Under Construction (11) : Construction in Destiny City is a constant; it is never surprising to see buildings come and go. However, almost overnight it seems as though a large project has suddenly come to life. Where there was once an abandoned strip mall and a sad, trash laden park, the ground has now been completely bulldozed. There’s no information about this project available in any media outlets or online, and all attempts to research it result in dead ends. A large fence has been put up, but twelve feet of wire isn’t enough to keep out anyone curious enough to investigate. Cameras are set up all over the place and there is a strange, almost magical energy. The space is large enough to be a theme park. Strangely, frosted glass stars in an array of colors can be found randomly across the lot. Someone obviously has big plans for this space–already, some strange, fantastical buildings are going up. The space feels strangely large, and once you have jumped the fence it feels like Destiny City is a world away. The sky seems brighter and the city lights seem far away, almost as though there is some strange barrier separating the construction zone and the rest of the city. And, oddly enough, if you are standing outside the fence and looking into the construction zone, everything appears blurry and it's hard to make out the details. It’s strange, for sure–but nothing seems wrong about it. Yet.
“I saw her.” Rakovanite’s voice was icy and stiff, gaze flickering to all the dark corners of the alley where a body could conceal itself. It would’ve been one thing if he’d felt the aura; if he’d known someone was there, Rakovanite could have simply directed Narcissus elsewhere for the scant amount of time the Dark Mirror Senshi spent draining. But he hadn’t felt her. He’d seen her- seen some girl knightling peering at him and Narcissus when she should’ve been minding her own business.
It would be the easiest thing to simply leave.
He did not want to leave. Rakovanite wanted to make sure this girl had gleaned nothing of significance from them. To be fair, she probably hadn’t. Rakovanite and Narcissus had the most idle and easy chatter when they walked together, barely different from when they sat in their own home. Dinner plans or an interesting bit of workplace gossip or Narcissus' proclivity for always managing to laden Rakovanite with ever more rainbow-colored star charms or a movie they were interested in seeing. Nothing anyone would have any interest in. But she’d been watching them. A knight had been watching them.
Unacceptable. Nothing good would come of it. Narcissus would do nothing to alleviate his concerns, and Rakovanite didn’t hold that against him. But the General would do something; Narcissus would not like what he would do.
Trailing after wisps of movement and dancing shadows flickering from overhead street lamps led them to some area Rakovanite was unfamiliar with. For all his nightly patrols, he thought he’d gained a decent familiarity with much of the city, but it was a place of many moving parts, ever-changing.
He stared at the tall fence before them where he’d caught the barest glimpse of the girl scaling it.
She was as good as dead no matter where she tried to hide.
Rakovanite stepped forward, hoisting himself up the chain link and slinging his leg over easily. His uniform was sturdy enough that the prickling ends of the fence felt like nothing. Once he was on the other side, he peered through it back at Narcissus. “Either stay very close to me or go home,” he advised quietly. It would be preferable for the Senshi to leave, to realize he wasn’t going to be part of anything pleasant, but Rakovanite didn’t expect his partner to simply forget what was about to happen and go home without a fuss.
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2024 10:27 am
Hhhhhhhhhhhhh- Narcissus caught his bottom lip between his teeth and nearly bled himself with how hard he pinched at it. A girl concealing her aura… If she’d just stayed out of Rakovanite’s sight, he was sure nothing would’ve happened tonight! They wouldn’t have done anything interesting, Narcissus would’ve just collected a little energy for Mirrorscape, and then they would’ve gone about their business and nothing bad would’ve happened! …A future he was sure they’d, regrettably, avoided. He hadn’t felt her, and hadn’t seen her, but Narcissus absolutely believed that Rakovanite did, that his fiance had caught sight of someone he didn’t want to see, and now-
Oh, nothing Narcissus wanted to be a part of.
“Does it… matter?” Narcissus asked imploringly, reaching to try and thread his fingers through the General’s, to try and coax him as sweetly as possible away from the dreadful thoughts he was undoubtedly having. …But it wasn’t enough- Narcissus should’ve known it wouldn’t be, not with how single-track Nataniel’s mind worked, and the Senshi loved him for it! Loved his focus! …But this…
Rakovanite was scaling a fence before Narcissus could do anything to stop him. There was only a flicker of a moment where they stared at each other through the chain link, Narcissus pleading, pleading, pleading- Just come back over. Just come back. As if the voracity of his thoughts would do a single thing.
He had to follow… regardless of what that meant.
Narcissus was not so graceful as he scrabbled over the fence, but he was in a rush to keep pace with Rakovanite. He kept close as advised, and his fingers yearned to grab him, to hold onto him, to stall him, to pull him back; they didn’t have to chase an enemy. They didn’t have to face this danger right now, please… But the Senshi kept his hands to himself. While he knew Rakovanite did usually appreciate the contact, he didn’t think this was one of those times.
Narcissus was little more than a passenger and observer, whether he wanted to be or not.
And this location… Where were they? If someone had asked him a moment ago, he would’ve said, ’Destiny City, of course!’ But this place somehow felt Other, radiating a strange and foreign energy, and Narcissus felt like he couldn’t see the landmarks of DC that he should’ve been able to see…
“Na- Hm. Rakovanite. I don’t think we should be here,” he whispered, voice low and trembling.
Rakovanite dragged air in through his nose and heaved out a quiet sigh. He’d given the option, so he shouldn’t be surprised by the choice. Narcissus stuck behind him, and that offered its own risks and benefits, scaling higher on the ‘risk’ side, Rakovanite was sure.
“It matters enough,” he answered softly.
Most probably wouldn’t agree. Rakovanite was fairly certain most agents would’ve let her slip away if the little knightling was going on her way without a fuss. It wasn’t like she’d tried to interfere with him. But she’d been watching. He hated that. If she’d jumped out at him, she would’ve been annoying, but too stupid to cause any real harm. One little girl against a General and a Super Senshi? Complete foolishness. But she hadn’t jumped out at them. She hadn’t avoided them. She’d watched them. Watching was dangerous.
And the peculiar locale she’d retreated into cemented that thought deeper into his mind. Where were they, and what was this strange energy? Something alien? They walked between the buildings, some half-constructed and some looking nearly complete, with Rakovanite dragging his gaze across any surface that seemed out of place- except all of it looked to be out of place. The lights were weird colors for a construction area: pinks and purples and blues. The shadows cast by the buildings seemed to stretch and squiggle. The windows were frosted in little blinking stars, lighting up intermittently, and-
He sucked in a sharp breath, snatching hard for Narcissus’ biceps and whipping him around to smack into the flickery facade of the nearest building. Glass shattered. Shards of it rained down on where they stood. A body smashed onto him.
The knightling dropped from above, a girl wearing the deep purples and grays of Saturn. She pinned his shoulders to the concrete with her knees as she held an improvised weapon of a shard of jagged glass to his throat. “Shouldna followed,” she seethed, and he felt the bite of glass against the tender skin of his neck, like she was going to sever his jugular right there. That probably would be the smartest thing to do…
But she didn’t. The girl stayed exactly where she was, completely stiff, gaze pinned on the glass and his throat. Her fingers trembled. The opportunity to act had completely been in her court, but she faltered.
Ah. She hadn’t done this before, but she must’ve still understood that he was dangerous, and now that he was following her, she had to act.
She’d make it easy to take her life. …He just wished Narcissus wasn’t here…
All of Rakovanite’s muscles were wound tight. It took immense restraint to not toss her backward, to stay under the bite of her blade. “Little girl, do you have a name?”
Her gaze snapped to his, and she pressed the glass harder against him. “I am not a little girl, you ******** p***k.” Her breath was rough and stuttering as she inhaled. “My name is Nidavellir of Saturn, and I have to do this. I have to. People like you, all you do is hurt-”
Rakovanite blinked at her from where he lay flat on the ground, slow and assessing- too slow, if he was being truthful, to be explicitly intelligent. A strange, indecipherable feeling churned in him. Something uncomfortable and doubtful. Yes, the ‘people like you’ bit was as grating as it always was (and overdone, in his opinion), and that was usually where he latched his focus, but this time: “…I am Nidavellir of Saturn,” he answered back, tone flat and brow pinched.
His name. The last body his starseed had inhabited. Nidavellir of Saturn. Rakovanite knew it wasn’t a birthright like the Senshi’s was, and the name wasn’t one he was currently using, so… so why wouldn’t someone else have it?
The knight blinked back, confused at first, and looking as if she was scrambling to put a few pieces together. Her eyes scraped down his face, looking for- Rakovanite didn’t know, but if she wasn’t lying... would she know him? Should he know her? Nothing about this random stranger seemed familiar. But something settled in her expression, and Rakovanite had never wished before to be able to read another person, but he did now. “Well. You were,” she replied, voice quiet as his own.
He snapped out from under her with all the abruptness teleportation offered him, crashing into her back and snatching at a fistful of the girl’s hair to keep her from twisting away. One extra second, and he’d have her ******** soul in his hand. He’d wanted it before and knew he couldn’t let her walk away, but now- now there was something inexplicably personal fueling him. It was hot and compelling, and whatever opportunity Rakovanite had to end this girl, he would take it.
Though not without risk, apparently. A vicious tangle of flailing limbs and muted shouts ensued as Nidavellir writhed and spat and stabbed, lurching to plunge her piece of glass into the meat of his shoulder- The blood of it made the glass slick, forced her to leave it embedded there, and she focused unfailingly on her goal of punching him in the face as many times as she could in the shortest timespan possible.
So Rakovanite broke her arm. Anything to put one less obstacle between him and her starseed.
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2024 10:35 am
Narcissus wouldn’t have noticed the girl, he wouldn’t have noticed the glass until it was pelting him, but in his defense, she definitely wasn’t coming for him. He squeaked out a note of shock as Rakovanite grabbed him by the arm and shoved him away. Dread clawed up his throat before his eyes could even fully see what he was faced with, before his mind could compute what was happening and what he should do to handle it.
He didn’t have a place in these altercations, Narcissus knew that- Like rationally knew that he would help absolutely no one by wedging himself in between Rakovanite and his victims. All he’d do was get himself hurt, get Rakovanite hurt, be an accessory to something he didn’t want to be a part of… But what did rationality matter when the fight was happening right in front of him? How was he supposed to just stand and watch? How was he supposed to just let a knight slice his fiance’s throat?
“Stop!” The word bubbled helplessly out of his mouth, and it was only because Narcissus wasn’t a complete lunatic that he didn’t lurch for the girl and try to rip the glass out of her hands.
But he was certainly on the ground next to them, listening to their quiet conversation with a hammering heart.
This knight… Nidavellir of Saturn. How was that possible? He and Rakovanite weren’t privy to the intricacies of Knight succession, but surely since the last Nidavellir’s starseed had found its way back to inhabit someone on Earth, that person- Nataniel, would be the one to inherit it…? Nat’s starseed was currently occupied by other powers, but did the knight-selection-magic know that? Did it know Nidavellir needed a replacement?
‘Replacement.’ He knew better than to say that to Rakovanite.
Ohm but Narcissus didn’t have to, did he? This knight didn’t say the word, but she might as well have. ’You were.’ The Senshi should’ve ducked for cover on the spot for all the great eruption that immediately occurred. They tangled. There was no way Narcissus could get between them. The schlik of flesh parting, blood spattering the cement, a myriad symphony of little gasps, grunts, half-screams, thuds. He jerked her head back so hard Narcissus was surprised the girl’s neck didn’t snap. She stabbed him. She punched him. Rakovanite grabbed her elbow and twisted it until her bones creaked and gave.
They looked like animals. Violent and mean and bloody.
“Don’t, Rakovanite! Stop! S-stop! Get away- you! Let him go!” What could he do? Not fight, not drag them apart, not grab Rakovanite and whisk him elsewhere, as the general so often did. Narcissus was scrawny, pitiful, useless. Why was he even here? He had only one single trick, and he couldn’t say with any certainty what the result would actually bring.
But it was his only play, and he had to be quite close, close enough to catch both of them, and of course he would throw himself forward if there was a chance of stopping this. Narcissus crashed into him, caught a fist to the side of his jaw, let his fingers tangle in Rakovanite’s hair to peel him back while the Senshi stared down the girl, locking eyes with first her-
”Narcissus Dismissive Mockery.”
And then Rakovanite, catching both with his spell.
Indigo_Plateau
Super Sailor Scout Attack -- Narcissus Dismissive Mockery Narcissus casts his magic and his eyes begin to glow. He has fifteen seconds to make direct eye contact with any two individuals to inspire a sense of being rejected from something specific. It can be from each other, from his opponent's own faction, from themselves, from an ally, or anything the player chooses so long as the overall effect is that focus is redirected from Narcissus and toward whatever they feel has rejected them. Target must be within ten feet of Narcissus for the attack to take effect. The feeling lasts for twenty seconds and can be used twice per battle.
It was right there- Rakovanite was stronger and faster than her, and the knight’s starseed was barely more than an arm’s length away. It was right there.
And the only reason it was still in her chest was because she knew it was what he wanted, and at the expense of everything else, she would at least keep his hand from reaching into her chest. She was bloody- some mixture of both of theirs, probably (distantly Rakovanite wondered if he’d be ill from her blood in his wound…). And since she’d been disarmed and caught, most of the desire to face him head-on had evaporated.
Her best chance at survival was to get away from Rakovanite. She probably realized this.
He wasn’t keen on allowing it. Tangles of her hair were still wrapped around his fingers. His muscles screamed where they’d been shredded by the glass, but it was such a distant, far-away thing that Rakovanite barely even registered it. She’d broken his glasses. The frames were on the ground, somewhere. He had to squint to see what was two feet in front of him. The knight held his other arm, pushing back and taking staggering steps every time he tried to grab her starseed with it. But they were still locked together: his grip on her, her grip on him.
And then Narcissus was fully and immediately in both their line of sights, shrieking loud enough right next to Rakovanite’s ear loud enough to be disorienting. He tried to shoulder the Senshi away, as his arms were currently occupied, and what was Basyl doing, getting so close?
Belatedly, Rakovanite realized that he should’ve recognized immediately what Narcissus’ plan was, but how was he to suspect that his own partner would get in his way now of all moments?
It was an almost physical sensation, something that swept down the length of his spine as Rakovanite stared into dimly glowing magenta eyes.
There had always been ‘something wrong with him.’ It was uncanny how many people had said it, and before he had any Chaos in his heart, at that. It had gotten worse since then, but of course his enemies would push the narrative that everyone who followed Metallia wasn’t right. Rakovanite barely registered it coming from presumptuous, selfish, holier-than-thou, goody-goody White Moon. …But it still stung when people said it to Nataniel.
It stung that he’d been no one, normal, still being chased by monsters, and if his past self’s wonder was going to be giving out that power again, why hadn’t it gone to him when he needed help? Why wasn’t he wanted? …Because there was something wrong with him.
The knightling had hesitated when she’d had a chance to take his life. Rakovanite wouldn’t have. He wasn’t ‘good’ like they were.
…Like Basyl was.
Basyl would never attack someone. If his life was threatened and the only way to save it was to take someone else’s, he would die. Why were they even together? They had such wildly different morality, and even Basyl had said some variant of ‘something wrong with you…’ on their first encounter. And now he watched. He watched Rakovanite break and bloody some girl they didn’t even know. Basl would be disgusted- so disgusted. Hate him. Leave him.
Rakovanite’s arm shook, strained from where he used it despite the injury. His fingers trembled.
“You… You used your magic on me,” he murmured, staring into Narcissus’ eyes.
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2024 10:43 am
Oh, this wasn’t what he wanted! This would never be what Narcissus wanted! Maybe it couldn’t be entirely avoided while he was with Rakovanite, and- and Basyl knew his fiance lacked a certain empathy for strangers (for his enemy…) but- but it shouldn’t- be like this when they were together.
It would’ve been so easy to leave.
Narcissus tried to fit himself in between Rakovanite and the knight. Tried to dislodge the grip his lover had in some poor girl’s hair. Tried to unclamp the grip she had on Rakovanite’s wrist. Neither wanted to give him any purchase, but he did it anyway. They were both hurt, probably in ways Narcissus couldn’t fully tend to here, assuming he’d get the opportunity. But at least for this moment, they were both incredibly still, statuesque.
Narcissus couldn’t possibly know what either was thinking; the girl was probably fighting her own demons while still being aware that there was a very real, very solid one right in front of her. She absolutely would not release Rakovanite’s arm. And Nat… well, it wasn’t the first time Narcissus had used this magic on him, though the senshi did feel bad every time.
He was always struck by the thought that this could not be his power, to make people feel small and worthless and unwanted. To inflict that in Rakovanite, his fiance, his love…
“I-I had to, Rakovanite, please- your a-arm- the glass- please. I-I’m sorry. I love you. I love you so much. I c-can’t watch this- Please…”
He was between them as much as he could be, desperately trying to coax Rakovanite’s fingers away from her, though they were still attached.
While swimming through the doubt and self-loathing of Narcissus’ spell, he was still cognizant enough to realize that he should have known better than to let the Senshi tail him into such an unsavory situation together. They’d been through their fair share of things neither wanted to experience, and he had known from such past adventures that Narcissus had no place here. He’d known. They’d both known.
“No,” he seethed quietly, voice rough and scratchy and low as he tried to nudge Narcissus away from them. ’You didn’t have to. Stop helping her. You cannot get between us. …You don’t love me like this. I know you don’t. Liar. Liar. ’ Thoughts flickering like rapid fire through his mind, but never quite surfacing enough to be spoken aloud, just leaving unhappy impressions in their wake.
The short warning went unheeded (he should’ve known that too, Narcissus’ strong convictions were one of the reasons Nataniel loved him…). The Senshi continued to try and pry them apart.
And he would keep getting in the way. Narcissus wouldn’t hurt them in any way that anyone else could see, but he would distract Rakovanite and the knightling with his magic, throw himself between them, beg, plead, resist to the point of injuring himself- Narcissus could not stay here. The thought came with such immediate, purposeful clarity that made Rakovanite wonder why he’d ever given any option to the contrary when he knew Narcissus would resist his participation in such acts that he deemed unseemly.
But if he weren’t here…
Rakovanite kicked the girl in the chest, hard enough to hear the thud of his boot and the consecutive rush of air out of her lungs. Her nails clawed down his hand, but slipped off of him. Her back hit cement.
Narcissus practically fell into him, grasping for his hands and dragging at his coat. His presence, his interference, was an inconvenience. “Enough. Narcissus,” Rakovanite hissed, snatching up both of the Senshi’s hands in his, holding his partner close to him as he pulled them into a teleport, away from here. Away from that girl. For now.
