The Hero of Love, Raiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pianistofraielin) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
savetheearth2014-06-24 12:01 am
pianistofraielin) wrote in savetheearth2014-06-24 12:01 am
[OPEN] Emperor
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.]
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.]
no subject
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?
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[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.
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[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.]
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Yeah. I wasn't really afraid of you until we came here. So I think it was an Echo.
[pause, as what Emil said sinks in. He looks up, finally turning toward Emil.]
Wait--did you remember it too? When Raiel used that song?
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It doesn’t make things better. Maybe in due time it will, because unlike Russel, Emil does think about Echoes as something that can twist you and rewrite your personality. But now he can’t distance himself from the situation to make rationalizations.]
Yeah. It was raining -
[And even in this situation, Emil manages to lace his now dry-as-sand tone with disdain, because Raiel had real rain and not some second rate fountain leak - ]
- and he brainwashed the entire town. Laughing like a psycho. Then he made that girl hit Hamel with an axe. To finish him off.
[There’s the hint of a question there, because the memory stopped right before the axe landed. As far as Emil is concerned, this is how Hamel died.]
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[He doesn't actually catch the hint of a question in it, he's too busy remembering the incident himself. He wipes his eyes and uncurls a bit, opening up that closed off posture just a little.]
Yeah. But she wouldn't do it.
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Guess she’s a better person than you, then.
[Raiel. Russel. Both of them.]
What happened next?
[Did he just let the mob kill him?]
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[Deep breath.] Anyway. [very deliberate, a clear "I'm not going to justify that with a response"]
He stopped.
She made him realize he wasn't acting like a hero, so he stopped. I don't remember what happened next, after that.
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He could never resist making snide remarks, let alone now after he almost got killed. He feels entitled for some cheap jabs.
He doesn’t push it any further, though. Instead he goes back to listening and when Russel is done, Emil exhales and leans against the wall again, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. Obviously, Hamel had to die somehow but at least it wasn’t in that horrible way.]
Right.
[He closes his eyes, lost in thought. For a long time, it seems like he isn’t going to say anything else. One could even think he’s asleep. But then he speaks again, eyes still shut.]
I just can’t figure it out. They weren’t like us. They both knew… what Hamel did. But they still traveled together? And Raiel tried to kill him? It doesn’t add up.
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[He closes his eyes again and sinks back against the wall. Lets the silence sink in. Burrows in it, makes himself a mental nest out of the solitude. He doesn't want to think anymore. Sure, not thinking is what got him into the mess in the first place, but that was action without thought, and this is more like a brief respite before he has to face the full consequences of that.]
[When Emil speaks and interrupts the silence, he rouses himself from it with a hard exhale that's not quite strong enough to be a sigh.]
I don't know. [it's a little irritated, but only a little. a 'why are you asking me?' kind of irritated.]
[he lets it lull back into silence for a second or two, then a thought strikes him and he looks up, turning toward Emil]
Maybe he felt so guilty about it, when he realized he wasn't being heroic, that he decided to try to fix it a different way. The power of friendship, right? I mean, that's what I was trying to do. Before... [vague gesture toward the outside world] Before this...
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Except that Echoes don't have to come in order. Using the term "the power of friendship" with a straight face makes the explanation ridiculous, but it's better than the alternative. And besides, wasn't friendshp why Flute didn't land the axe?]
Maybe... maybe that's why Raiel let Hamel bully him.
[You had it coming after trying to murder someone, right?
Another pause, and Emil pulls his knees toward him. Speaking quietly.]
And Hamel really did... that, so he could understand where Raiel was coming from...
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[Emil's explanation for why Raiel allowed himself to be bullied takes a second to sink in, but Russel realizes that it makes perfect sense. Despite all the other shit that's happened and his various feelings about it, having that extra piece of the puzzle triggers Russel's dumb shounen enthusiasm. suddenly he's grinning, energetic, intense]
Yeah!! I mean when you walked in here I was scared you were going to hurt me but then I didn't care because I thought if you did then I'd deserve it so if past-me thought the same way as me-me at all then it makes perfect sense that he'd let Hamel treat him that way because he felt guilty about it!
You're a genius! You found the thing that makes it all fit!
[Russel that rampant enthusiasm is absolutely not the appropriate tone to be using for any of that]
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He waits for Russel to get it all out. Then he says very calmly:]
You have three seconds to wipe the smile off before I come over there and break your face, jail or not.
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[The smile disappears immediately as Russel goes ramrod straight and stock still, staring wide-eyed back at Emil. It's almost comedically exaggerated, but nothing about it is fake, it's just Russel. If there's any question about that, the genuine fear in his eyes should dispel it.]
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Don't make that face, I wasn't really going to... I'm not a monster.
[Except he hardly sounds convinced, because doesn't the destruction in the Aria prove he is? Even if he was provoked.]
I just - even if we figured it out, did you expect me to ignore what happened and act all pleased?
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[He relaxes slightly, still tense but no longer statue still. He looks away, and his voice is very small again]
No, I just... I was excited about figuring it out. S--sorry.
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How is he going to explain it to his family? He never told them why he had a horn, claiming he’s yet to remember. If he could control his Mazoku side, he wouldn’t have to upset them.]
Right.
[He crosses his arms over his knees and rests his head on his forearms. It’s good to have that piece of the puzzle, but excited is not how he’d put it.]
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[but he finally does manage to find what seems like the right question]
...So...what now?
[it's a big question. long term. not limited to just tonight and the cell and what comes right after that]
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Wait till they decide what to do and hope it doesn’t involve prison.
And pee in a normal toilet.
[Purposely obtuse. He knows what Russel is asking, and he doesn’t know the answer. Oh sure, he can talk about charges and public attention and all that crap, but eventually he’ll have to address how it’s going to be between the two of them, and Emil can’t say. Not when it’s so close.
He sighs, peeks up at Russel and shakes his head.]
I don’t know. I can’t deal with it right now.
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[but the real answer that comes next is one he has no trouble accepting. he doesn't really want to deal with it right now, either. he's okay with an uneasy truce, for now.]
...Okay.
[accepting, decisive, final. he doesn't intend to say anything more. any further conversation would require dealing with it in some capacity, and now that they've at least established that Emil's not going to, uh, break his face or anything, he's okay with letting things sit until morning.]