[OPEN] Emperor

[pianistofraielin]

Who: Anyone in Vegas is welcome
When: June 24th, evening
Where: Las Vegas, outside the Aria.
What: OOC post here. Russel incites a mob outside of the Aria hotel in Vegas. Feel free to start a subthread if you just want mob shenanigans without being directly involved in Emil and Russel's conflict!

[Emil needed to die. That was the only way to fix anything. It was a very extreme position to take, but Russel stood by it. Hamel had killed his parents and slaughtered a whole town, and the power of friendship wasn't going to be nearly enough to stop Emil from doing the same thing if he kept getting Echoes turning him Mazoku. They weren't even really friends, anyway. Russel needed to do something now, before Emil regained whatever parts of him had led to the massacre in his memory.]

[But he didn't know where to start. He spent a few days stewing over it, wondering if he could use Firebird, or maybe that new song he'd regained right before leaving Locke, but he didn't know what it did yet. And then, suddenly, it clicked. He was listening dubiously to some guy with a megaphone outside the Bellagio, and an Echo hit him, and he knew what it was he had to do.]

[He didn't rush out to make it happen immediately, of course. He planned it. He scouted out the perfect venue and waited for the group with the megaphone guy to move their act there, and then he took his golden piano out to the fountain at the Aria and asked Emil to come meet him. And then he waited.]

Comments

[abhero]

[Emil shows up late. For a while he considered ditching altogether - stuck together in a car for three days and then staying at the same hotel was too much Russel for his taste and he didn’t feel like spending even more time with him.

So even though he’s more than half hour late, Emil thinks he’s doing Russel a huge favor by showing up at all. He frowns at the kooks with the megaphone, and goes around the fountain to make himself known. Which means he dips a hand in the fountain and splashes some water at Russel.]

Boo.

[Like Russel, he brought his violin. He saw the pink light three days ago, and ever since he feels like he can’t let the damn thing out of his sight.]

[pianistofraielin]

[it's a pretty anxious 30 minutes, but Russel's determination sees him through it. plus it gives him something else to be mad at Emil about. that's definitely a bonus when you're looking for excuses to violently murder someone.]

[speaking of which! he responds to the splash by flashing the splasher a dirty look, and then realizes it's Emil, and jumps up and faces him and vindictively splashes him back]

So you finally came! Good, now we can get started!

[he's talking pretty loudly and obviously doesn't care what attention he attracts. it's also pretty obvious by his tone that 'getting started' is not going to be a good thing--for Emil]

[abhero]

[He jumps a little when the water hits him, grinning. The ominous tone isn't lost on him, but Russel's truei intentions never cross his mind, for obvious reasons. So instead of being property wary, Emil's reaction is to laugh Russel in the face. Always so dramatic!]

Get what started? Ooooh, are you challenging me to a duel?

[pianistofraielin]

[is he laughing? seriously? this asshole!]

[dramatic point]

I am!

[pause, reconsider]

S...ort of.

[no wait, doubling down]

No! This is much more serious than a mere duel!

[this is the part where he snatches the megaphone away from the cult spokesman without warning and turns to address the crowd]

Listen up, everyone! This man right here [pointing to Emil] is a dangerous demon who's going to kill everyone here if he's not stopped!

[abhero]

[He's laughing even harder at that reaction, but the amusement disappear when Russel snatches the megaphone. For a moment Emil isn't sure he heard right. Did he really just...?

Then he takes a step toward Russel and swats his pointing hand away.]

What the hell are you doing?

[He's whispering even though Russel is yelling and people are already starting to look. He's still more shocked than anything.]

[pianistofraielin]

[he turns away from the megaphone to give Emil a hard look. he responds to Emil's whisper with a shout loud enough to be heard in the crowd even without the megaphone]

I'm neutralizing a dangerous threat!

[lackinginfaith]

*One might think that Kari would have decided not to come back after half the team backed out. One might not know that Kari Acosta did what she wanted. If she was going to show up that obnoxious stick-plagued magician, she wasn't going to hang back in Locke.

Spotting a familiar face doing something decidedly out of place, though, was something that had to be dealt with. She approached from the back of the mob.*

Kid?

[abhero]

[Emil doesn't notice another person approaching. He's busy staring at Russel and it's the look that makes him realize that yes, this is actually happening, Russel is serious. He grabs the megaphone to wrangle it out of Russel's hands even though he's loud enough without it - anything to distract him from whatever he's about to do.]

I'm not - cut it out, this isn't funny!

[His voice is louder than a whisper but still low, laced with anger and fear.]

[pianistofraielin]

[he doesn't notice Kari either, but there's no mistaking that this is Russel, even from the back of the crowd. there's a murmur going up within it, people starting to get that curious energy that comes with a highly visible commotion.]

[Russel is not giving up that megaphone easily]

How dare you!! I'm perfectly serious! This is my duty as a hero!

[he manages to yank the megaphone back and immediately calls out to the crowd with it again]

Listen up, everyone--

[whoops and that sure was a fleeting moment before Emil snagged it again. but this time he gets an idea.]

[he suddenly stops fighting and lets go.]

[lackinginfaith]

*Not good.

She quickly covers her ears before running to the nearest open staircase. She's going to need her own high ground for this.*

[abhero]

Shut up - you're the shittiest hero I've seen in my life -

[And then Russel lets go and Emil stumbles back, falling right on his ass. But the important thing is that he has the megaphone. He throws it into the fountain.

Behind Russel, the head weirdo waves his hands and yells in protest: "Hey that's mine!!"]

[pianistofraielin]

[WHATEVER, EMIL. while he's distracted, Russel whips out the piano.]

Now it's time to get serious!

[he starts to play Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto, Emperor. a song about truth and justice.]

[The truth, in this case, is that the Numbered are connected with danger. Whether because they themselves are dangerous, or because their battle with the aliens puts themselves and others in danger, it's the truth that there is danger associated with them.]

[The justice is that there hasn't been any. What about the Numbered who were disappeared by Detective Sherman? All the people who died in the earthquake, or the Wise Snake attack? What will stop that same mayhem from happening in Las Vegas?]

[You, listener. You will. You will take justice into your own hands and stop the threat the Numbered present. The threat Emil represents. And if you're Numbered yourself? Maybe you're upset at your own situation. Maybe he represents all the hardship being Numbered has put you through. Maybe you are angry that you're Numbered at all and you suddenly understand that getting rid of this guy--that's what will bring you justice.]

[but these feelings will only affect you if you can hear what he's playing. earplugs, or especially loud and insulated headphones? you will be completely unaffected. Just...don't get caught in the sudden unruly mob's crossfire. some of them might be willing to attack any Numbered for their justice.]

open

[testsonseashells]

[Mordin very rarely gets angry. Thus far, it has happened three times since he turned fourteen—once, in high school, in response to a bully, and twice during his FBI career, dealing with particularly disgusting criminals.

So when he starts getting angry again, for no reason, trapped in a loop of thoughts about how unfair his lot in life seems, a part of him detached from his emotional processing becomes suspicious, until he turns a corner and the piano chords become inaudible.

And suddenly it stops, and it takes less than a second for Mordin to make the connection.

Above all else, an omnitool is just a computer, and enough musical dissonance should be able to overpower the piano at least in a small radius. So he sets up three instances of Pandora, each tuned to a different station, and begins to wade his way through the mob, as jazz and rap and pop clash together and clear his way.

Mordin is sure of this much: this is going to be an absolute pain to deal with.]

Jail aftermath [CLOSED]

[pianistofraielin]

[Arrested. Arrested. Russel isn't going to claim he doesn't deserve it, but the fact that he does deserve it is why he's freaking out so badly. He's deathly quiet in the cruiser. It's just him and his own brain, he can't run away from that here or distract himself with something else.]

[He knows why he did it. He was afraid. He was angry. He thought about the Mazoku, the reprehensible monsters that treated humanity like toys, and about that memory of a young boy cutting down body after body after body until there was nobody left standing, and about how Emil was turning into that boy, into a Mazoku, and what would happen to the rest of them if that transformation was allowed to finish? Russel had been thinking from a place of heroism - eliminate the threat, keep others safe. But what he'd done was not heroic. It was awful.]

[What had happened to believing in the power of friendship? We aren't those people and we don't have to turn into them? People don't deserve to be punished before they've done anything? If he's capable of something like this, did he ever actually believe any of that?]

[He's hesitant to blame it on the Echoes. Actually, the thought doesn't even occur to him. He doesn't think of Echoes in those terms, as things that can change them into people they're not. His mom has said, on several occasions, that he's way too into this whole Chosen One thing. So that's how he thinks of it - he let all the talk of destiny and heroes and defending others get to his head, and all the gifts he'd been given were put to use in the wrong way, used for the wrong purpose under the guise of the right one.]

[The road to Hell is full of good intentions. Down the lefthand highway with no sinister regrets.]

[No Russel, now is not the time for Bruce Dickinson. Now, actually, is the time to get dragged out of the cruiser and tossed into a holding cell while the cops try to clean up after his mess and contact his parents.]

[He's just going to sit there on the floor with his knees against his chest and his back against the wall and stare out at the bars, quietly freaking out around an all-encompassing sense of dread.]

[His mom is going to kill him.]

[abhero]

[The cops are afraid of him.

He should realize it the moment he snaps out of the red haze that was the Mazoku’s rage, but even the pointed gun doesn’t catch his attention until after a minute of being yelled at. He’s busy staring at the path of destruction left from the broken fountain to where he was standing, wondering if it was really him who’d done. His memory is fuzzy, but it could only be him. The monster Russel said he was.

The cops have to ask him every question three times before it registers in his mind. They argue whether they should take him to the hospital - sure he can barely walk now but he ran around just fine two minutes ago, you know these people have superpowers.

Emil is too dazed to care, but apparently he’s well enough to be locked up because the next thing he knows, the holding cell door shut behind him and he sees Russel.

Seriously? Do they not have enough cells? Or more likely, they don’t want to put dangerous Numbers with normal people. Judging by the cop standing just outside the cell, whose hand kept hovering around his gun, it was probably the latter.

Whatever. It’s only going to get worse from here, anyway.

He sits in the corner, the furthest from Russel as possible, knees pulled up and head in his hands, trying to stop shaking. He plans to ignore the other boy altogether but being in the same space after what just happened it too much for Emil. He can’t resist a sardonic remark.]

Rough night?

[His voice is ragged and bitter, but there’s little energy behind it.]

[pianistofraielin]

[When Russel catches movement in the corner of his vision, his eyes snap into focus and dart to Emil. A spike of fear accompanies recognition, but is quickly defeated by self-loathing: if Emil does try to hurt him, he'd deserve it, thus there is nothing to fear.]

[His gaze falls away, though he keeps Emil in his peripheral vision until it becomes clear that he's got no interest in approaching him.]

[He should say something. But what is there to say? There aren't any words to fix what happened. And he's still afraid of what Emil is turning into, and still thinks he's dangerous, and still thinks that, maybe, him dying wouldn't be such a bad thing. But he also thinks that Emil is salvageable, and that what he did to Emil was truly heinous, and that he doesn't deserve to call himself a hero after what he did. Killing someone because you're afraid of what they might become, might do, that's not justice. That's murder.]

[You can't just apologize away attempted murder.]

[Emil's sardonic comment doesn't make him angry. It just makes him feel worse. Now he feels obligated to engage, but there's still nothing to say. Nothing appropriate, nothing meaningful.]

[He's quiet for much longer than a normal lull of conversation. So long it seems like he isn't going to say anything at all.]

Do you remember when you showed me your horn and I wouldn't tell you what I got from the Echo?

[abhero]

[No commemt. Not surprising, he only said it to make Russel feel bad. Emil doesn’t want to talk anyway, but he still finds himself wishing Russel has the nerve to answer, just so he’d have an excuse to snap at him. He has every right to, let’s see how he’d like righteous fury now.

He gets his wish eventually, but the Russel's answer is completely out of the left field, it doesn't even anger Emil to hear him speak. Haven’t they been through this already?

He raises his head a little to look at Russel.]

Yeah. So what?

[pianistofraielin]

[Russel's not looking at him, instead staring down at the cell floor. His voice is clear, but quiet. Somber. Heavy.]

You killed my parents.

[Usually they clarify these things, past selves, alternate names, but he feels like that's just talking around what they both know is true. Hamel and Raiel, Emil and Russel, they're the same people. He doesn't want to put that distance in when he talks about it this time - he knows it's just an artificial distance to make themselves feel better about it.]

[abhero]

[At first Emil doesn’t understand what Russel is talking about. He thinks about who they are now, not about Hamel and Raiel. Then he feels the familiar, hollow thud followed by a memory and it all falls into place.

Something terrible happened. Emil doesn’t know what, but he - Hamel - is shaken all the way to his core. It’s too much, he can’t take it anymore. He throws his head back and screams - the howl of a tortured animal, no human child can ever make this sound - and everything blacks out. When he comes back to his senses, he wakes up to a nightmare. He’s covered in blood; soaked into his clothes, on his face, under his fingernails, covering his hands all the way up to elbows. None of it is his, though. It belongs to the bodies, hundreds of them, some of them are burned but others look like a crazed animal tore them apart. Only it wasn’t an animal. It was him, he did this, he slaughtered everyone -

- no, not everyone. There’s one living soul in the ruins. Russel - Raiel - kneeling next to two mutilated bodies who must be his parents. Hamel is on his hands and knees, crying uncontrollably as the realization of what he’s done dawns on him. Then he raises his head and stares at Raiel, trying to form words between the sobs, looking for… what? It doesn’t matter, because Raiel simply gets up and stumbles off, and then he’s alone in the graveyard of a town.

Emil shudders and sucks in a breathe. He leans his head against the wall, staring at the ceiling. Again he lets the fury drown all the other feelings, and he can barely stop himself from getting up and breaking Russel’s face.

All this time, he was being lied to. All the talk about sparing his feelings, about trying to be friends, it was all bullshit and Emil bought it like an idiot. For months he walked around thinking everything was okay, poking fun at dumb dorky Russel who was really just biding his time. Waiting for an opportunity to punish him for something his other self had done.

Somewhere in a corner of his mind, he can’t help but wonder if Russel was, in a way, right. Doesn’t his rampage prove that he’s the same monster who slaughtered an entire town? But even these thoughts are channeled into Emil’s rage, because Russel had chosen the most horrible way to go about it. Because pushing him into a Mazoku rampage robbed Emil of being truly justified in his anger.

His hands ball into tight fists and he keeps his eyes on the ceiling. His voice is raw.]

...you bastard. You lying fucking bastard.

[pianistofraielin]

[He winces and seems to shrink against the wall. There's pain in that voice, and he deserves every bit of vitriol behind it. He can't tell that Emil's just Echoed back his own version of events. Suspects he might have, but doesn't think it matters either way.]

[He should have said something. Keeping things from someone for their own good never works out in the end, does it?]

[His voice comes out very small: ] I'm sorry.

[It's not the apology of somebody caught in a lie. There's genuine grief behind it; it's more empathetic than remorseful. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I'm sorry you had to find out at all. I'm sorry the truth isn't something easier to hear. It's all of that on top of a regular I'm sorry I never told you.]

[abhero]

[Unfortunately, it’s too little and too late. Even though he can understand the reasons now, Emil has no sympathy to spare. The fact that it sounds like Russel really means it only makes him angrier.]

You’re sorry.

[He rubs his eyes, brought his hands down on his face. The sarcasm in his voice is so thick you can cut it.]

Now you’re sorry. You son of a bitch. Maybe you wouldn’t be if you finished the job.

[When he finally looks at Russel, his gaze is hard.]

Were you planning it ever since you remembered? Waited so you can have a big show, you stupid drama queen?

[pianistofraielin]

[That accusation hurts. He understands why it's being made, but to think that somebody could look at him and think that's a legitimate possibility drives the point home of just how badly he's fucked up.]

[He doesn't think he deserves to defend himself, but he doesn't want to let Emil think that any of it was fake.]

No. I really was trying to be your friend.

[He hugs his knees to his chest, turning his head away to stare unfocused at the near wall]

It's just...since we came here...I've been scared of you. Suddenly I couldn't stop thinking about that kid killing all those people and how if I didn't stop you now it might happen again...

And then I remembered how to use that song and I'm an idiot who doesn't think things through and I fucked up and nothing can ever make that right and I don't even want to be a part of all this if that's the kind of person it's going to turn me into.

[once he hits 'I'm an idiot' the self-loathing seeps into his voice, and he grows more emotional and angry with himself as he keeps going, and by the time he hits the end he's pretty close to crying. he starts uncurling from his small, closed off position as he goes too, ending with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, eyes shut against the heat behind them.]

[and then he is crying, the kind you can still talk around, the kind you try to pretend isn't actually happening because this isn't about you, you're the one who fucked up, you're the one who hurt someone else and you have no right to be upset about it when they're sitting there listening to you]

I can't even say I didn't know what I was thinking because I know exactly what I was thinking and that's the worst part! I should've been scared of myself this whole time, not you.

[abhero]

[He listens quietly, watching Russel the whole time. If he’s faking it, then he must be one of the best actors Emil has seen in his life. He’s inclined to think it’s genuine, but… so what? Oh, it’d be much worse if Russel didn’t show remorse but it doesn’t change the fact that yes, he fucked up so bad that “fucked up” doesn’t begin to describe it and even if he’s crying, Emil can’t bring himself to care.

When Russel is done, Emil comes up with a dozen cruel replies. He doesn’t say any of them - it won’t make him feel any better. The anger has cooled off, not really subsiding but turning into something more stable than the bubbling rage of earlier.

He’s still mad. He doesn’t think he’ll stop being mad any time soon. But now he can actually talk, and what Russel said before he broke down is bothering him.

He takes a deep breathe. Rubs his eyes, then looks at Russel again, completely stone faced.]

“Suddenly”. Are you saying an echo made you do it?

[pianistofraielin]

[Russel's past drama club performances would demonstrate quite plainly that no, he's really not that good an actor. He's not faking this.]

[He's still not looking at Emil. He shakes his head in answer. He does think there was an Echo that changed how he felt about Emil, made him afraid, made him wary and angry and wanting to stop the potential danger he represented. But that Echo didn't make him do anything. He's not about to blame his mistakes on that.]

It doesn't make any difference if it was because of an Echo or not. It was still me who did it.

[abhero]

I didn’t say it makes.

[Sharply. Trust him, Russel, he isn’t trying to justify your actions.]

I’m just trying to figure out why. Because it's not the first time it happened.

[He’s pretty sure Russel remembers, too. It was an almost perfect reenactment from their past lives.]