[ Trigger Warning: Graphic Content, Violence, Violence Towards Animals ]
Hvergelmir had never liked sneaking into the city at night.
'Under cover of darkness' was no way to travel at all, if a body wore a shimmering white dress and an equally white scarf. Darkness covered nothing.
Even Dionysia didn't prefer it. He usually wrapped himself up in a heavy brown wool cloak when he had to go afield at night. 'One should have the audacity of a supernova,' he'd told her once, fastening the clasp of the itchy, outdated garment beneath his throat, 'but not its death wish.'
Hvergelmir had a brown cloak of her own, just now, having agreed on the point. She wasn't sure whether it was the wool or her nerves making her arms itch.
Sneaking into the city alone (or very nearly alone) was worse. She had only a Mauvian with her, to keep her energy masked -- there was no room for extra weight on this mission. Get to the safehouse -- which, today, was the two bedroom apartment of a Watcher whose identity they didn't want revealed to the Dark Mirror Court -- get the dying man who was being sheltered there, and get out.
There were always patrols, and she was trying to avoid them as best she could, but at night, the city was swarming with them -- and she and Nærøyfjord had killed a few on their most recent supply run. The Negaverse was bound to step things up for a while. They always did.
'Be careful,' the Watcher relaying information had told her, 'things may not feel too different on the ground, right now, but there are more of the bastards out there than you think. We've got reports some people are patrolling in plainclothes to keep their auras from being felt.'
Now, she and her Mauvian companion -- a Russian blue named Ramses -- were picking their way through alleyways, trying to make it into the quieter residential districts. They'd just run into a narrow thoroughfare that was clogged with trash and discarded old furniture like some kind of makeshift barricade someone had accidentally erected by everyone chucking their unwanted stuff in the same place at once.
Ramses had gone to scout the nearby streets, to search for an alternate route -- but nothing too far. The Cosmos knight should've easily been shielded from her aura being read. Hvergelmir, meanwhile, was quietly trying to assess whether there was any way to get up over the big mess of furniture without causing an incredible racket.
Hadn't it been sort of a while? Shouldn't Ramses have been back by now?
Nuxazzzzzz
updated to add TW header for the thread just in case~
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 3:43 pm
He preferred to hunt at night as the dark was his favorite time of day. He supposed it had much to do with the way he blended in seamlessly, with the exception of the stark pink of the center of his hair. It wasn't visible now, however, as it was covered by the hood that shadowed his whole face. All that could be seen beneath the cloth was the stark brightness of his gold eyes.
He also simply enjoyed appearing as the grim reaper of death to those who only knew of him but had not seen him.
He had a fondness for becoming the monster in someone's nightmares, if they survived an encounter with him.
Security had been upped in recent times, because too many senshi supporters were escaping. Too many senshi or order-aligned characters were surviving. Labyrinthite intended to change that.
His prowl through the city was quiet, as he had long since learned to move with little to no noise, and he'd thought to do something about the massive leak of energy that he extorted but he cared little for the guardian cats and no longer felt comfortable in any skin that wasn't his General-King form. Besides, Chase Black died the day he was promoted.
He had stumbled upon Ramses by chance and, really, the man didn't trust cats of any kind, but upon seeing the star in the center of Prussian's forehead he had wasted no time. When the cat gave him no information he'd snapped it's neck and waited, for the order energy signal to flare.
He wasted little time in going straight for the source when it flared, carrying the dead feline by it's tail. When he found the Cosmos knight he was surprised, but amused and threw the cat at her feet. "My, my Hvergelmir. Why the long face, I think you should smile."
There was a General-Sovereign's energy signature nearby -- very nearby. As it approached, Hvergelmir pulled herself to a dead stop in what she was doing and held as still as possible. No noise now. Ramses was an excellent Guardian, poised in the face of any danger, and he'd never let his focus slip when masking an aura. They'd be fine. The General-Sovereign would pass by.
She held her breath. The ugly, oppressive aura moved past her, maybe a block out of sight -- too close for comfort -- and she was just thanking her lucky stars when suddenly, without warning, it stopped again. Maybe talking to someone, maybe one of those plainclothes patrols Hvergelmir had been warned about. If she just stayed quiet, stayed out of sight, she'd be fine. As soon as the danger had passed, Ramses would come out from whatever dumpster he'd no doubt had the sense to squirrel himself under and they could get back to work.
She liked Ramses. He was sort of elegant and refined, and there was a kind of disarming, golden-accented beauty to his silver-haired humanoid form. He gave a person the impression of a cat, even on two legs: effortlessly confident, certain of himself in any circumstance. On four legs, though, he was a reassuring presence for people doing field work. Nothing ever frightened him outwardly.
He was the first thing Hvergelmir saw, when the thick black energy of the General-Sovereign turned back and moved unerringly in her direction, finding his way to the mouth of the alley with the certainty of someone who could sense exactly where he was. The lifeless, wrong-limbed body of a once-proud Guardian Cat, dangling rudely from the General-King's hand by its tail, head lolling.
Hvergelmir's eyes traveled next up the man's arm to his face, half-hidden in shadows.
He had gold eyes, glittering in the darkness. They were eyes she could remember from a much closer distance than this, vicious and full of malice. Eyes she saw, sometimes, in her dreams, full of laughter and terrible anger and incredible, hateful violence. She never remembered him as a person anymore, but as a great, horrible shadow monster that ate men's hearts, a creature with a thousand bladed fingers and an endless, endless smile. There had been too many nightmares.
There was a moment when the world seemed to turn to a fuzzy, eggshell white, and she thought she would faint from sheer terror.
Labyrinthite.
Against reason, obeying only wild instinct, her feet took her another two steps backward into the blocked alleyway. Hvergelmir could see herself shaking.
He moved, and the little gray body in pretty jewelry that had once belonged to Ramses landed squarely at her feet. The careless taunt and the cruel joke settled in her stomach like a knife had been driven there.
Hvergelmir's eyes were wide, the pupils terror-blown. She summoned her tall staff to hand, then stood frozen behind it, unable to conceive of what to do.
Her impulse was to scream. Her impulse was to light the rising star of her knight magic and let every knight and senshi in the city come to her aid until Labyrinthite went away, away, anywhere away, just so he was gone. Her impulse was to curl into a ball on the ground and cover her face and cry, just like she had the first time they'd ever met.
She couldn't do these things. They'd get every Resistance operative in the city killed, if she did. But she wished she could -- and she wanted it so incredibly, powerfully badly that it was hard to even think of any other options.
Hvergelmir couldn't offer an answer to what the General-King was saying. He of all people knew she couldn't. She couldn't even spit at his feet. You needed a tongue to spit properly.
She'd been in battles before. She was usually better than this, at least. Why wouldn't her brain tell her what to do? Why now, when her own personal bogeyman had come for her?
She held her staff in a defensive posture, her knuckles tellingly white.
Labyrinthite was going to kill her. She was going to die with his seething hatred rattling like laughter in her ears. She was sure of it.
Nuxaz
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:44 pm
As a creature--because, really, he couldn't quite be considered a man anymore-- whose appearance often signified that death was near, if you stood against him, he was accustomed to watching as even the strong crumpled in terror before him. The Cosmos knight was no exception as she stumbled backwards and froze behind her staff, as terror lit her eyes and shuddered through her frame. She of all people knew what he was capable, she bore scars from his cruelty. She lived as an example so other knew, but he didn't think he'd let her live as an example this time.
He was ruthless, malicious and not an ounce of humanity remained in his veins for General-King Labyrinthite was a monster and he embraced it. He took pleasure in knowing he haunted the survivors.
When Hvergelmir did not response, as he knew she couldn't, he advanced toward her. He extended his arm to the side to summon his scythe, the skeleton weapon materializing in his hand and he glanced at the dark metal of the blade before coyly looking back at her. "What's the matter, love?" He taunted, kicking Ramses's body towards her. "Cat got your tongue?" He titled his head back to cackle before pausing and feigning confusion as though he was recalling something. "Oh, wait," he paused to tap his chin with his free hand. "Wasn't that me?" He grinned at her, showing his pearly white teeth, canines sharpened from his time in the rift. From the influence of chaos.
He quite possibly resembled a wolf in a man's form. Or death personified, which really had been his goal.
There wasn't much space between them and, really, if he wanted he could have swiped out at her and cut her clean in half but instead he extended his weapon towards her, tapping the top of her staff with the tip of his scythe. He preferred to toy with his victims now. His joy in her pain would have only been exemplified his pleasure if she could beg for mercy, if she could plead for her life.
But she couldn't, because he had taken her tongue from her. He had grabbed her by the jaw, cut up her mouth and ripped out her tongue.
He had no patience for those who tried to create traitors, no patience for those that attempted to manipulate and extort his soldiers. That was his job. Take control from the monster and witness devastation.
"Do you see me when you sleep? Do you dream of me? Do I haunt your very existence knight?" He snarled, sliding forward as he moved his weapon to knock hers out of the way so he could use his empty hand to grab her by the neck. "Do I make you dream of death?"
It had been three years, now, and Hvergelmir could get through the day without constantly thinking of Labyrinthite. Without thinking of what he'd done to her, or of all that he'd taken away. Her tongue, her voice, her vocation, her family, her ability to maintain a civilian identity -- all gone, now. It used to occupy her every waking thought. Now she could go whole hours of the day living life in the new way she'd had to learn to live it, and she could almost forget.
But at night, she lay down on her air mattress and curled up to sleep, and there was no keeping him out. She could avoid sleep as long as she liked, and hide under her blankets and zip her tent up tight and be sure that the Guard was out there, protecting them all, and that she could not have been more safe -- and still he was always there, waiting, faithful as a lover, no matter what she did. Dreams always came eventually, and he came with them.
She dreamed she could see his eyes. She dreamed she could feel the heat of her own blood running down her neck. She dreamed of his anger and his laughter, and of blinding pain before she'd fainted -- and except on those occasional nights when she woke up screaming, alarming half the camp to alert -- she woke sobbing instead, choking on throatfuls of blood that weren't really there.
Yes. She dreamed of death. She dreamed of him.
Hvergelmir put up an inexpert fight in the face of his advance. His move to disarm her came only one-handed against a weapon she was holding in her two. That should've given her advantage enough to make a go of it, even with the difference in strength that his rank afforded him over her -- but his other hand went straight for her throat. Instinct told her to protect her throat the same way it told her to put down a hand to catch herself if she was falling, or to cover her eyes if something was about to poke an eyeball out. She dismissed her weapon to scrabble at his fingers -- but wasn't fast enough. Labyrinthite's hand caught in the white scarf that was wrapped around her neck, and his fingers closed tight.
Hvergelmir let out a wordless keening sound, fear and dismay, and started tearing and clawing desperately at his hand, trying to get away.
Fear and adrenaline were kick-starting her brain back into gear again, though -- and once her thoughts came back into function, she let go and slid her thumb over the top of her signet ring, kept turned to the inside of her hand. Starlight shimmered gently over her as she woke her aspected magic. She reached out with both hands, magic now activated, to flatten her hands over Labyrinthite's face and shove it away from her.
ASPECT OF THE COSMOS: The silvery sheen of starlight covers the Knights of the Cosmos, and their touch is just as heavenly. It's warm and pleasant to most, but acidic and painful to corrupted beings. For the followers of Chaos, physical contact with one of these Knights feels like a mild chemical burn: although it does little in the way of damage, it's hard to tolerate it.
Nuxaz
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:11 am
In the face of the pale-haired woman's terror, Labyrinthite laughed-- a deep, throaty laugh that was terribly, terribly dark. It vibrated through his entire frame until it traveled out his fingers and into the too-white fabric of the scarf around her neck as he pressed them deeper, harder until he could feel her pulse. It was sickening to see how much pleasure he took in her torment, her pain-- it showed in the sinister grin that stretched across his lips until it looked like it would split his face, in the way his eyes lit up when he stared maniacally into her matching pair, and simply in the way he moved, like a cat toying with a mouse.
Everything about him was predatory.
It also showed in the mocking way he would say her name, in a fake, endearing manner and the way he taunted her about her inability to speak. "Oh, Hvergelmir," he sighed, "It's a shame I won't get to hear you---" he was cut off by the acidic burning sensation that erupted across his flesh when her palms pressed against it. A hiss and a slight growl slithered from beneath clenched teeth and he jerked back, grip loosening but not quite gone. He tried to keep his hold on her but, despite his efforts, he was forced to let go--the burning worsening the longer he kept contact.
He recoiled backward, dropping both the woman and his weapon, which clattered unceremoniously to the ground, hands flying to his face in a poor attempt to wipe Cosmos's magic from his skin. He staggered back again, tall frame hunching over with his fingers digging into the skin of his cheeks and he remained that was until the magic subsided.
His head turned slowly, eyes narrowed into slits with his grin missing entirely, replaced by tight pressed lips whose corners were curling into the beginnings of a snarl. "Witch," he growled. His body twisted as he turned, head first followed by his shoulders until the rest of him followed suit until he faced her and was standing at his full height, his hood settling on his neck. "You will regret that," he warned, taking slow steps forward. "You think you can stop us? You and your pathetic band of rebels?"
He threw his head back to laugh, laugh a bitter laugh that echoed against the walls of the alley. "You can't stop us. Chaos is contagious, my dear. It will plague every heart in this city but it won't stop there." He lifted a finger to shake back and forth at her. "No, you see we are hungry," his tongue flicked out to run across the sharp points of his teeth. "And we're insatiable."
He erupted in laughter again, stopping a few feet from where she was. "It won't end with Earth, knight. The universe will be ours."
Labyrinthite was backing away. She'd done it, he'd let her go -- Hvergelmir caught her breath in desperate relief, coughing wildly. She powered down her magic again, conserving it in case he tried the same thing twice. Her throat burned, still somewhat constricted from his hold. She imagined she could still feel his fingers around her throat. She imagined maybe she always would.
His words hurt, though -- driving sorrow into her skin like railroad spikes being hammered through her heart: not because he was telling her something she hadn't known, but because he was telling her something she'd known all along. The true goal of the Negaverse. The true goal of Chaos.
The misbegotten cause that Metallia had given to her soldiers -- the protection of Earth from the alien menace -- was an empty lie. The mission so naive, so hopeful, that Hvergelmir had been moved to a compassionate oath on behalf of those who cleaved unto it . . . it was a propped up straw man crusade to lead child soldiers off to die and make war.
It was something they'd always understood, over on the Order side. But no Negaverse officer had ever admitted that it wasn't just a lie, it was a lie that, behind closed doors, the Negaverse no longer even pretended to follow. The thing she'd laid down her armaments for -- was it truly dead?
Labyrinthite came closer, the hideous sharp points of his teeth glinting in the lamplight. She didn't need to defeat him -- she just needed to find a way to get enough fleeting distance between them to summon Eikthyrnir and get away.
A little closer . . . a little closer, and she could summon her distaff again, right up into the space between his legs where it was bound to hurt if he didn't see it coming. Hvergelmir just had to be patient and not panic.
'It won't end with Earth, knight. The universe will be ours.'
He had dry, chilling certainty on his face when he said it. Hvergelmir felt a chill run up her left arm. Fear? Apprehension? But when she looked down, a cool light was radiating from her shoulder -- just as it had on the day five and a half years ago, when she'd first sworn her oath to Avalon.
A reminder to her, perhaps. About what she fought for, what she believed in. A reminder to both of them -- that not all ideals failed, that her honor remained untarnished even if her face had not.
'Chaos is contagious, my dear. It will plague every heart in this city but it won't stop there.'
She shook her head slowly, glaring back. No. Not every heart.
Nuxaz
Laby's faster than Hver, so he should have no problem making any move he likes before she can execute her brilliant family jewels plan here XD Her oath is p. much ready to crack, if he mocks it at all while going for a forcible corruption it should do the trick~<3
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:48 pm
As he stared her down, the general-kind could see the gears in her head turning, trying to figure out some method of escaping. It made him laugh again, the sound rumbling out through his chest and bouncing off the walls of their alleyway. "You aren't going anywhere, love," he told her, shaking his head in pity, "but don't worry. I'm not going to kill you."
He smiled, but there was no warmth in his grin because what he was going to do to her instead was a fate worse than death for such a loyal knight. He was going to destroy the Cosmos knight and remake her, mold her into a monster like himself and force her to turn on everyone and everything she sought to protect.
He was going to corrupt her. He was going to grab her by her starseed and let chaos fill every fiber of her being until there was nothing else. Until she was unrecognizable.
He lifted his hands, picking imaginary lint off the singular glove covering his right hand and then he laced his fingers together and stretched his arms out before him until the cracking of his knuckles could be heard. He followed that by rotating his neck so he could hear the popping, then he slid forward so quick and fluidly she didn't have a chance to react before his hand was plunging into her chest. His rank and power-level exceeded hers and his excessive training habits had given him an edge over her. Training and combat had become his life since he'd been just a captain.
It had only intensified by his banishment to the rift five years ago and that experience had robbed him of any mercy or compassion he'd had left. It had created the feral, cruel create before him. The monster who lurked in the shadows and haunted dreams.
He reached into the subspace where her starseed rested, gloved fingers curling around the fragile object. The essence that was Hvergelmir, Knight of Cosmos. "You see, I could kill you but your starseed would return to the cauldron and you could be reborn and plague this city again," he sighed, squeezing just enough to make her squirm. "You see my dear Hvergelmir, I intend to do something much more permanent than death." He reached his other hand out to stroke her face. "Poor dear, after I'm done with you you'll be unrecognizable," he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in a tsk,tsk fashion. "You'll no longer be protecting this planet, or any planet really, you'll be destroying it alongside the rest of it. You'll poison your wonder and join us as chaos plagues the universe."
He threw his head back to cackle as he sent a burst of chaotic energy through his palm and into the physical manifestation of her soul. "Your pathetic oath has rendered you weak, it is worthless. Meaningless. Pathetic. Especially now that you will be one of us. Every heart will be plagued and you will be nothing more than another victim. Your oath cannot protect you, it will destroy you."
That was all Hvergelmir could think. It hurt every time -- just like the first time, with Schorl's hand inside her. No one was supposed to -- she couldn't breathe -- she didn't want --
She could feel Labyrinthite's hand inside her chest, curling around the crystallized light at her center. Closing his fingers around her whole life.
Hvergelmir gasped. Whimpered. Couldn't move.
Hurt.
Could still hear. Didn't want to.
She didn't want to know what he was going to do to her -- what he was doing to her. If he meant to blacken her heart, she didn't want to be here for this moment. She wished she could faint away, blank out the sound or the sight of him somehow. Hvergelmir didn't want the experience if she was going to have to live for the aftermath.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. Apparently she could still cry. One of them rolled just past her mouth, almost all the way down to her chin -- and there it solidified into a small, bright star, glowing beneath her skin.
A bright light broke from between Labyrinthite's fingers -- and with it, an enormous expulsion of power -- enough to throw him physically back several feet.
Hvergelmir watched dizzily, coming back to herself. She knew this phenomenon. This was a documented phenomenon. The light, the powerful kickback... -- this was... --
Transcendence, they called it. The fulfillment of the bond.
Her skin was coming alive with light -- most of it glowing behind her, some of it up over her shoulders. On her left shoulder, the rainbow light glowed only in bright, clear gold. Hvergelmir looked down to see the familiar old lines of her seal fading away, replaced by a halo of scattered stars -- all except the bright golden star, the one that had risen out of the well. That alone stood as the largest, clearest mark on her arm -- a brilliant star among the rest.
She had sworn an oath to her Wonder once, long ago. Through long years and hard temptations, she had kept it, honoring her pledge. Now, at last, her Wonder was honoring her in turn.
She was grateful.
Hvergelmir looked over at Labyrinthite for a long moment.
Here was the man who'd haunted her for so long. Here was her own personal ghoul -- the man who'd taken from her the first thing she'd treasured -- her vocation, her peaceful work -- and the man who'd just tried to destroy the greatest possession she had to protect: the sanctity of her very being. He could take many things from her now -- even her life. But all his horrors could no longer turn her heart.
She felt, ever-so-slightly -- free.
Scooping up Ramses' small, soft body in her arms, Hvergelmir stepped back. Labyrinthite was still recovering. Without a Mauvian, her mission was already compromised -- she'd have to turn back, dying man or no.
Brushing her thumb over the opal ring on her left hand, she called down her summons. The great caribou touched down to Earth silently, offering its brief, huffing judgment at Labyrinthite. Easy, my pretty love, she thought, laying a soothing hand to its neck as she put her foot up in the stirrup. Don't worry about him. We'll be gone in a moment.
She slipped into the saddle and focused on her destination, thoughts echoing down to her antlered companion. The caribou snorted, rearing back on its delicate hind legs -- then it darted forward into a run, taking a long leap through the air straight toward where Labyrinthite had fallen --
-- and the beast and its rider disappeared into thin air, leaving only a fast-fading shower of sparks crumbling through the air.
Nuxaz
fin on my end, thank you sooooo much for a wonderful thread and for obliging me with Laby's utter creepiness~ Feel free to either write a wrap post for Laby or not, as you prefer <33333
