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 Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 9:26 pm
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It had become Acubens' habit, once she was done with her quota, to find a quiet place in the park and sit out beneath the stars. Once in a while, she would mirrorwalk back home to grab her flask and relax before going home for the night. But drinking alone was a slippery slope that she didn't like to dwell on, so despite the pang in her gut whenever she thought back on the events of the last few weeks, she ignored the call of the drink and just laid out on the grass and listened to the sounds of encroaching spring. New leaves were only just big enough to rustle in the breeze. Small creatures moved in the brush. The scent of the earth rose and surrounded Acubens as she lay int he grass, newly green from the lightning that raged in recent storms. All things considered, it was a beautiful evening, marred only by one thing. A memory that Acubens had been avoiding until she found some place quiet to process it.
It wasn't hard to puzzle out what had happened while Acubens was riddled with crippling madness. She remembered snatches. Little glimpses of what she had done. She remembered healing Scylla for some reason. She didn't remember what drove her to do so. She remembered begging Scylla to stop her. She remembered lashing out at someone with her hands. She couldn't remember who. But as time wore on and the marks on Kiuchi's face grew brighter that evening, she knew who she had struck. All that was missing was the accusation from the boy himself. What would that do to Acubens? To have injured someone so innocent. To have betrayed his tenuous trust.
Look at what you did, Little Bird.
Acubens' heart lurched suddenly, making her roll over onto her side and curl up around herself. What kind of a person was she? He was clearly afraid and she... madness was no excuse. It would never be. She didn't even bother to stop her silent tears.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:18 am
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He had gotten close to Remarque, the other having found him shortly after he'd been woken into the dark mirror court, and offered him a safe place to dwell and a job, as a way to repay the kindness but he hadn't planned to be the most active. It was just...not something he knew much on and didn't consider his sort of thing. That had changed all in a single night. He hadn't planned on getting mixed up into something like that but he'd been curious, something he normally wasn't, but there was just something which had brought him to that wraith and towards other senshi and knights. He wouldn't take back that night if he could, though he might wish certain things hadn't happened, but it had changed him.
He was nervous around others a bit more, knowing what magic could do even to those on the same side, but he wanted to be active and help and serve. It was why he was out and about tonight, rather than curled up with Caleb watching a movie, or gaming, or just lazing about against the other.
He'd been out gathering energy earlier, and still sort of was, he had stopped for a drink though on his way to the park. It was getting warm out and tonight was warm, perhaps a bit too warm for this early in spring, but he'd gotten himself a green tea and passionfruit drink, with tapioca pearls at the bottom, and with that held between both hands and the straw in his mouth he headed into the park. He figured he'd find some people to drain of some energy along the way, but since no one was in sight yet he'd hold his drink with two hands, he couldn't sense anyone else either so he figured himself safe.
The marks on his right cheek, three long marks, were thankfully healing and scabbed up and doing well. No infection, thankfully, and with the cream he was using he figured his chances of scoring would be minimal. That was one thing he wanted to avoid - scars.
Sweenys_Revenge She'll sense him first so he's clueless.Hope this is a good reply.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:39 am
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An energy signal lifted the hairs on Acubens' arms, causing a slight shudder to course lazily through her body. It was a weaker signal, probably a basic senshi.
Oh god... they couldn't find her like this. What would a new arrival think, a dark mirror eternal wrapped around herself nursing her wounds like a child? She had to be strong for them. Lead them. Protect them.
You've already failed.
No. No she hadn't. It was the madness. She hadn't been herself, hadn't been in her right mind. The chaos that had permanently scarred her hands and chest poisoned her mind, it had driven her insane. It wasn't her fault. It couldn't have been.
Acubens cursed to herself, pushing the intrusive thought away with a rough hand and scrubbed her face. No. Not like this. Never like this. If she had sinned the way that she had thought, then the only thing she could do was atone for it. Hiding and trying to erase it would do as much good as crying about it would. She would start here, with the new senshi, and then she would find Kiuchi and beg forgiveness for betraying his fragile trust. After all, Scylla had taught her a valuable lesson. You can't whitewash the past. You have to live with it.
And so she gathered her scattered nerves and pushed herself up out of the grass to greet the new face, a bright smile spreading across hers.
And then all she wanted to do was curl back up.
Kiuchi stood, sipping on some cool drink, face still bearing the marks of her sin. Acubens shrunk back for a moment before she pushed herself forward.
"Hey there, Kiuchi. Long time no see." |
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 2:00 pm
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it had taken time, time spent walking deeper into the park, before he'd felt it. It was a wonder he missed it but that was what happened when you were still as weak as he was, or so he assumed. What he had missed, till not more than a few yards backward, was the signature of another dark mirror senshi - someone who was eternal. He didn't know who, had no way to tell, but he was sort of curious despite the voice in the back of his head warning him against being so curious. He'd already been curious once recently and it hadn't been a pleasant experience, though it had certainly been a learning experience. It had also, he supposed, done him some good as he was getting more involved in being a proper dark mirror senshi.
Looking up from his drink, dark eyes focused right on the owner of the voice. For a moment he paused and considered turning and running, or at least fast walking, the other way. But he didn't he did stop and pause for a moment before pushing on ahead. He couldn't just let fear win out - right? He had to try and find out why....why had she struck him and where did he stand with her.
There was no way to work as a team, or even be on the same team, with something hanging in the air. It didn't work when he gamed with friends and someone was upset with another person, it tended to come out in one screwing over the other, either letting the other die, not helping them or some other thing. It always came out though and screwed with things.
"Acubens..." Drawing closer he kept his drink between both hands, slender fingers peeking out from the gloves he wore as part of his uniform.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:31 pm
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Not even a hello. Acubens' smile faltered just slightly and only for a moment before she recovered. How did she handle this? She considered approaching Kiuchi, and almost lifted a leg to begin her advance, but thought better of it at the last moment. If Kiuchi really was afraid of her, the last thing she should do was come closer. No. He would have to come to her, in his own time, and as he felt comfortable. And Acubens had to create the conditions that would make him comfortable. She instead she held out a scarred hand to him and tried to hold back her white-hot shame.
"I remember," she began softly, searching for the words as she spoke, "little pieces of that battle." Might as well dive in, after all. Acubens was terrible at small talk in normal situations... this was... this needed to be addressed. "I-I remember," she winced, "visions. And... then I remember a face... but... then it's just flashes and..." Acubens' chin began to tremble, and she felt like garbage because she had no right to be crying right now. She had been the betrayer, not the betrayed. "And I remember that you were backing away from me." Her arm fell back to her side as Acubens worked to keep her breathing under control. "That fog that night... it was suffocating. It got into people's heads and fuced with them. It ******** with me. A-and that's not an excuse... but I hope it helps you understand what I was at the time but..." But what? "You've been avoiding me... Kiuchi it doesn't take a genius to add two and two. But I need to hear it from you."
And it was going to kill her.
"Kiuchi did I hurt you?"
Somewhere, deep in the sliver of her heart that still shone brightly with hope wished and prayed that she would get a different answer. She hoped that Kiuchi would smile and shake his head, tell her that he had just been frightened of the battle and that everything was alright. But she knew the answer she would recieve. She just had to hear it before she started to fix what she broke. |
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 8:09 pm
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Pausing as she spoke, slowly, he nodded to her words. His dark eyes focused on her hand - what had happened to it and when? He hadn't noticed it that night although he was sure there were a few things he hadn't noticed that night.
Watching her talk and slowly begin to fall apart he moved closer towards her. She was falling apart because of it and he could see that, he wasn't blind. He wasn't angry at her...just scared. But she wouldn't hurt him - right? She was affected by it and it was eating at her from what he could see, and hear.
"That was why....the voices?" He figured it was his own insecurities, it wouldn't be the first time he found himself thinking such things of himself. Never before had they dealt with the senshi thing but that was new anyway. But self doubt and other things...those weren't all that uncommon for him but given his family it was no surprise. He got a bit lost at times in his thoughts and let his thoughts eat away at him. It would explain it though, if that was the reason for it, because he should have been more focused on what was happening.
He didn't answer, not right away, he took the time to close the distance between them and in a swift movement he stuck the straw be'd been drinking from to her lips. Might as well try and help also...since this was eating at her as well. He was scared, yes, but she was emotionally suffering in a way that he wasn't and she needed some comfort as well as acceptance. Magic was a thing, he knew that now, and it had a lot of power.
"You did...I thought it might happen again...I-I thought I'd done something..." That he had somehow, in some way unknown to him, deserved it. He didn't say it but he didn't think he needed to. He might have to explain why he thought that, and he would.
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:23 pm
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Acubens had been expecting many things. Anger. Rejection. Betrayal. But she had not been expecting to be cared for. She looked down at the cup Kiuchi was holding and took a small sip, the sweetness almost painful on her tongue which had tasted mostly whiskey since that night. It was fruity and sweet, with the lush grassy flavor of tea beneath it. It made Acubens smile despite herself, and wider still when she was surprised with a little bubble. She popped with with her teeth and nodded, muttering, "it's good..."
And then there it was. The truth. It wiped the smile from Acubens' lips and made her sag with the weight of knowledge. The little light of hope settled back down into its corner and promised to be quiet for the time being. Not that Acubens was surprised. She had known the answer in the labyrinth. As Kuchi edged away from her, took a different hallways from her even though he was scared out of his mind -- they all were. Acubens even sensed it from their royals. But still he struck out on his own. Not out of pride, but out of fear.
Fear of her.
Acubens reached up and traced the lines with her finger tips. The dam broke. Her face crumbled like wet pastry. Oh gods, what had she done?
"I could live a thousand years," she whispered, cupping his cheeks in her hands, "and never be able to atone for this sin. But still, selfishly, I beg your forgiveness... you didn't do anything to deserve this. You could never have done anything to deserve this. You are my family now." With each word, Acubens lost more control over her sobs. "And I will spend the rest of my days in this life repenting..."
The voices... Acubens knew them. She nodded, pulling his forehead to meet hers.
"The madness. It was the wraith's weapon against us. But it wasn't just voices for me, Kiuchi. It wasn't just..." It wasn't the sin that tortured her now. As she closed her eyes her brother swung to and fro, lifeless and ghostly pale before her. But it didn't matter.
"What did it tell you," she asked gently. |
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:20 pm
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Maybe, maybe he should have sought her out? Stifled his own fears and his own uncertainties, his fears, and sought her out to speak with her? The questions, the what if's and the doubts...the guilt over letting this sit and fester hit him and he shook his head quickly. He didn't try and push the feelings away but rather he embraced them, accepted them, and tried to comfort the other as she seemed to need it. If it was as she said, and it wasn't her fault, than she shouldn't be hurting herself so much.
"You don't need to...not for so long. Don't hurt yourself anymore." He whispered as he found his right hand holding his cup and his left arm going about her. Offering another sip of his drink, wondering if he could avoid answering her question.
He really shouldn't though..she was offering him information, even if it wasn't complete. he should respect her and explain himself...he needed to - he owed it to her.
"Story time...so maybe a time to sit down or find a place indoors and not out here." Out where they could be sensed and found, the conversation interrupted. "It's not short.."
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:23 pm
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Story time? Was Kiuchi going to ask what else the madness had done to her? She hadn't told anyone else... she was afraid that talking about it might make it true... or was he going to tell her what the madness told him? It's not short? Acubens dutifully took the other sip that she was offered, confusion written on her face. She didn't mind speaking in public... no one was around and she had stretched her senses as far as they would go... so it must not have been about her. What could be so terrible that Kiuchi could not talk to her out in the open, even inf soft voices so close to her? Well if he needed some place to talk to her, Acubens just so happened to know the perfect spot.
She took his hand gently in her own and led him away at his request for a safe place. About twenty paces behind her was a maintenance shed that looked like it hadn't been used in years. In fact, it had been replaced by a new facility on the other side of the park, and the city had just never gotten around to tearing it down. Which suited Acubens just fine, she thought as she shouldered the door open, Kuichi in toe. This had become her quickest way to the park for when she needed to unwind or collect energy for her family due to the full length mirror leaning against the wall inside. It was simple, no frame, and beginning to blacken around the edges. Acubens didn't bother to replace or clean it. The more dilapidated it looked, the less chance someone had of caring about what it was doing there.
She stepped through it, still leading Kiuchi, and followed the familiar path back to her own mirror. She stepped easily out of mirrorspace and into the warm embrace of her home, the scent of blooming spring flowers on in window sills greeting her. She powered down once she was through her mirror, returning to Rhona in blue jeans and an unremarkable tee shirt.
"This is my home," she said gently, leading him through to her little living room where plants sat or hung in every space fit to grow greenery, "And I'm Rhona. You don't have to power down if you don't want, but we're less likely to be bothered here." |
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 3:08 pm
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It was just his want for privacy but also his worry over anyone turning up and hearing it, or it being interrupted, he just hoped as he stood there waiting for Acubens to respond that she would understand. Maybe once he got talking she would? It would help, he supposed, for her to understand what the voices had said to him and why it bothered him so, because he was sure those things wouldn't bother most people - but he wasn't most people. He had all those feelings normally so it had just made it worse for him.
Allowing himself to be taken by the hand and led by Acubens he followed silently. Sipping his drink he let her pull him into the shed, though wondering why they were going into a small maintenance shed. Wouldn't people come in here? That was a risk - right? But it seemed rather...abandoned. Most things you'd expect to be in such a shed weren't there but there was dust and cobwebs, he figured spiders also to with those webs. While he didn't have a fear of spiders he still wasn't a fan of them, they had that sort of creepy thing going on.
What he wasn't expecting was a mirror, why would a mirror be here? Had she placed it? Seeing as she knew it was here, obviously, as he was pulled into it with her. It being only his third time in a mirror, if you didn't count his awakening, it was still a new feeling for him. Unsure of where they were going, he'd never traveled through a mirror and to another though Remarque had told him it was possible, he let Acubens lead him down some path and out into a room where she powered down. it was warm, that was the first thing he thought...than he noted the pleasant floral smell.
Finding a place to set his cup down, half full at this point, he took a moment to power down as well. The sweater he wore was dark in color, no design or anything, and was overly long on him as it reached midway down his thighs. The sleeves covered almost his whole hand, as it was just the tips of his fingers peeked out, through his pants fit better. Either the sweat was bought on purpose to be so big, was someone else's, or it was some sort of mistake he'd made when purchasing it and he'd just never fixed it and gotten the proper size. But it was too big on him - that was for sure.
"Thank you...I didn't think outside would be safe..." He answered once before giving a smile as he reached for his cup and moved to find a seat. "Xi-wang...that's my name." Looking around as he settled himself down he set his cup down on the floor, by his feet, and ran his fingers through his hair.
"It's safer like this, powered down, so no one can pick up my aura and locate us. " He wouldn't risk her home being found, or anyone else's, so it was safer that he power down...and he didn't mind honestly.
"The voice...for me it." Trailing off, biting his bottom lip, he fiddled with the bottom of his sweater. "It reminded me how useless I am..and unwanted...why would you or anyone want me? You were just getting rid of me - like I should be...had realized what I was." It reminded him of what his own mother surely thought of him, he was sure she thought that of him. How could he not think that of her? Looking down into his lap he blindly reached for his drink in order to occupy himself with that as he waited, not daring to look up.
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:22 pm
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This was trust. It wasn't hard for Rhona to give away -- that was part of her methods for creating solidarity in her court -- but something told her that Kiuchi... Xi-wang... didn't give his trust so easily. So when his glamour melted away and he was left standing in his unpowered form, Rhona smiled warmly. She trusted her enough to show her this side of his life. She felt... was blessed the right word? Normally she wasn't overly fond of it, she felt it took away from someone's hard work but... here... in light of what she had done... blessed was the exact right word.
As he spoke, Rhona's heart ached. That kind of thinking... it didn't just happen. People were taught to think that way. Someone planted those seeds, watered them, and made sure they grew. Rhona could only guess how deep those insidious roots went. She settled in next to him and took his hands again.
"You are unspeakably important to me," she whispered, unsure of how, exactly she was going to prove this to him. "Did you see how, without any instruction, you knew -- you just knew what to do with that wraith? No one told you how to attack. You just did. You fought for yourself and your fought for your court. No one would have blamed anyone if they had turned around an run -- did you see that thing!" But they were just words, Rhona knew that. Words from one person against god only knew how many people speaking for god only knew how long. She thought about asking who had told him those terrible things but... it didn't matter. Rhona could burn them to ash, but the marks of their works would still be there. They didn't matter, whoever they were. Xi-wang mattered. That was all.
"What you are is brave. What you are is trusting, and sweet, and wonderful." Rhona cupped Xi-wang's face against and searched for his eyes. "I wasn't... I wasn't always Rhona. Before all of this... I was Micah. I had parents... I had a twin brother..." Misha grinned in the corner of her eye, leaning against the wall opposite them like nothing in the whole world mattered. Rhona didn't move her eyes. If she did, he'd be gone. She swallowed back her tears, the lump of mourning in her throat. "But I gave it all up. I turned my back on all of it because this court, and all of the Senshi who called it home, called to me. I corrupted because I saw what this court could do. I saw the kind of souls to whom it called. Micah didn't die for nothing, Xi-wang. She died for people like you. People that she and I both know were worth that loss." |
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 6:00 pm
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"It's only recent that I seem to be important to people, first time since I was little." Since his mother had met that woman. She had changed his mother, made her worse then she had already been becoming, he wondered often times if his mother would have wound up where she was now, in regard to her opinions and thoughts, if it hadn't been for that woman. Had it been bound to happen no matter what? perhaps just slower. He would have, years ago, thought that no...he would have saved his mother form becoming as she was...but he wasn't so sure now. He had a feeling it had been there and the woman in his mother's life had just brought that about quicker. She had come into their life with a dislike for men and even little boys and she hadn't hidden it, not in the slightest bit. She had just...worked slowly and manipulated his mother - he was sure of it. He'd seen and heard a good deal of it.
"I was there...I had to do something - try to prove I wasn't worthless." That he had some worth, something beyond what little there was. But the voices had come and whispered to him that he wasn't worth it, the same words he'd heard before, that he'd thought to himself and heard aloud in the voices of other people. "I saw it...the wraith. I-I had to try...to help." Since Remarque had taken him in and helped him...he couldn't let him down. Acubens had been there as well, at first, and he wanted to prove himself - still did. He had been scared of her after she had struck him...but that was melting away as he sat there and turned his dark eyes onto her slowly.
"You were...on the other side. Why give it up? Family...some people would do anything for family." He would. Was the court here more of a family than her blood family? Was that something he was to discover about those of the dark mirror? if so he would work harder...prove himself more. He wouldn't be how his mother saw him - he wouldn't!
Swallowing he shifted a bit so he faced the other fully, sitting sideways in order to do so, and settled his now nearly empty drink back onto the floor. "My mother...she hated my father. She never...never loved him. It was arranged - back in China..by their families. They came here, for what reason I don't know, my mother was pregnant." Shrugging he couldn't say anything about his father...he didn't know. He'd never met the man, he just had his last name unlike his mother who didn't....hadn't for as long as he knew. That was always interesting during parent teacher conferences, especially if the teacher would comment about it the next day or another parent would say something and their kid would hear. Questions and the teasing of little children - it could be cruel.
"Mom...liked the freedom here and divorced. I wasn't born until after the divorce...she got full custody and moved here...without my father knowing...I've never met him - I - I don't know his name or anything about him." Or his family back in China, assuming they were all still there. He had no idea if any had moved to from China much less where to.
"It was ok when I was little, I remember it slowly changing though. Less lessons in Chinese...less stories of home. She grew to hate me as I reminded her of what she'd been through." Not that she had been through a lot, at last he didn't think so but who was he to judge? It was her experience and he couldn't judge it, she wasn't him and her feelings and thoughts were different from him.
"It was just us though...it was ok, even with that." He whispered shaking his head and moving his head out of Rhona's old. Dark eyes closing as he took a slow, shaky, breath. Trying to calm and settle himself. This was why he'd asked for this talk somewhere else. He needed - had to - explain to her why something as simple and silly as what he'd heard in his head had been there...why he'd fallen for the words...why he had been scared of her - of being useless and thought she'd realized it.
"Mom found someone...at a protest against men, one of the first ones she went to...maybe the first one. She brought her into our family of two and it turned into everything I did was wrong - I was a boy...I - I was lesser...didn't matter as much. I was useless and violent by nature..." Here he broke off and took another shaking breath as he drew his slender legs up and held onto them. The wraiths words had hit home with such painful accuracy, he'd wanted to just...crawl somewhere dark to hide. But he couldn't. He had to help....Remarque had helped him and gave him a safe place to stay...and Acubens, only met that night, had been kind to him...helpful. He couldn't let them down. To know what Acubens thought of him that night...it filled him with warmth and pleased him, had him smiling even as he spoke, even as each breath he took was shaky. He fought back the water that filled his eyes, not a drop falling.
"I-I think they'd replace me if they could...both of them. Adopt a daughter..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 6:55 pm
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Rhona sat quietly and listened to the story she was offered, trying to keep her expression as neutral as possible despite the deep, seething rage that boiled within her. With his last proclamation, Rhona fell silent, trying to find the words. They had to be right. They had to be poignant and not real, but not overwhelming. But they were like smoke, twisting around her fingers but never truly in her grasp. Had she been silent for too long? She needed to say something -- do anything. She settled for laying a hand on Xi-wang's with a soft, sad smile, fighting back her own flow of tears.
"Well, if that woman doesn't want you, then I do. I can be your mom."
It sounded silly when Rhona said it, but in her mind it was the right thing to say. In her heart it was the right thing to say.
"As for my family," she began gently, searching again for words, "I did do everything for my family. I left because I had become a danger to them." Now this story... this was one she hadn't told anyone before. Why then was she sharing it now? Something about her need to gather information... how could she expect Xi-wang to trust her if he didn't know everything? "When I was younger," she tested carefully, watching her friend out of the corner of her eye, "I became something... different. I was made into something that I didn't recognize. There was... this general. Bischofite. He was a monster. Evil in the truest sense of the world. His only goal was to burn the world and rule over the ashes. And I got it into my head that I would be the one to stop him. He saw that righteousness within me, I think, and sensed that it was selfish in nature. I didn't want to stop him because he was evil. I wanted to stop him because it would make me important. He began testing me. At first he only tortured me with physical pain. Our battles were always bloody, and it was always my blood that spilled." This was where the story got tricky... Rhona steadied herself with a shaking breath and pulled at her hair nervously.
"As time went on, began testing me. At first, he only put civilians in danger, trying to see who I would choose, him or innocent lives. At first, it was an easy enough choice. I tried to protect the civilians as much as I could. But he made sure that I knew he was toying with me. He knew that I was prideful and stupid. He knew that it would cloud my judgement. Soon, it seemed like a few broken civilian bones was a suitable price to pay -- after all, I was stopping a demon. But it evolved from that. Broken bones turned into missing limbs. Small cuts turned into hemorrhaging gashes. And I rationalized it all. Civilian casualties were always to be expected during a war. At least they never died. I had saved their lives, even if they were worse for the wear. But still he pushed. One night, I had to choose between civilian lives and the chance to stop him. I didn't even blink. I sent a dozen people to die, knowing that I could never beat him, but needing to try. And he knew what I would do. He was always two steps a head of me in planning, in strength... in everything. He... he made me watch as..." Rhona stopped, covering her mouth the stop the scream that had begun to escape. She clutched Xi-wang's hand like a lifeline, grounding herself in the feeling of it.
"I was a White Moon senshi stained red. I was dripping with innocent blood, and my court turned it's back on me. The final irony was that it wasn't even me that killed him, eventually. He ended up dying of his own mania. Bischofite may be gone, but his ghost still haunts me. I may never be free of him... I wasn't the same after that. I had sinned so profoundly I could never atone. I was quieter. Angrier. My brother didn't know what to do with me. My parents were worried about me. I couldn't keep them worrying. So... Micah died. She burned in a warehouse fire fighting the youma that Bischofite had become. Misha and my parents buried and empty casket, but they don't have to worry about me anymore.
"And I came home to the Dark Mirror Court. It had been calling to me since I had first met Lesath but... I denied that call. Sometimes I think everything that happened was punishment for denying my fate for so long. Sometimes I think that there was no other way that my life could have gone..."
Now it was Rhona's turn to avoid eye contact.
"I'm a murderer, Xi-wang. And no one else would take me. The Dark Mirror Court is my home because it is a home for all lost souls. Mine and yours both." |
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 7:42 pm
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Even if it sounded silly, or cheesy, the words 'I can be your mom.' meant something to him, they were warming. He had a mother, in blood, but she hadn't been his mother in a long time at least not in all the ways which mattered. She was there physically, she provided food and a home as well as clothing - the necessary for life things. But beyond that..it had been years. For someone, even someone not much older than himself, to say something like that and with conviction...he wanted to hug the other but he didn't - she was talking again.
She was speaking about her own family and it was only right that he sit there and listen, silently, as she had done for him. it was likely important, he was sure of it.
Listening to what this person had done to her...had made her do and had made her become. He was shocked to know she had ever been like that. yes, she had scared him and attacked him. But he couldn't picture her sending innocent people off to die. It didn't make him hate her though and it didn't scare him. It wasn't her, at least not the one sitting here with him. This one, Rhona, knew what had happened and that it was wrong...she had learned and that was how long ago? She wasn't going to do similar again - he was sure of it. She had been manipulated and made into a puppet.It made him hate the this person...this Bischofite. He had done this to her...and he hoped he never met them, for his own safety not the General's.
Letting her clutch at his hand he pulled her in and wrapedhis long arms about her, slender fingers moved to her curly hair and combed through it gently. So this General was dead - good. It served him right, he got what he'd earned. The very fact he thought that hit him moments later and shocked him. He was glad someone was dead...thought they deserved it. He'd never thought such a thing before - about anyone. It was...unbalancing and for a moment he wondered about it but pushed it aside to examine later.
She had changed sides to help her family...in order to not worry them any longer while giving herself a new life so she could heal, at least as much as possible. Could he compare it, even a bit, to how being brought into the dark mirror had opened new paths for him? Was offering him a life and an exit from the old...or at least putting space between him now and his family? He could compare it but it didn't seem right. Instead he held onto the other.
"It's not your fault. He made you...he made you into a puppet. I'm glad they took you in, you didn't deserve what the white moon did." She also didn't deserve what the General had done. He could understand why this court was her family - why she loved them so much. It made sense now.
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Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 10:07 am
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Suddenly Rhona was being held. She wasn't sure when she had fallen into Xi-wang's arms, but there she was. And there she stayed while ugly sobs wracked her body, pouring infection from her long ignored wounds. Xi-wang didn't think she was a monster. He didn't brand her as blood-thirsty and run away from her.
Had that been her fear all along? That if anyone found out what she had done, they would turn thier back on her too? How long had she just been ignoring them? Hoping that they would go away? Pretending that they didn't hurt like hell -- they did. How long had she just been living with that pain? She didn't really feel better, persay. Lancing an infection always came with it's own pain but... it wasn't as sharp in Xi-wangs arms. It didn't throb so much.
"Oh gosh," she finally sniffed, sitting back up and blotting the moisture from Xi-wang's shoulder with a blanket. "This was supposed to be about you, wasn't it? And here I am making it about me. Xi-wang, family is all we have. But the thing about that is that you can choose your family if you want. I chose mine. Remarque, Lesath, Leto, you... you are the family that I have chosen. The family that I was born into... the White Moon... they are no more family to me than a stranger. Blood of the covenant will always be thicker than the water of the womb." Rhona smiled, taking Xi-wang's hands again. "Bischofite didn't make me into a puppet, Xi-wang. He stripped away all semblance of control and revealed my unrelenting rage. That's all I was as a White Moon Senshi. Angry, spiteful, and petty all the time. I could have tried to make a family there but... I was too blinded by my own fury of being drafted into a war that was not mine to fight... I don't have to fight here. And neither do you, honey." She reached up and stroked his cheek where she had marked him, regret still stinging in her gut.
"As for your mother," she sighed, careful now to choose her words with care, "You will decide if you want her to be a part of your story or not. But you have a place here." She swept her arm out at ehr apartment, small a cluttered with plants and gardening tools, but welcoming all the same. "Now that you've seen the inside, you can mirror walk here whenever you want. Day or night. Whether I'm home or not. There's food, a pull out couch, TV. Whatever. And whatever you decide, I'll be here." |
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