chased him through the building below her, all the way up to the roof to where he lay now. The idiot had warn himself out. Navi hadn't even needed to to lift a finger to subdue him, the touch of her mirrorwraith had been enough to drop him where he stood.
Now she was simply admiring the view, long heels bumping soundlessly against the side of the building as she swung her feet. She was finished collecting energy for the evening, it left the rest of her night really open, now she only had to figure out what she wanted to do with it. Perhaps a stop over at her favorite community center? Or she could go home, curl up with her new book, find a teammate and join them. Too many choices.
She didn't really want to go home. Something had her feeling restless, probably the moon, and she was actually pretty disappointed the man beside her hadn't put up more of a fight before she'd drained him.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:28 pm
He was out again.
It was late and quiet, the streets of Destiny City deserted and shadowy, the moon full and bright. A pale, yellowish light was cast across the sleeping city - or rather, the mostly sleeping city, since a single figure was making his way across the branch of a rather tall oak tree, balancing precariously on slightly heeled boots.
After a moment, however, the figure dropped down, gripped the branch, and swung back to the grassy earth below with barely a sound.
Celsus, Page of Chronos, was having a particularly dull evening.
He'd managed to take out a single youma, but that was it so far - otherwise, the night had been relatively calm. So instead of feeling bored, he had spent the better part of his time working on developing his skills, focusing mostly on his ability to climb things easily. Trees, drainpipes, rain gutters - wherever there was something, he tried.
Silly, perhaps, but a useful ability nonetheless.
Now it was nearing midnight, and Celsus was walking quietly down the streets of a quiet road, the only light that of the moon and the dim, barely bright street lamps. A large, abandoned building stood several yards to his left, and he decided to duck inside, heading up the first few floors.
One more step.
...power signature.
He could feel it tingling through him as his foot took the next stair - the so-called "Spidey sense." Therew was someone here, someone around his own power level, if he was reading it right. But it was not an ally.
Dark Mirror Senshi.
Celsus found her on the roof.
"Good evening."
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:01 pm
She could feel him approaching long before he'd stepped out onto the roof to greet her, a familiar seeming signature riding the air like a charged current. It had her glancing behind her at the Page, hazel eyes rolling up from booted feet to the round glass of the lenses of his glasses. She knew him, in a manner of speaking, had met him up in the Surrounding. Well, his foot in any case.
"Hello yourself." Did he recognize her? How infuriating would it be if he did not?
Polished nails gave a last series of taps the unconscious man's shoulder as she watched the Page behind her, but she was eager to face this foe again and she got to her feet after a moment to step down from the ledge, facing him. She grinned at him, an odd sort of smile that wasn't entirely pleasant. "Long time no see, hmm?"
Leto had said they would hunt them, that they would make them all suffer, and now here he was. A page of Chronos, one Navi just happened to have a personal vendetta against. It was almost too good to be true.
"Lovely night out, isn't it?" She was watching him as she spoke, looking for any indication of attack. Tension of subtle movement that would betray his intention. With Camelot she'd been fool hardy, but she wasn't about to make that same mistake twice.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:02 am
One reddish brow lifted, Celsus sticking his hands into his pockets and standing there casually, as though meeting a Dark Mirror Senshi on the rooftop of an abandoned building were just a simple, everyday occurrence.
"'Long time no see?'" he repeated lightly, tilting his head and slanting a gaze towards the young woman. Her figure was silhouetted against the light of the moon, casting long, dark shadows stretching across the dull grey concrete of the rooftop. "Why do you say that? Have we met before, then?"
He did, of course, recognize her - it was difficult to forget anybody that he'd seen on the Surrounding, after all - but he merely wanted to see her reaction.
There was a man lying on the ground beside her, his eyes closed, breathing shallow. Clearly she had been playing with her victims, considering the smirk that stretched across her face. It was not a grin that met her eyes, eyes that he could not read.
"A very lovely night," Celsus agreed, smiling at her from where he stood. He made no move to attack, no move to do anything at all, in fact. A slight breeze ruffled his hair, pushing it back away from his face.
He nodded towards the man.
"Hasn't your mother ever told you not to play with your food before you eat it?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:55 am
Her lip twitched at his casual questions. The smile, however unfriendly, fading around the edges. Was he serious? She couldn't tell, but the possibility of it had a rather needling effect on the dark senshi. "How like a knight," she countered conversationally, one pale hand smoothing along the skirt of her fuku. "Forgetting those you've wronged. I thought perhaps it was only the one of you, but clearly it's an epidemic amongst the lot."
He was giving her nothing to react to save words, and if he continued to prod at her she would eventually snap and strike first. Logical or not, the girl was impatient and temperamental.
She looked down towards the unconscious man when indicated, and her unpleasant little smile returned in full. "My mother doesn't tell me anything anymore." Nor would she ever again. Her head lifted, and hazel eyes narrowed on the page across from. "I'll never get to see her again, or my father. Everyone I had ever loved in life is now cut off from me." Her fingers clenched, curling into fists at her sides. "Because of you."
Of all the touchy topics, none could make the Dark Mirror Senshi snap quite as efficiently as that one. And here he stood, the cause of all that bitter pain, him and that stupid little blonde. She'd have to hunt the little twit down later, one foe was enough to worry about at a time. "What's your name?" She was walking forward, one slow step at a time as she asked.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:01 am
"How like a Dark Mirror Senshi, trying to swing the conversation around to place blame on anyone other than themselves," replied Celsus easily, still smiling, the shadows from the moon dancing across his face. "Haven't you guys got any sort of, you know, pride?" He lifted his hands in a gesture of innocence before sticking them back into his pockets. "I thought with that big show you all put on that you'd want to take credit for the fact that you intended to murder hundreds of people."
The man was still breathing, at least. Celsus' gaze flickered towards him, simultaneous with the senshi's, though her eyes were a great deal more dark than his own, filled with feelings he didn't want to understand.
Or perhaps he did, since he gave her a curious look, tilting his head and letting slashes of reddish hair fall across his face.
"Because of me, personally?" he replied lightly. "I doubt that. You chose this path, after all. I didn't force you into doing what you did."
The look on her face was an ugly one, lips twisted upwards in a sneer as she walked towards him, slowly and surely. Celsus remained where he was, his expression calm.
"Have we not had the introduction yet?" he asked her, a smile touching his lips. "How very rude of me. I am Celsus, Page of Chronos. And you are?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:19 am
Pride? Oh yes, Navi had plenty of that. but she wasn't going to be boosting over immoral acts she had nothing to do with. Did he not realize what had happened up there? Or was he just so blindly faithful to the White Moon that he bought into their self righteous lying. it was hard to tell, but she was guessing the latter.
"Yes, you personally." She was closing that long distance between them now, not so much threatening as calculating. Every step was slow and precises. "You and that little blonde page." Her own smile was slipping, overwhelmed by the flood of lose and fury weighing her down. "You watched it happen, you know I had no choice in the matter. You might not have forced this on me, but you bore witness." That was enough to damn him really. It hadn't been up in that battlefield, but at the time she hadn't known what she'd be loosing by having her awakening seen by those that fought for Order.
She wondered if he'd lost anything in turn, but there was something about him that suggested he hadn't. A lack of hardened edges and bitter loss. Nothing physical, she wasn't sure what exactly lead to her assumption, but she doubted she was wrong.
"Surely you remember." There was barely a yard between them now. "You watched me awaken into this, and you attacked me." One pretty little hand shot out to make a grab for the front of his shirt. Who was she? He already knew, but she hissed it at him anyways. "Navi."
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 7:12 am
His brows furrowed together. "Little blonde page?" Celsus repeated, this time genuinely confused. He tried to figure out just who exactly she was talking about, considering there were two blonde pages that immediately sprung to mind, neither of which he could remember actually standing with him when he'd stumbled across this particular Dark Mirror Senshi.
Green eyes flashed calmly towards her. "So...you're blaming me for standing there, basically," said Celsus slowly, still not moving from his spot, though the other was drawing closer, like a predator to her prey. She was not intimidating him with her prowess, all things considered - rather, he was thinking she looked like a two year old throwing a tantrum.
Her fingers clenched in the front of his shirt, Celsus' gaze lowering to meet hers with a calm one of his own.
"Is that what you call yourself now?" he asked her mildly. "Maybe I do remember." He shrugged. "Or maybe I don't. You certainly seem to think highly of yourself in that I would recall the many faces I saw that day, but all of you Mirror Senshi are alike."
Celsus leaned towards her, his face barely an inch away. "You all are rather a dismal lot, you know."
Then he grabbed her wrist, yanking her away from him and throwing her to the side.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 11:15 am
He was either being dense on purpose, or she'd been right in thinking he was nothing but a fool. Regardless, his faulty memory ever present smile was grating fiercely at the dark senshi's nerves.
"Yes, in a way. Indirectly you you have caused me a world of pain." He didn't understand, and his blase attitude on the matter was not sitting well. "But it was you that threw the first blow when I was only just baptized into these new powers." She'd been clueless, a baby, barely aware that she'd even been given a name by a talking cat, and he'd struck at her. It was worst then ruthless in her eyes. What had started as aid had turned to an attack, another show of the compassion from the white moon court.
Hazel eyes narrowed at his assumptions, and her lip curled at he leaned over her, insulted her. The self righteous idiot. She at least had remembered the faces of those she'd confronted up in that battle. If either thought themselves important, it was him and his faulty memory.
He grabbed her arm and yanked her back, forcing her away from him, but she would use that momentum. Turning on her heel swinging her leg up to aim the side of her boot for his cheek. He needed to hurt, but more then that, he needed to learn that the Dark Mirror Court were a force to be reckoned with and not something to stare blandly at. If she couldn't win, then she would at least give him a run for his money and perhaps help out that memory of his so she wouldn't be so easy forgotten a second time.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:15 pm
He caught her boot just before it slammed into his face, his fingers closing around her thin ankle. The heel still scraped unpleasantly against his cheek, Celsus staggering sideways a few steps, but for the most part he'd at least managed to avoid getting a full-on attack to the head.
"Your anger is a little misdirected, you know," he pointed out, holding Navi's leg firmly in place. "You're basically accusing me of causing you 'a world of pain' for standing around - indirectly, as you even said. How is it that you can attack someone which you yourself know isn't the real cause of your so-called pain?"
His fingers tightened for just the briefest of seconds before Celsus shoved hard, throwing Navi away from him and taking a few hasty steps back.
"I was kidding earlier, by the way," he said lightly, straightening as he gave her a scrutinizing look. "I know who you are. You were awakened during the last battle."
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Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 11:10 am
She staggered when he caught her ankle, but she kept her balance, let him hold her leg for the moment because yanking on it would have only made her stumble. This page was nothing like Camelot as far as battling was concerned, for one thing, Celsus was actually fighting back.
"I think not," she retorted, balancing on the one foot still touching the ground. He didn't understand, none of the White Moon did. Nearly all of them believed in the idea of attacking first and asking questions later. It wasn't enough that he'd witnessed her change, though that had indirectly lost her everything, but on top of that he'd lashed out at her, with barely so much as a warning, and with absolutely no provocation.
He shoved her, and she didn't have the balance to catch herself. Instead she fell to the side, catching herself on her hands and hip, and scrambled back to her feet before he could so much as raise finger to attack her.
It was aggravating, going up against this page. He was an infuriating individual, and without even knowing her he'd been able to push her buttons. She'd managed to scratch his face, but that really wasn't enough, not by half. Her hands rose out in front of her, palms facing out and touching each other.
She smirked when he admitted that he knew her, and that pretty face rose. "Not half has dumb as you seem then." It didn't matter, not really, but at least he wasn't so shallow as to forget the faces of those he attacked. "I'm not half so helpless now as I was the last time we met though."
Wind kicked up around her ankles, swirling and condensing between her palms. Tighter and tighter until she had a twisting ball of razor wind at her disposal, and she pulled that swirling sphere back to her side. "Whiplash Blast!" Her arms thrust out, launching the attack at the young man standing across from her, aim directed at his chest.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 3:16 pm
Under normal circumstances, when he was Fritz St. James, he would have never attacked a girl like this. It would have horrified and angered him to fight anyone smaller than he was, someone like Navi, who was, despite her obvious anger, still beautiful.
Except he was not Fritz St. James. Not right now. He was Celsus, a Page of Chronos who served the Princess and was loyal to one person, and one person only.
Navi's fingernails scraped unpleasantly along the side of his face, and Celsus couldn't hold back the flinch of pain.
"Testy, testy," he admonished her playfully, pressing his hand against his cheek. His fingers came away bloody, and he looked at the scarlet liquid with a faint interest, as though never seeing it before. He clucked his tongue as he lifted his gaze back to the girl in front of him, throwing his hands up just in time. Navi's attack made his feet skid backwards, and he very nearly lost his balance. The wind scraped at his palms and his face, a cut searing over one of Celsus' eyes.
"That was not particularly nice," he complained, pressing his fingers against his eyelid. It made it difficult to actually see, but it was not as if he needed both eyes to do that.
For a few moments, Celsus just stood there looking at her, at the fury in Navi's eyes, the heated loathing clearly evident in every vein of her body. It was a rather sad fact that she would not be the first he would see like this, but it still pained him anyway.
Slowly he walked towards her, without giving any indication that he would attack.
"Someone so beautiful should not be so angry all the time," he said quietly. His bloodied fingers brushed against her face briefly before he stepped past her, his hand falling away, back towards the exit.
"You'll get lines."
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:15 pm
Every small wound she managed to inflict upon him was another small swell of satisfaction, but it wasn't enough, not these superficial scratches. The sight of the blood was nice, but it left her wanting more.
More satisfying was the sight of Celsus throwing his arms up to defend against an attack she knew would slice up anything he put in it's way. it pushed him back, staggered him, she watched with a spreading grin as the boughs of wind slashed and scratched at his hands and face. It wasn't a particularly nice grin, either. Manic really, and just a touch sadistic. She wasn't generally the sort to take pleasure in the pain of others, but a small piece of her had broken up in the surrounding, twisted beyond repair, and she would never really go back to the peaceful young lady that had woken up on that rainbow road.
"Was it not? I'm sorry," she mocked him, shoulders slumping as she leaned forward in a parody of guilt. "I didn't think we were playing nice, not after our first meeting." Her chin tilted, and she lifted a hand to sweep ginger curls from her face, tucking them back behind the curve of her ear. "Forgive me if I got the wrong impression," the sarcasm in her tone was increasing. "I just assumed, on account of the foot you tried to plant in my stomach."
She straightened as he started to move towards her, and the humor leaked from pale features, anger narrowing hazel eyes on him. He wasn't being threatening, but she wasn't about to trust him not to play peaceful and attack when she least expected. She wasn't above it herself, so it was certainly a possibility for anyone else.
The compliment, if you could call it that, made her flinch, and she moved to jerk back from his hand as it came up, but he was brushing bloodied fingers along her cheek and stepping past her before she could decide how exactly to respond. She'd expected some sort of blow, an attack, anything but the soft touch of his fingers along her skin.
The blood was tacky where it clung to her cheek, ever so faintly, and she lifted a hand to rub at her face as she watched him walking away. She thought about slamming her fist into the back of his head, driving her elbow between his shoulders. Any number of underhanded attacks or shouted retorts, but she said nothing, did nothing, but stood there and scrubbed his blood from her cheek.
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:46 pm
Something told him Navi would not attack - she could have, definitely. After all, he was giving her his back as he walked away - and he had dared to touch her face, even call her beautiful. Celsus was unsure of how the word would be taken. Would she be disgusted? Tell him that his vision was skewed? Throw an angry punch to his face?
But she did none of these things, however. There was silence behind him as he stepped towards the door, hand reaching towards the handle to pull it open. The shadows on the rooftop seemed to elongate, stretching along the crumbled brick, dance along dirty grey cement, distorting what was in their path.
A gust of dry air met his face as Celsus opened the door that led to the stairs that would take him down, away from Navi and back out onto the silent streets of Destiny City.
His foot stopped before it landed on the first step.
"I am sorry, you know."
Celsus' voice was quiet, hardly audible above the sound of the wind. He turned back to look at Navi, his expression half hidden by the shadows cast by the moonlight. But there was a serious look in his eyes that belayed the otherwise calm facade.
"About your family. I'm sorry you lost them."
Then he turned and disappeared down the stairs without another word.
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:04 pm
The apology struck her harder then any other blow, like a slap in the face, and she flinched at the quiet voice. The muscles in her shoulders tightening as all that carefully locked away pain threatened to boil over once again. It wasn't fair, they weren't supposed to be compassionate or remorseful, and Navi could only watch him disappear down the stairs as moisture welled in her eyes, blurred her vision, and finally spilled down her cheeks.
She hadn't thought about her family in weeks, and until this moment she had sworn she'd dealt with this pain, gotten over that lose, but apparently all it took to dredge it all back was a reminder and an unexpected apology.
Her gaze remained locked on the door to the stairwell long after it had closed behind him, and she waited until the feel of his aura had faded before so much as moving from where she had stood frozen on the roof top. She was at a lose for what to do, or even what to think. How was she supposed to respond when her enemies wouldn't just ask like enemies? She didn't known.
The first mirror she found was her doorway home, and in the safety of her room she curled beneath the covers of her bed, and after weeks of feeling numb to the pain of lose she cried. Until there were no tears left and she fell asleep from exhaustion more then tiredness.
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