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 Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:11 am
Remarque had dropped the dark mirror senshi off back at her home,
the same one she shared with Hydrus and Aurostibite, drained from the months worth of madness and the empty box that she had recovered from mirrorspace.
She had no concept of the time she had been gone, and with how weak she felt, she was sure that perhaps she had only been missing for a couple of days.
Magiore was certainly going to be worried, and as she faded from Mintaka to Durumi, the white haired girl used whatever was left of her energy to drag herself inside and to one of the parlors of the room. Not the same one she had been decorating for Hydrus's school....one of the quiet ones.
One with no mirrors.
Her small form curled on a small chair and she rested her head against the side of the chair's back.
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 2:39 pm
He was going to go stir crazy.
Time, at some point, had stopped making sense. It slipped out of Magiore's fingers like grains of sand, so that he'd lost track of what day exactly it was, everything blending together in a haze of confusion and foggy memories. He went to school, taught his classes, went through the daily routines of life.
And still no Durumi.
The ache in his chest was an ever present, painful thing that, while he had learned to live with it, had not gotten any lighter. Magiore sometimes forgot that he didn't live alone; the house without Durumi felt very empty, in spite of the small bit of solace he took from knowing that Tatsuya was around somewhere, likely feeling as lost as he did.
Talking was difficult.
He came home after patrolling to a darkened, quiet house. Tatsuya was out somewhere, likely. The guise of Aurostibite had been left behind so that it was Magiore who stepped in the front door, dropping briefcase and coat down onto the ground beside the coat stand, instead of hanging both up. He made his way to one of the front rooms, small and lesser used, for a bottle of brandy he knew he'd left there, loosening his tie as he went.
There was someone already in the room.
Instinct made him wary - but a second later the wariness melted away into a stunned, painful silence.
He was hallucinating. He had to be.
Magiore stepped forward on unsteady feet. He came to the chair and stood beside it - then slowly, almost as though he was moving through a dream, sank to his knees beside it, one hand resting on the armrest to lever himself down. His other hand rose, hesitated - then stretched towards the curled up figure, feeling suddenly breathless and terrified.
"...Rumi?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 4:35 pm
Durumi's dreams were often chaotic since the madness had polluted her mind. She didn't hear Magiore come in, or the slow sink of him at her side or his softly whispered name.
No.
She saw death, and wraiths and the dark mirrors. Shattering everything around, the sound of shrieking and broken glass and chaos. Her body convulsed on the chair, going rigid as her eyes darted open. Her hands swung out immediately, curled into fist and for a second the glamour that was Mintaka flashed over her form.
Her breathing heaving, she turned her head to look at Magiore, eyes glazed over before confusion settled in.
"Where am I?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:37 pm
Something was wrong.
He had known that, at least somewhere in his mind, because there was no chance of her coming back right - but the way that she jerked violently, suddenly, viciously, made him start, Magiore snapping away, the edges of her hands cracking against his jaw.
It hurt; Magiore shook his head, a hand rising instinctively to press over the reddening area, his heart in his throat as the flutter of a glamour began to pass over - and then disappear just as quickly as it had come. His chest was rising and falling rapidly with an effort of maintaining calm.
"Home," said Magiore quietly, keeping his voice as level as possible.
"...do you know who I am?"
The question came out before he could stop it, a pained, aching thing in his chest he couldn't help. Magiore felt the weight of it pressing down on him, the sudden terror, the overwhelming fear that maybe this wasn't Durumi at all - except it was her, he knew her.
And yet...
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:15 pm
Her hand didn't hurt from the connection and at first she wondered why she was here and who this man was, but it came back and she gave him a soft smile.
"Magiore."
Confusion, then her brow furrowed. "home?" this wasn't home.
So may shrieks, Wraiths, all around. City...the park. Dark memories. Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep darkness.
"No." she pushed away and stood. Sat. Stood. "What's happening, where am I?" Fire, ice. God she felt so cold, was her body on fire? Pandora.
"Where is the box?" She looked around, her eyes glazing over again. She reached out to Magiore, her hands wrapping around his arms, her nails digging in and she wasn't looking at him, but past him. "Where....."
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:33 pm
The smile went straight to his heart - but the sound of his name was like a breath of fresh air, lungs expanding as his head broke the surface of whatever underwater feeling was keeping him trapped. Magiore inhaled sharply, relief coursing through him like a tidal wave.
"Yes," he said, "Yes, it's me. Rumi - "
His brows drew together; she wasn't making any sense, her hands pushing at him, and Magiore stumbled to his feet, staring down at her, feeling the relief dissipate as quickly as it had come. Shards of icy fear pulsed through him - Durumi's fingers were tight on his arms, digging in, desperation lacing her words.
Magiore's hands came up, mirroring, almost, her pose, twisting them upwards so that he could take ahold of her upper arms.
"Durumi - yes, this is your home - this is our home, yours and mine - " He kept his voice as calm as he could, tone firm, biting back an urge to drag her into his arms and hold her until his heart healed. "Durumi - you're home - what box are you talking about?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:42 pm
"Not Here." She almost said, though it didn't sound like her voice and even as he attempted to hold her, the woman pushed. Immediately she shifted from Durumi to Mintaka. Her push was even stronger now that she was powered.
"Where...." She didn't spare another glance at the man, as she stepped away from him and moved through the house, slowly like a ghost. She searched each room until she found a mirror. Tall and ornate, it was one left by her grandmother. Her body sung in rejection, did not want to go back in, ached with such a pain. Her mind though, still sick from chaos, felt the call of relief.
"Where did it go...?" Her hands reached for the mirror again, sliding into the cool glass. "Labyrinth. Is it still there?"
If Magiore didn't hurry, she would disappear again, back to the darkness she had just come. "If I don't get it, if I don't hold it close. It'll open again." A tear rolled down her cheek. "Don't let me hurt anyone." Another hand pushed into the mirror, slowly, slowly. A small scream of pain escaped from her.
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:30 am
He had not expected her to power up.
The push to him made him stagger back, an Eternal's strength against his own civilian body. Magiore wasn't weak, even without Aurostibite, but she had the benefit of magic and a built in, instinctive increase of abilities, and she had moved him easily, feet skidding across the hardwood floor.
"Du - Mintaka!" Aurostibite shouted, and she was gone from the room.
Everything hurt. He was finding the panic was rising again, thick in his throat, his heart aching. Magiore pushed through the doorway after her, running down the echoing hallways, his feet pounding, his heartbeat too fast, too painful in his chest, against his ribs.
Where was she?
She couldn't have gone far. He caught glimpses of her hair, her shadow, only to find her gone again, slipping away. Magiore gritted his teeth together and moved, room to room, floor by floor, until -
He heard a scream.
Upstairs.
He took them two at a time, bursting through the doorway of one of the unused bedrooms in the left wing of the house. Mintaka stood there, her hand outstretched towards the mirror, face pale - everything pale, and he moved without thinking.
Aurostibite slid over him like a second skin, and strong arms wrapped around Mintaka's more slender frame, holding her tightly back against him, Aurostibite pulling, not painfully hard, but firmly, determined to drag her back away from the mirror.
"Mintaka. No. It's me. Listen to me."
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 5:24 pm
She screamed again as he pulled her away, as she felt his body pressed against hers and it was comforting but terrifying. Sense almost escaped her until it didn't and she felt her body weakening in his hold. Her arms slid from the glass mirror, and they were dragging backwords and she was fighting him.
Like he was a monster trying to hinder her from her task. Chaos purged her, heavier and heavier. "Don't touch me, Don't hurt me! I don't feel...." She screamed and screamed until she was raw from screaming and then collapsed in a fit of sobs.
"Aurostibite." She sobbed, "My body hurts so much, I don't feel well." She heaved a breath, in between sobs. "I'm so cold, I'm so hot. I feel so sick. I don't know what's happening?"
The sobs shook her small form and she powered down again, back to Rumi. "I can't breathe!" As she hit the ground, her nails dug viciously into the wood floor. "I can't...I can't."
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 5:55 pm
The scream was like a knife to his heart, blade digging in beneath the skin. Aurostibite dragged Mintaka further away from the mirror, further away from whatever it was that was trying to pull her in, his own strength now magnified, making it easier.
She was still fighting him. Still yelling, still crying, her face wet with tears, and something inside Aurostibite was fracturing, splintering apart, his hands beginning to shake. He held on, refusing to let go, burying his face into Mintaka's hair, because it was the part of her that he could reach, Aurostibite inhaling, eyes squeezing shut.
The screaming went on, and on, and on. It echoed through the house, reverberated through his chest, and he didn't know how long she kept screaming, time an uncertain, hazy thing. At some point, they had sunk down to the glossy hardwood, and she was sobbing, Mintaka's entire body trembling. Aurostibite felt the sundering, felt her beginning to collapse - but the fight wasn't over.
Not yet.
Mintaka - and then a second later, Aurostibite - slid away, leaving them as Durumi and Magiore, and something in her voice was driving the knife deeper into Magiore's heart. He loosened his grasp enough to reach for her arms, pulling her around, and caught her face between his hands, palms against her tearstained cheeks.
"Durumi. Listen to me. You are safe. You are home."
Magiore's voice cracked, just a little.
"I will never hurt you. Tell me what I can do to ease the pain, and I'll do it. I'm not going to hurt you."
He swallowed hard, his eyes meeting hers.
"I love you. You're safe."
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:26 pm
Her nails dug deeper and deeper into the wood until it started to show the plywood underneath and her fingers bled from the damage and still she sobbed.
She felt so sick to her stomach and all she wanted to do was sleep, and be normal and not feel this pain and she couldn't stop.
Eventually the sobs stopped and she was just a ball of trembles and weakness.
"You...You have to drain me." She gripped him tight, looking up to him. "They didn't do enough of it in the labyrinth. Pandora's Chaos is hurting me."
She let go.
"Make it disappear."
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 7:29 pm
Her fingers were bloody, but he was trying not to look at them, trying not to think about how much pain she would be in. Magiore's thumbs brushed over the wetness of her cheeks, slid across the flushed skin, and felt like his heart was about to be crushed with the weight of the agony, the desperation in her voice.
You have to drain me.
He stared at her, eyes wide. He had drained others, of course, had spent years doing exactly that within the Negaverse - but he had never once touched Mintaka, not after he had had her in his arms, not after he had fallen irresistibly, irrevocably in love with her.
He had never wanted to hurt her.
But she was desperate. He knew that, and he knew that whatever it was that was building inside of her was eating her alive from the inside out. And not only was Durumi desperate, Magiore was desperate, and helpless, and panicking for want of a solution, anything to ease her pain.
The glamour came rushing over him in a whiff of magic, dark hair a cascade around his shoulders. Aurostibite slid his hands from Durumi's face, lower, cupping her jawline, fingers brushing against her slender neck. He tilted his head forward and let his forehead rest against hers, the brim of his hat grazing her pale hair.
"Hold on," he whispered, and then he pulled, the magic seeping through, energy siphoning off of Durumi and towards himself, starting to gather in a little orb near one of his hands.
Please work. Please.
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 5:17 pm
She wanted to react to Auro's aura, even though she couldn't feel it.
It was like a instinctual feel, It was like something deep inside her raged and her body arched. Eventually though she felt it disappear and she had never experienced a true draining. She didn't weep though and she felt the energy fade and fade and fade away.
"More." She whispered as she felt it rush through her and out, Every bit of it and eventually her body laxed in his arms and her sobs and trembles faded and her eyes were heavy.
"The pain...." She didn't feel anything now, just so numb. "I'm sorry Magiore."
Her hands came up to his arm and she tried to smile weakly at him. "I don't wanna hurt you." As she relaxed more, out of her pocket dropped the original Pandora's box, locked and sealed tight with only a small lid now on the top of it. "There it is." She looked down at it and closed her eyes. "I don't have to go back into mirrorspace..."
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 3:06 pm
He had never drawn energy from her, and somehow it felt wrong. Somehow it felt as though he was doing something that was just a little off, taking something sacred and twisting it, darkening it, a feeling of black fog curling inside of Aurostibite's own chest.
Durumi's soft plea made his heart nearly stop. Aurostibite's brow furrowed, teeth clenching together, and he dragged more, until he knew it was too much, until the very last bit of it was gone and he could yank his hand free with a gasp. She had fallen forward into his arms, and he collapsed down onto his knees with them around her, holding her against his chest.
The glamour faded away. Magiore's face pressed into Durumi's hair, but he lifted his head, just enough, to see the box tumble out of her hand with a clatter on the hardwood floor.
"You don't have to," he said thickly. "Not now. How do you feel?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 9:04 am
She was slight resting in his arms, her eyes closed now. She could think a bit more now, and it seemed her thoughts were more aligned. More coherent.
"Sick." She said with such a long drawn out sigh. "My hands hurt." She squeezed her eyes before opening to look at the damage done to her finger tips.
The blood wasn't bad though, and she'd just have to be careful. Bandage them loosely.
"How long?" She swallowed. "How long have I really been gone for? I can't seem to remember leaving." She turned tired red eyes up to her lover, "How long has it been Magiore?"
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