savetheearth | town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

Once everyone finally started getting out of the damn car, Ravi could stop worrying about getting them out. There was still plenty else to worry about, and he was pretty tightly wound as a result, but that was a step in the right direction and it gave him some momentum to go through with the rest of what they needed to do.

While everyone else was preoccupied with getting moving, Ravi took his handgun out of its holster and popped the magazine out. He shoved that into his jacket pocket, pulled back the slide to make sure the gun was truly unloaded, then stuck it back in its holster, where it was concealed under his jacket, before climbing out of the car himself. It only took him a few seconds, easy enough to miss, and not really indicative of what he was planning to do even if someone did catch it.

He opted to leave the headlights on. It'd help if they were actually able to find the car again after this.

He shot Alex a faintly exasperated look. Hadn't he explained this already? Wasn't it obvious? Oh well, Alex had a concussion, maybe he'd missed it. (Ravi you just decided that on your own.) "The snakes explode. So, we are going far enough out that it won't be a problem, and Danny will make sure it is not a problem for us, either."

You know, that thing he'd completely failed to take into consideration at the start. Thank goodness Danny had just assumed that was what he'd planned.

That is v. helpful of you, Danny! Though apparently it wasn't necessary Alex's hypnotism makes Proud a lot less difficult to manage.

"Yeah--those things are pretty big. Maybe it's just taking them time to follow us."

Kotetsu does not, in fact, notice Ravi removing the the magazine from his gun, or he might have asked his friend about it, indeed occupied with getting Proud moving.

He looks back over his shoulder at Alex's question, though. Ravi explains things well enough, though Kotetsu adds a comment of his own.

"We figured this might be easier than trying to make sure nobody wrecks a snake while it's still in Elian's house."

Danny did notice Ravi fiddling with something in hand, but he wasn't quite sure what, not from outside the car at this angle.

He tears his attention away once Ravi steps out, though. "Uhh...yeah. Yeah, better to have it blow up here where nothing's around than in a house full of people."

He casts a glance at each of them as they answer, closer to understanding, but still feeling lost.

"They shouldn't be coming. I put him under. Whatever-- whatever prompted them to come first-- he shouldn't be doing it anymore."

Ravi jolted to a stop, freezing for a moment as the new information processed. The snakes were there to protect Proud. That meant Proud needed to feel like there was something he had to be protected from. If he was under Alex's trance, no feeling threatened, no protection necessary, no snakes.

Proud could not be kept under Alex's hypnosis indefinitely, so that was not a viable long-term solution. It was an impediment to the long-term solution.

Ravi turned to face Alex. "We are trying to get rid of the snakes. They need to come." So Alex was going to have to let his hold on Proud go once they were a safe enough distance out into the middle of nowhere.

He glanced to Kotetsu, motioned for him to follow, and turned to resume leading the way. They could argue about this if Alex wanted, but Ravi was intent on making sure they did so where they needed to be.

Kotetsu hesitates a moment as Ravi motions him to follow, looking between the nurse and Alex.

"Do you think he knows where the snakes are now? If they're still in the house, we gotta get 'em out."

Danny follows behind the others as they go.

"But then...how do we do that?"

He followed Ravi's back with his eyes for a moment before shutting the car's door and bringing up the rear. Reluctance oozed out of him, was made obvious with his entire body language. Something about this whole situation didn't sit right with him. As far as he was concerned, David Proud was a ticking time bomb. Bringing someone as unstable as him to a deserted area at night didn't seem like the soundest of plans.

Still, he understood why Ravi would want the snakes to come -- of course, he did. It was that understanding that prompted him to follow without further retaliation, waiting to see how this panned out.

"They shouldn't," he repeated, perhaps a little, though unintentionally, curtly.

Without context, it sounded like Alex was petulantly repeating that the snakes shouldn't be coming with Proud entranced. "They need to," Ravi shot back over his shoulder, just as curtly, growing irritated with Alex's meddling in what he felt was a pretty solid plan.

"But if they don't, won't that mean they can still blow up if someone breaks one?"

Danny looks between all four of them, starting to look pretty concerned. "I-I thought the whole idea was to get them out here instead of them staying there!"

His eyes narrow at Ravi's response. Rather than reply with another round of speculation, he pulls out his phone and dials in Anthony's Network Number. The exchange is brief and to the point.

"They've left," he says thinly, slipping the phone into his back pocket. "The snakes."

Ravi glances back when he hears the phone conversation start up, and quickly realizes what Alex is doing. He's grateful for it, but he's also irritated enough to not want to express that, so he keeps quiet and lets it slide without comment.

"Good," he mutters tersely in response, once the confirmation is given. He was almost certain they would have, but having it confirmed makes his anxiety ease off a little. The plan is working, then.

Or will be. If Alex's hypnosis really has frozen the snakes, that'll have to go.

Once they're far enough out, he stops and turns around, and looks to Kotetsu. "Set him down. We can wait here."

It's followed by a glance in Alex's direction, not high enough to meet his eyes. He's far too nervous to bother trying to look anybody in the face. "Let him go."

With confirmation that the plan is working and the snakes have gone, at least, Danny lets out a breath of relief and is able to relax his tense pose a little. Well, at least the plan's working. It makes Danny feel quite a bit better about having essentially kidnapped someone.

He returns Ravi's glance with a hard stare that is unintentionally, but perhaps subconsciously, an act to discomfort him. Something isn't right on Ravi's end. It makes him all the more reluctant to comply.

But comply he does, stepping around them and situating himself behind David Proud in case he needs to be restrained. Then he cuts the trance.

You're not going to feel better about it for long, Danny.

After Kotetsu sets Proud down, Ravi kneels in front of him as Alex moves behind. He's tense but seems focused. On the inside, the anxiety has settled in his guts like a dense mass of vines, a writhing twisting weight in the pit of his stomach that he cannot ignore but is trying his damnedest to. He is hyperfocused, blocking out everything that isn't immediately related to what he has convinced himself he needs to do, because if he stops for even a second to think about it, the anxiety will take over and he will become useless.

He's watching for the point when Alex's trance breaks, the moment Proud's eyes go back into focus or his muscles tense back up or whatever other visible sign there is of him regaining control of himself. And that is when he whips the gun from its holster under his jacket and presses the barrel to Proud's forehead. His finger's not on the trigger, even with the gun unloaded, but that's not so easy to see in the dark and would it even make a difference to those observing anyway?

"Don't move," he tells Proud, quiet, but sharp and cold--an artifact of his own anxiousness rather than a conscious effort to seem threatening.

Proud's focus returns - to a gun against his head.

Icy pang. He narrows his eyes, emits a hiss through his nose, and - there's a deep, plummeting pulsing sensation.

At the same moment that pang repeats, rides the ripple of an Echo and soars high, slicing, and seizing in his mind, a very different ripple pulses out from that machine hooked up in his chest, and he laughs.

Dry but unconscious, erratic, and constant, unpredicted and stop it, not now!

The snakes are on the move, most definitely - not even a hint of buzzing quite yet, but relatively soon.

Kotetsu's eyes go wide in shock, and for a moment, he's staring, frozen. Time slows to a crawl as for an instant denial takes hold--whatishedoingwhatishedoingthisisn'thappeningRIGHT?--and then that piercingly hysterical laughter shakes him off his reverie and he advances on his friend.

"What the fuck are you doing?!?!"

Edited (htmlllllll) 2014-02-18 21:39 (UTC)

Danny's frozen in place, suddenly too panicked to do anything else but grasp at his hair and grimace.

"Oh my god, WHAT THE HELL?" he shouts. He doesn't remember this part of the plan, he doesn't remember this part at all.

Alex's reaction is immediate. One hand shoves Proud down while the rest of him follows direction, kneeling over Proud, effectively acting a shield between Proud and Ravindra. By then, Danny and Kotetsu have made their respective exclamations. Alex doesn't add to it, though he's certainly just as perplexed, craning his neck to shoot Ravi an open-mouthed, incredulous glare.

Taken aback by Proud's sudden laughter, Ravi could only hold his position and stare and hope he hadn't just made a terrible, terrible mistake.

He hears the protests, but they register distantly; more important is the way Alex has suddenly intervened. His eyes flicker up, just long enough to get a glimpse of Alex's expression, and his own hardens. A pang of worry goes through him, adding another knot to the lump of anxiety in his stomach, and his eyes drop back to Proud, but they aren't quite focused. He adjusts his aim for Proud's center of mass.

Should he explain it? That the snakes won't come if Proud feels safe? Would saying it in front of Proud ruin the intended effect? He doesn't know--it seems like a better idea for now to let everyone hate him and to apologize and explain later. "I know what I'm doing," is the answer he gives, quiet, more certain than he actually feels. He does not know what he's doing, but he really, really hopes he isn't wrong about this.

town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

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