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 Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 1:12 pm
Chase had dropped off his war pups unceremoniously in his living room with order to power down immediately and to begin tending to the injured. He'd shoved a Chinese take-out pamphlet at Katrina with instructions to order enough for six and that he would be right back so no one was allowed to leave. And, considering the irritable state he'd been in, his war pups complied, if not begrudgingly.
Still, he had business to attend to and damn if he wasn't going to scold the captain who'd been on the field when she should have been resting. He'd visited her in the hospital for god's sake.
Zircon - Suri - was in no state to be out and about.
And of course she refused to respond to him when he used his crystal in an attempt to contact her, having teleported to the roof of the building across from her apartment.
"Zircon I swear to Cosmos - " he hissed, clutching the purple crystal so tightly he risked cracking it in his palm.
The shift from Labyrinthite to Chase was easy, the cloak and magic sliding off his skin like rainwater when he fished out his phone and dialed Suri's number only to have it go straight to voicemail.
He resorted to texting her, five times.
[Text to Suri: I saw you on the field. ]
[Text to Suri: Stop ignoring my phone calls ]
[Text to Suri: When I get to your door you better open it. ]
[Text to Suri: I swear to - Suri. ]
and the last one just a mess of emoji's that didn't make sense
[Text to Suri: ヽ(￣д￣; )ノ ヽ(●-`Д´-)ノ (ﾒ｀ﾛ´)/ ]
Then, he made his way down the fire escape stairs and over to Suri's home.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 12:58 pm
Zircon had seen him, the image of death rampaging on the battleground, and until his eyes had settled on her, the emotion she'd felt in her chest had been a glimmer of pride. There was the soldier she'd trained under, wreaking havoc on the force that had dared intrude upon their most sacred space, making them pay in sweeps of blood sacrifice. There was a certain elegance to his work, if she cared to watch for more than a moment between navigating the field herself on the shoulders of a lieutenant who might have been fighting for the opposition at this very moment were it not for her timely intervention on that fateful day. As horrifying as it was to watch Order invade their only bastion of safety, even Zircon had to admit a fascination in seeing the brutality of the fight, watching nameless faces get cut down in the fray.
But then Labyrinthite looked at her, and she too became an image of death; wan and frail and barely breathing under the severity of his gaze.
"The battle's over," she murmured to Bolton, squeezing the woman's shoulders. Zircon herself was still reeling over what she'd seen, the entrance and miraculous exit of Order's soldiers, all shadowed by the intensity of a pair of cold whiskey eyes. She called forth the image of Bolton's living room, gasping for air when they arrived. It would have been easier to teleport straight to her apartment, but what was likely about to transpire was something she didn't want to subject to her lieutenant after such a fight. "Power down, stay low, stay safe," she breathed softly, leaning into the arms of the taller woman, and though she felt the exhaustion in her bones, the captain licked her lips and thought of home.
Zircon's body stumbled on the woven rug of her apartment, dissolving to Suri before she even hit ground. Even though Bolton lived only a few blocks away, the strain of carrying someone through a teleportation only to use it a second time had drained whatever reserves eating the starseed had granted her. Curled in the fetal position in a cold sweat, Suri struggled to catch her breath, her lungs burning in her chest. Every heartbeat was an angry mantra in her head; This is not working. This is not sustainable. You are failing.
Somewhere in the kitchen, her phone let off a meow that meant she'd been texted. It meowed a second time, and then a third. It was five times before Suri even realized it hadn't actually been her cat, and by the time she was lifting her head to acknowledge the sound, there was a hurried knock at her door. There was only one person she expected, and playing indifferent would not save her.
"It's unlocked," Suri croaked, struggling to pull herself to sitting on the ground. She could not affort to look weak, even if her bones felt like they'd turned to jello on her last shift. Weakness was not tolerated in the Negaverse.
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:19 pm
Chase was growing impatient out of a mix of irritation that she hadn't called him back or responded to his texts, nor had she answered the door, and general concern for her wellbeing. Suri, as he had last seen her, had been in no position to be on the battlefield especially not after she'd panicked about what they might do when they saw her leg. There was a mild feeling of panic welling up in his belly when she finally answered him.
It's unlocked, Suri had said and sure enough, the door opened easily and he laid a palm flat against the wood when he pushed it open.
"Suri," he said quiet but sternly, stepping into the apartment cautiously. Chase was, in truth, worried about what he might find on the other side of the door or further into the apartment depending on where she was. Closing the door behind him, the man toed his shoes off before carefully padding through the apartment until he found her, struggling to sit up.
"For the love of Metallia - " he hissed, immediately hurrying to her side, crouching down and slipping his hands beneath her arms to help her. "Drop the act Suri," he grumbled, brow creasing in worry. "What the hell were you thinking? You shouldn't have been on the field today."
Not because she wasn't capable but because he was worried that she'd only hurt herself more before she recovered. "You're lucky to come out relatively unscathed," he snapped, exhaling sharply in an attempt to calm his growing fury.
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:10 pm
"Technically, I wasn't on the field, I had a lieutenant carry me," Suri piped up, nevertheless leaning in for his assistance as he knelt down for her. "I was called for, we were all called for, I couldn't just--ugh--"
She winced as she stumbled up, trying to steady herself on a leg that wasn't there with strength she didn't have. If not for Chase and the nearby countertop leading to the kitchen, she would have been on the floor again.
"...I'm fine," she coughed, shaking her head with her eyes down. "I just...teleported too much. No one actually hurt me." Under any other circumstances Suri might have fallen to fear or panic with the edges of anger in Chase's voice, but in that moment she was too tired to even care. She closed her eyes and breathed, trying to keep herself awake and focused.
"I'm sorry, I've been such a...burden," she added, after a moment of searching for the word. "But I had to be there. We all did."
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:28 pm
Technically--
The second that word slipped from his captain's lips his pressed into a thin line. Whiskey eyes narrowed further as he moved his hands to support her. "You could have," he countered in a tone that implied he would have gone to bat for her if anyone tried to insist otherwise.
"That is not the point," he half snarled, fingers pressing too harshly into her side as he tried to reign in his frustration.
One...two...three.
Her words hit him hard enough to leave him physically off kilter and had she not needed him for support, he would have recoiled away. "Stop." The word was harsh and curt as it left his lips and when she looked at him she would find that he was not willing to budge. "Have you forgotten our discussion at the hospital? Our conversation would be largely different and I would not be here if I believed that."
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:14 pm
"But they didn't," Suri insisted, her tired expression straining to grimace as she pulled away from the claws of his grasp. The points of his fingers as they dug into her side were a sharp pain in a chorus of her other smaller, more persistent aches, so it was impossible not to pull away, to put more of herself on the counter as she struggled not to buckle under the weight of his eyes.
"No--no, of course not," she sputtered, shuffling to get her elbows under her for support. She knew Chase, she cared for Chase, but she was more prepared to see those eyes under the tattered cowl of Labyrinthite's hood, when she herself was Zircon and had some measure of strength to pull from the chaos in her heart. Now, as Suri, even in the comfort of her own apartment she had nothing to shield her from the sharpness of his gaze and the gravel in his throat, so unlike the recent charm she'd been spoiled by recently.
"I just--you don't know that I would have gotten a pass for that," she protested, even as her own resilience began to crumble. "There were senshi in Negaspace, there was a line crossed, how was I not supposed to go?" Her eyes wavered as she searched his for answers, for any cracks in the facade that she might cling to. "It was worth Apatite's sacrifice, you can't say it wouldn't have been worth mine if Metallia asked for it."
She lifted her eyes and tried to look strong, but even so she trembled at the thought.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:35 pm
Nostrils flared as he forced air out between them. It would suit him, he supposed, to pick a captain nearly as stubborn as himself to stand by him as he sought to create a team worthy of his version of the Negaverse. Yet, he would not budge.
Unlike Suri, Chase was never without the ever present crawl of chaos beneath his skin and twisting around his core. It showed in the way he talked and even how he presented himself in day to day matters. The man could see how Suri saw the slivers of Labyrinthite when they flared in Chase.
"No, but you know that were they to try and reprimand you, I would intervene. You are mine, Suri and it is in my interest to keep the members of my team in a functioning state." He had told her that he would go to bat for her and to have her try and argue around that only served to infuriate him.
Hands released her when he thought she had enough of the counter to support herself. Stepping away, but still close enough to catch her should she fall, he pinched the bridge of his nose between fingers. Her next sentence hit him hard and when he faced her, anger flashed in his eyes. "Apatite acted foolishly, just as you did. 'Worth' her sacrifice or not, she didn't need to perish the way she did. She took uncalculated risks, as you did. If you're asking me to call you foolish, fine. You do the organization no good when you act like a fool. Consider that you risked that lieutenant, captain, who was forced to carry you around because you did not wait to heal until you could be fitted to carry yourself."
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Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 10:40 am
Backed against her kitchen counter as she was, Suri nevertheless shrank away from his reproach, her glance down so she wouldn't have to feel the burn of his eyes. Of course he'd said he would protect her, but he wasn't immortal, or immune to the anger of Metallia if she so chose to snuff him out. She'd seen enough tyrants and General-Kings and Queens fall to their own hubris not to understand how fragile they really were. Chase couldn't have felt the same way, not with the terror he inspired in so many, not with the adrenaline in his veins that caused that wickedly delightful gleam to his eyes when he was on the hunt. Suri would never know what it was to revel in darkness the way Chase did, but she did know what it was to lay low, to follow orders and survive.
She'd wanted more of that reckless abandon, and in doing so had crossed a line and put Bolton in danger. It was humiliating, foolish, so foolish.
"You're right," Suri muttered, turned away from the harshness of the truth. It was not her way to be bold--every time she'd tried to prove herself, she'd only set herself further back. So she did what came as familiar, soothing like the shadow in her starseed; she looked down, she made herself small, obedient, regretful. She was a soldier of Metallia, but she was a soldier of Labyrinthite first, pawn of a pawn, and she only ever found success when she relented. Even still, the words came bitter to her tongue. It was this sickening feeling of weakness that had driven her to the Negaverse, on the promise of strength and agency. So why, then, did she feel even less at ease than ever before? Was it simply something core to Suri, something that no amount of training could cure? That was perhaps the most harrowing throught to all her years of service, that she was beyond even Chaos's ability to mold, that she would always be this simpering, useless thing.
"It won't happen again," she said, but this time there was less pain to her face, more resignation. It was simple. She lacked strength of her own, so she was nothing if she did not follow instructions. But humility never sat well in her stomach, and it writhed in the pit of her gut, waiting for the moment to lash out. When she finally took the moment to look up from under her bangs, her gaze flickered, searching for something.
"You'll have to tell me when I stop being exempt from orders to all agents, though," she added, thin-lipped in a way that could have been deference or defiance. Either way, the words were stiff, starched and professional, just polite enough not to make a point of the boundaries being set. "I suppose I think too highly of myself to know when to quit."
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:50 am
It was as if Suri couldn't comprehend the lengths that Chase was willing to go for the (few) people he cared about. Chase felt highly about himself, that was true, but he also understood that he was a soldier in Metallia's army who answered to those above him. He was not invincible, but he chose to carry himself as such because it allowed him to extrude confidence that made him a man of quality when it came to leadership.
He had expected more resistance and her concession visibly caught him off guard. It was a split second of a flicker across his face; the slightly opened mouth with a sharp inhale, the furrow of his brow, and the quick snapping upward motion of his jaw.
Carefully, he reigned in his suspicion. "It better not." Chase wanted Suri to succeed, but she wouldn't if she kept making reckless decisions and mistakes. A sneer crossed his mouth when she continued, ah, there it was. "Consider this your only warning then." His pointed smile would have to imply what she could expect if she made him reprimand her.
"Come Suri, the others are waiting." His voice seemed gentler and with the worst of it out of the way Chase stepped closer. "I would rather have my second with me than without."
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Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:12 am
"Of course, sir," Suri looked down, all at once thrilled and ever-so-bitter for being called his second. She was more interested in the moment of surprise that he hadn't meant to share, the smallest of concessions but a victory she would squirrel away nonetheless. She might have been weak and a burden, but she still commanded that he think on his feet, and that was enough of a consolation when all else was lost.
"Lead the way," Suri gestured, leaning around him to reach for crutches. "You know I can't help but follow." She just hoped it didn't require any more teleporting, or she was going to pass out en route.
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:54 am
The hints of a sneer was on his mouth when he offered his arm to the woman. He did not expect her to take it, but wanted her to know he was there to support her if she allowed him. While he could have taken away her autonomy, he would not.
He owed her at least that, after everything.
"To the end, right?" He joked, his tone falling flat unintentionally before he opened the door. Hesitating only for a moment, he took a second to look at Suri on her crutches. His jaw seemed to tick before he shook his head and stepped outside, fully expecting the woman to be right behind him.
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