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 Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:15 pm
She supposed it was spring back home on Earth. The Surrounding did not have seasons, or passage of time really, and sat as a constant around the Sol System. It brought comfort to Bifrost because of it; nothing changed on the Surrounding, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Neither did anything exciting or did she see many people, but that was kind of the point. She was avoiding people. A person, specificially. A bit extreme, to hide out on the Surrounding to avoid them, but. It was too painful to go home. Each time she did, she battled against a panic attack, against the paranoia in her mind. Each time, it never got any easier, but it never got any harder either.
But this was for the best. The Bifrost needed it's Gatekeeeper. The Surrounding needed it's knights.
She wasn't needed back home. They had more than enough protection.
She wasn't needed.
Her smile faulted half a step as she reached the landing of her wonder. No no, that wouldn't do. Bifrost forced the small smile back onto her face. She couldn't dwell on that. Not now, not ever.
The box was shut.
kuropeco Sorry if this doesn't make sense she's broken ok
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 10:30 am
The Surrounding was his home.
Earth was his home too, because Earth had all of the people important to him, and it was what he had sworn to protect with his life - but the Surrounding was where he had first woken, and where he had first discovered this new life of his. It was where he had discovered the lady Chronos, and Virgo, and the rest of the ones who had given him the strength he had needed to go on.
He wandered it, sometimes, when he needed to think. Celsus visited his wonder often enough because of his transcending to be able to take his time pacing the rainbow road, occasionally visiting some of the outposts. He would never enter any of them without permission, but it gave him a little bit of strength to see them once more, to know that they had existed.
Celsus stepped down from his own wonder, back onto the road, as he had a thousand times before. He took a looping path around, slow and relaxed, thinking of Earth and of the rings that were on his hands and the memory of his last meeting with Castor, the frustration and the pain that was still there, still fresh in his mind. It was deserted up here; quiet, and solemn.
Or rather, almost deserted. A lone figure stood on the landing of a nearby wonder, one that Celsus had passed before, and he recognized easily the pale hair and the paler face. Something in his chest tightened, his hands resting together against the small of his back, and then he let out a breath and drew nearer, Celsus slowly coming to a stop.
"Good evening, Bifrost," he said, looking up at her.
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 1:54 pm
Nothing ever changes here. Here is constant. Here is ---
Good evening Bifrost.
Her heart stopped. Lilac eyes went wide and found the source of the voice. There he stood, looking up at her. Short hair, solemn eyes behind his glasses, the transcendance marks around his neck at face same as her. She blinked once, twice, and he did not go away.
Celsus was here.
Her heart started up again and panic filled her limbs. Every thought, every feeling, every thing she'd tried to avoid now surged up into her chest. It ached and throbbed and a hand found its way to scratch at the scars shifting the tattoos around. Pain flashed through her mind; one of her nails caught a raised portion of the scar and tore, red welling up on her skin.
Celsus was here.
With the clarity of pain came an instinct that overroad everything else in her.
Bifrost, Transcendant Knight of Chronos, bolted down the Bifrost in a clatter of heels on stone.
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:15 pm
"Bifrost, wait - "
She had run from him, which he hadn't expected. Or perhaps he had, considering their last meeting, but it still made something in his stomach clench unpleasantly. Celsus was not the sort of person who would leave her be, or let her simply disappear without at least trying to talk to her, so went after her, his own shoes clicking on the bridge.
"Bifrost," he said, and there was a note of something like pleading, but not quite, Celsus' cape billowing out behind him.
"Please, just talk to me."
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:28 pm
She ran, and ran, and ran until the Surrounding faded and the dark of space enveloped her. Her heel caught on something - the slight rise of the landing to the quiet place on the bridge - and Bifrost stumbled forward and fell into one of the benches. No no, this wasn't good, this was the place where she'd carved the marks into her flesh, where Prena - she - had died. This was this was
A dead end.
Bifrost curled in on herself against the bench trying to keep herself from just out right crying.
He'd find her easy enough, and soon enough.
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:35 pm
He did find her, eventually. The Surrounding was a place that was so achingly familiar to Celsus that it didn't take much time or effort to follow after her, his feet carrying him into the darkness behind Bifrost. Out here, it was dark; space was an enormous, pressured thing, almost suffocating in how dense it felt, how incredibly wide and unending it was.
He was a little out of breath when he slowed his steps in front of her, cape rippling gently against his legs. Celsus saw the hunched over form, arms wrapped around herself, Bifrost curled tightly inward so that she wasn't looking at him or anyone or anything.
He could not touch her. His mind and body and heart were all separate things. The disconnect between his desire to comfort and the mental block of being unable to withstand most physical contact was still a heavy presence in his mind, unable to be fully overcome as of yet. Even the smallest actions, such as a hand on her shoulder, could not quite take down the walls.
So he stood there, chest rising and falling as he tried to breathe more evenly, watching her.
"Bifrost," he said again, and this time in a much quieter, calmer voice. "Why did you run?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:13 pm
Bifrost jolted and half turned to look over her shoulder at him. There he stood, panting, away from her. Always away from her, always just out of reach. It tugged at her heart and she uncurled half a step. She wanted to help, she wanted to console him, she wanted to touch him. Chronos she ached to hug him, to be close, to even just be around him with out her chest tightening.
It took her a while to find her voice, and even then it was hard to talk.
"I... you... we," she said, swallowing thickly. She hadn't had to think about this, she hadn't had to even try to talk about this. For a year she'd tried to forget, to block it out, to ignore it. But now it was staring her in the face and she couldn't run, she couldn't leave.
She had to face all of her demons, right now.
"I.... loved you," she said softly. "I came to respect you... and enjoy your presence... and somewhere along the way I... but then I never... reached out. You were in pain and I didn't help and I was wrapped up in my own head and I shouldn't care for you but I do and, and...." Bifrost let out a suddering breath.
Chronos it hurt, it hurt so much.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:53 pm
He did not rush her.
He remembered instead, the first time they had met. And the time after that, when they had decided that they were friends, because they had both come from the same place, and because they had seen things that others had not. They had been born on the Surrounding, in a sense, and they had fought together for many years.
And still he could not give her what she wanted.
Slowly, he sank down, Celsus crouching in front of Bifrost, hands resting on his knees. For a few seconds, he simply watched her, let her get everything out, listened to the shuddering breaths and felt the pain in his own chest, his expression hard to read, but not unkind.
"I couldn't be helped," he said quietly. "Not then. I didn't let anyone help me. I couldn't. I am where I am because of the choices I had to make on my own."
And somewhere along the way, he had changed. Somewhere on the path that he had carved out for himself, he was not the same as he once had been, and there were two sides to that. Some good, some bad, some in between. He couldn't have said when it had changed or why, except that he had and that there was no looking back. He was not the same person he had been. Not the same man that Bifrost had fallen in love with.
"Bifrost," said Celsus softly. "You are very important to me. I...hope you realize just how important. I care for you not just because you are a knight, but because you are a friend."
He closed his eyes briefly, and for a second, let his fingers rest on the black leather wristband on his arm before opening his eyes again, his chest feeling tight.
"I can't return your feelings," he said quietly. "But I can thank you for giving me something precious to you, and I hope...very much hope that we can still be friends."
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Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:48 am
She looked up at him as he sank to the floor in front of her. He spoke softly, in that way he did, and she sniffled. She regarded him quietly, unable to read his face.
Bifrost thought the finality of her one sided feelings would have hit her like a truck. His words settled over her and she pulled her hands from her chest. The scar there was angry and red, but for the first time she did not feel pain there. It was weird. She'd expected her world to crash around her, but hearing him say the words, that he couldn't return her feelings but that he still cared for her as a friend, brought an odd... lightness to her chest.
She wiped her eyes and smiled at him. It wasn't necessarily her normal smile, but she smiled through the tears in her eyes. She smiled at him because, underneath everything, she treasured him as her friend. She didn't want to lose that, no matter her own feelings. Bifrost stood up a little and moved into his space. She expected him to flinch, but she just... needed to do this one thing.
Then she could finally move on.
The knight of chronos gently took his face in her hands, and pressed her lips to his forehead. She paused there for a moment longer than she meant to, then released him, giving him space.
"You will always be my friend, Celsus," she told him, sitting onto the bench behind her. A spark of the old Bifrost flared in her eyes. "Do they make you happy?"
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