It's been well over 800 years since the last time Sloth could remember ever being properly imprisoned. He'd be impressed if it wasn't so disoriented and furious
( Read more... )
Those words of his, echoing in her head, making her ears ring, hurts her heart more than he might even realize.
It was too hasty of a plan, she sees that now. For all her tough words to him the last time they spoke, this isn't the way she really wanted it to go. But he kept leaving her no choice. She had warned him, after all. And he had hurt her, deeply and possibly permanently, with all those copies of her Token.
Now she has done what he never did to her; held him against his will in her own way. Did not beg him to come to her of his own free will, but trapped him like this. Like a rat. Nobody deserves this. Not even him.
Yet, she cannot let him go. His rage now is all the proof of that, the fact that he blew up his own ship, killed hundreds, maybe thousands, just to spite her...They're now both hurt, both trapped, both sapping each other's strength. Ouroborus. Neither can let go without devouring the other...theirs is a dance on the head of a pin...
She dives into her own head, to contend finally with his hatred and bellows. If not face to face, then at least mind to mind. And then, she's there with him, in that magenta fog. She looks...weirdly older than she did when he saw her last.
He whirls to face her, a snarl still on his face. This is pure, unadulterated, undiluted rage and hatred. Sloth immediately advances on the faerie, arms outstretched as though to grab her and wring her neck. But drawing any closer to her is the same as trying to get near to the lattice; she's always just three steps in front of him even though she never moves.
"You! You! You did this to me! Keep me in a cage for the next hundred years? Isn't that what you said? You little witch. I never thought you'd do it! And getting your little Neopet stooges to do it for you. And to think I assumed you'd never learn anything treacherous from me.
"So is that what I have to look forward to? A century of this?" He waves around him, still glaring at her, churning the purple, twinkling smoke that's clinging around him. "Is this supposed to teach me a lesson? Am I supposed to come out of this a better person? Am I supposed to come out broken? YOU CAN'T KEEP ME IN HERE!"
"I think you'll find that I can," she answers sadly. What's so truly frustrating to her, as well as to him, is that he cannot get any closer to her in this state. All he has to do is calm down, and he'll be able to approach her. But she has a feeling that he won't calm down any time soon.
"I never wanted this to happen, Frank. I still don't. But I had no choice. It was either this, or your death. Fyora told me, the day after she restored you to your adult self, that if you ever truly became a threat again..."
"You're a liar. You're a liar. Fyora and I have an agreement." He's sputtering now, both out of anger and confusion at such a statement. "...But then again, this is her way, isn't it? Just like she did to the Darkest Faerie. Oh yes, another enchanted token around her neck that turned her to stone, and then dropped into the ocean and Maraqua built on top of her."
Sloth's pacing now, desperate for something to burn his anger. "So what'll it be? I'll stay in here for as long as you can hold me, and just eject this token into space? Or perhaps the Darkest Faerie only got the courtesy of being imprisoned by this magic since she is one of your sisters. Since death is so much worse than being kept against one's will in a void for the rest of eternity."
He wishes so badly he could be punching something right now. The walls or the Space Faerie would suffice. "If you don't kill me, I'm going to get out. Simple as that. You can't keep me here forever."
"No. I'm not ejecting you into space or dropping you in the ocean. You guessed it earlier. It's my Token you're trapped in, Frank, and I'm taking back what's mine."
She sounds defeated, even now, with him trapped like this. Like somehow this is the undoing of all of her plans...all of her.
She makes a gesture, and the fog retreats slightly, leaving him alone for a moment. Its dispersal reveals a comfortable bed, a never-empty bottle of sweet spring water, a magical plate that replenishes itself with any kind of food he wants, a bookshelf filled with books, a desk and chair and blank paper and pens.
What's truly frightening is that these objects just...hang there. There's no floor supporting any of them, and no table holds up the food and drink.
"I don't plan on keeping you here forever. Just until we can properly talk. I can't do it now, because...well, you hate it when I use my telepathy on you. I'm doing it as little as possible, I promise."
He watches as the items and furniture materialize, a scowl still on his face. Seeming to ignore what she's saying, Sloth turns his back on the Space Faerie, making his way towards the desk. His large hand rests on the paper, riffling through the many pages, revealing how all are blank. Perhaps she expects him to write his life story? Write out apologies?
Without any more warning than a growl of fury, his hands clamp down onto the sides of the desk, and with a roar, he whirls around and flings it in the direction of Lumindra, paper fluttering and scattering in its wake and all around him.
"BITCH! DISGUSTING FEMALE! YOU DON'T OWN ME! YOU CAN'T KEEP ME LIKE A CHARM AROUND YOUR NECK! RELEASE ME NOW!"
The desk simply flies through her entire body, as if she's insubstantial. Which she is, naturally, and what makes it even stranger is that the desk and all the paper re-materializes exactly where it had been. But the way she crumples to the ground afterwards indicates there's a lot more going on here than he might suspect. He might has well have properly hit her, the way she's trembling there.
"N-No..."
Her arms cross over her head, and she rolls back and forth in front of him for a moment before falling still. Then she looks up at him.
In all their years fighting, in all the years they've known each other, she's never wept. Never has he seen her face twist up in grief, or tears coursing down her cheeks, or her mouth tremble and her chest heave with sobs.
This is because she's never actually ever shown it on the outside. But this is how she's always felt.
"No! I will!" He steps forward again, even though he can never get any closer to her. He doesn't lower his voice, and his anger doesn't ebb.
"You're no different than them, Lumindra." He says her name like it's an insult, and wields it like a knife. "You're going to keep me here, like a captive. Like a pet. You sicken me. I hate you, Lumindra. All these years, you evade me, refuse to come to me, let me keep you as my own, because you thought I'd treat you like a trophy. Like a shiny bauble to put on a shelf and admire. A bird in a cage."
Sloth waves again at the ethereal prison that surrounds him, his voice reaching a thunderous volume as he yells at her. "THEN WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, LUMINDRA?"
"TO KEEP YOU SAFE!" she screeches back, her orange skin deepening to a sickly tan.
"You are NOT my trophy! I am not PROUD of this! I am defying the entire Sisterhood with this! It's not forever, Frank, I swear, just until I can figure out what to do next. I AM different! You're not my pet! I just want you to be a-alive at end of the day. I am going to have to hide you, after this. I'm going to have to l-lie to everybody. And I'm doing it all for you!"
She cannot bend the nature of the spell without undoing everything. So she cannot move closer to him, even though she desperately wants to. But she does reach a gloved hand out to him, trying to bridge the distance.
That's the absolute last thing he wants to hear. Not while he's so angry, not while he's imprisoned.
"SHUT UP!!!" He picks up the enchanted bottle of water and flings it at her as well, of course having the same results as the desk, passing through her without any (outward) harm. But it feels good to throw things at her. It feels good to be doing something to act on his rage. So he grabs anything else he can and continues to fling it at the weeping faerie.
"YOU'RE DISGUSTING AND I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS! I'LL NEVER BELIEVE A SINGLE THING YOU SAY ABOUT THIS! YOU'RE A CONNIVING, UNDERHANDED-...GRRRAAAHH!" Sloth can't even finish his litany of insults, instead just tossing again the bottle of water now that it's just reappeared.
"I DON'T NEED YOUR GODDAMN PROTECTION! I DON'T NEED YOU! NOW LET ME OUT, YOU INSECT! YOU WORM! YOU INSIPID, WORTHLESS, COWERING, DAMNED FEMALE!"
"Stop! Oh, please, please stop! I can't...I'm...n-not..."
The magenta fog suddenly rushes in again, obscuring everything that she's just revealed, and herself. Sloth will find himself utterly surrounded, possibly even baffled by it. It's a thick, cloying fog, with a bitter scent to it, and it rushes around his body like he's in a gale-force wind. And through the fog, a high-pitched wail sounds. It's her, of course. The sound of a heart that's breaking.
A heart that's already broken, into hundreds of millions of pieces.
Sloth's robes whip around him and he lifts his arms to shield his face as the fog and psychic wind tear past. Her scream pierces him, but he's not sorry. He'll continue to lash out, keep ripping away at her, insulting her and pouring out his hatred into this prison.
Anything to either aid his escape, or to hurt her. Hell, Frank's half-curious now what'll happen to him if she dies while he's trapped in here. Finding out is a better alternative than staying under her 'care' for the rest of his days.
When the fog clears, the faerie is gone, but the bed and desk and books and everything remain. At least she's not planning on starving him while he's here.
All that's left of her is the sound of her sobs, echoing through the 'sphere' of her Token, bouncing off the golden latticework bars.
His fury leaves him absolutely impervious to guilt at this point. Even more so than usual, anyhow. Sloth's always been a being of no real conscience. And if he finds himself in as dire and disgusting a bind as this one, he'll do and hurt whatever or whoever it takes to get out.
Sloth indignantly ignores the furniture and the food, refusing to give into what she's trying to make a bearable cage. Instead, he paces. Stalks back in forth between spherical walls that never come any closer, mind working furiously to figure a way out of this.
And also churning with hatred for everyone who he feels is responsible for this imprisonment. He'll boil that Cybunny girl alive. He'll rain down all his fury onto the Faerie Kingdom. He'll crush the Rebellion. He'll break the Space Faerie.
~I still love you, even now. Nothing will change that, not even you.~
Her voice, ethereal and soft and sad, echoes through his cage again, even though she does not (and cannot) appear to him again. It's as if she's standing right behind him, whispering in his ear, her hand resting gently on his shoulder.
~Please. Trust me, Frank. You can hate me all you like, but please trust me. You'll be free sooner than you think. I'm almost back to Neopia. When I arrive, you'll be free, I promise.~
This only causes him to scream again, trying to wave away the fog that seems to be transmitting the touch of her fingertips.
"Stop! Don't talk to me! Not like this, not at all! I don't even need you to get out of here; I'll break my way out. And then I'll destroy you, and everything else! In all our battles and arguments, this is the biggest mistake you've ever made, Lumindra. I'll crush you for this."
It was too hasty of a plan, she sees that now. For all her tough words to him the last time they spoke, this isn't the way she really wanted it to go. But he kept leaving her no choice. She had warned him, after all. And he had hurt her, deeply and possibly permanently, with all those copies of her Token.
Now she has done what he never did to her; held him against his will in her own way. Did not beg him to come to her of his own free will, but trapped him like this. Like a rat. Nobody deserves this. Not even him.
Yet, she cannot let him go. His rage now is all the proof of that, the fact that he blew up his own ship, killed hundreds, maybe thousands, just to spite her...They're now both hurt, both trapped, both sapping each other's strength. Ouroborus. Neither can let go without devouring the other...theirs is a dance on the head of a pin...
She dives into her own head, to contend finally with his hatred and bellows. If not face to face, then at least mind to mind. And then, she's there with him, in that magenta fog. She looks...weirdly older than she did when he saw her last.
"I'm here, Frank."
Reply
"You! You! You did this to me! Keep me in a cage for the next hundred years? Isn't that what you said? You little witch. I never thought you'd do it! And getting your little Neopet stooges to do it for you. And to think I assumed you'd never learn anything treacherous from me.
"So is that what I have to look forward to? A century of this?" He waves around him, still glaring at her, churning the purple, twinkling smoke that's clinging around him. "Is this supposed to teach me a lesson? Am I supposed to come out of this a better person? Am I supposed to come out broken? YOU CAN'T KEEP ME IN HERE!"
Reply
"I never wanted this to happen, Frank. I still don't. But I had no choice. It was either this, or your death. Fyora told me, the day after she restored you to your adult self, that if you ever truly became a threat again..."
She trails off, and hangs her head.
"I won't kill you, Frank. I refuse to do that."
Reply
Sloth's pacing now, desperate for something to burn his anger. "So what'll it be? I'll stay in here for as long as you can hold me, and just eject this token into space? Or perhaps the Darkest Faerie only got the courtesy of being imprisoned by this magic since she is one of your sisters. Since death is so much worse than being kept against one's will in a void for the rest of eternity."
He wishes so badly he could be punching something right now. The walls or the Space Faerie would suffice. "If you don't kill me, I'm going to get out. Simple as that. You can't keep me here forever."
Reply
She sounds defeated, even now, with him trapped like this. Like somehow this is the undoing of all of her plans...all of her.
She makes a gesture, and the fog retreats slightly, leaving him alone for a moment. Its dispersal reveals a comfortable bed, a never-empty bottle of sweet spring water, a magical plate that replenishes itself with any kind of food he wants, a bookshelf filled with books, a desk and chair and blank paper and pens.
What's truly frightening is that these objects just...hang there. There's no floor supporting any of them, and no table holds up the food and drink.
"I don't plan on keeping you here forever. Just until we can properly talk. I can't do it now, because...well, you hate it when I use my telepathy on you. I'm doing it as little as possible, I promise."
Reply
Without any more warning than a growl of fury, his hands clamp down onto the sides of the desk, and with a roar, he whirls around and flings it in the direction of Lumindra, paper fluttering and scattering in its wake and all around him.
"BITCH! DISGUSTING FEMALE! YOU DON'T OWN ME! YOU CAN'T KEEP ME LIKE A CHARM AROUND YOUR NECK! RELEASE ME NOW!"
Reply
"N-No..."
Her arms cross over her head, and she rolls back and forth in front of him for a moment before falling still. Then she looks up at him.
In all their years fighting, in all the years they've known each other, she's never wept. Never has he seen her face twist up in grief, or tears coursing down her cheeks, or her mouth tremble and her chest heave with sobs.
This is because she's never actually ever shown it on the outside. But this is how she's always felt.
"Please...please don't..."
Reply
"You're no different than them, Lumindra." He says her name like it's an insult, and wields it like a knife. "You're going to keep me here, like a captive. Like a pet. You sicken me. I hate you, Lumindra. All these years, you evade me, refuse to come to me, let me keep you as my own, because you thought I'd treat you like a trophy. Like a shiny bauble to put on a shelf and admire. A bird in a cage."
Sloth waves again at the ethereal prison that surrounds him, his voice reaching a thunderous volume as he yells at her. "THEN WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, LUMINDRA?"
Reply
"You are NOT my trophy! I am not PROUD of this! I am defying the entire Sisterhood with this! It's not forever, Frank, I swear, just until I can figure out what to do next. I AM different! You're not my pet! I just want you to be a-alive at end of the day. I am going to have to hide you, after this. I'm going to have to l-lie to everybody. And I'm doing it all for you!"
She cannot bend the nature of the spell without undoing everything. So she cannot move closer to him, even though she desperately wants to. But she does reach a gloved hand out to him, trying to bridge the distance.
"...I love you."
Reply
"SHUT UP!!!" He picks up the enchanted bottle of water and flings it at her as well, of course having the same results as the desk, passing through her without any (outward) harm. But it feels good to throw things at her. It feels good to be doing something to act on his rage. So he grabs anything else he can and continues to fling it at the weeping faerie.
"YOU'RE DISGUSTING AND I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS! I'LL NEVER BELIEVE A SINGLE THING YOU SAY ABOUT THIS! YOU'RE A CONNIVING, UNDERHANDED-...GRRRAAAHH!" Sloth can't even finish his litany of insults, instead just tossing again the bottle of water now that it's just reappeared.
"I DON'T NEED YOUR GODDAMN PROTECTION! I DON'T NEED YOU! NOW LET ME OUT, YOU INSECT! YOU WORM! YOU INSIPID, WORTHLESS, COWERING, DAMNED FEMALE!"
Reply
The magenta fog suddenly rushes in again, obscuring everything that she's just revealed, and herself. Sloth will find himself utterly surrounded, possibly even baffled by it. It's a thick, cloying fog, with a bitter scent to it, and it rushes around his body like he's in a gale-force wind. And through the fog, a high-pitched wail sounds. It's her, of course. The sound of a heart that's breaking.
A heart that's already broken, into hundreds of millions of pieces.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
Reply
Anything to either aid his escape, or to hurt her. Hell, Frank's half-curious now what'll happen to him if she dies while he's trapped in here. Finding out is a better alternative than staying under her 'care' for the rest of his days.
Reply
All that's left of her is the sound of her sobs, echoing through the 'sphere' of her Token, bouncing off the golden latticework bars.
Reply
Sloth indignantly ignores the furniture and the food, refusing to give into what she's trying to make a bearable cage. Instead, he paces. Stalks back in forth between spherical walls that never come any closer, mind working furiously to figure a way out of this.
And also churning with hatred for everyone who he feels is responsible for this imprisonment. He'll boil that Cybunny girl alive. He'll rain down all his fury onto the Faerie Kingdom. He'll crush the Rebellion. He'll break the Space Faerie.
Reply
Her voice, ethereal and soft and sad, echoes through his cage again, even though she does not (and cannot) appear to him again. It's as if she's standing right behind him, whispering in his ear, her hand resting gently on his shoulder.
~Please. Trust me, Frank. You can hate me all you like, but please trust me. You'll be free sooner than you think. I'm almost back to Neopia. When I arrive, you'll be free, I promise.~
Reply
"Stop! Don't talk to me! Not like this, not at all! I don't even need you to get out of here; I'll break my way out. And then I'll destroy you, and everything else! In all our battles and arguments, this is the biggest mistake you've ever made, Lumindra. I'll crush you for this."
Reply
Leave a comment