savetheearth | Entry #A-14: "Antiscriptural" [Video, Forward-Dated Action to Friday, 10/24]

[Notably, it's the first time L's put his face on the Network. It's composed and deliberate; he looks into the camera with a cold gaze that never falters or glances aside even for a moment as he speaks. His voice is similarly frigid, tone flat and emotionless.]

I'm sure many of you know this already, but Anthony Janvier was gunned down on Friday. He was at work, and it was a barbaric act of mob violence scarcely befitting such a gentle soul. He was brave and kind to his last moment, and I don't think I only speak for myself when I say I have lost a friend.

[He hasn't blinked yet; that stare could burn holes in liars and killers. It's a dare, a challenge to acknowledge futility and look away first.]

I'm not sentimental, or Catholic. Anthony was both. His funeral is tomorrow morning, because that's what people do: we mourn, we remember, and we mend. I understand that there are some who intend to picket the funeral; if you're afraid, don't bother coming, but if you're not... it's Friday, 10 AM at the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

[[OOC: The funeral is up! Please feel free to use it as a mingle post and start your own prompts.]]

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[He sets his jaw, and his eyes fairly burn.]

Are you telling me that you're the kind to run away when people need you the most? I wouldn't judge if you are, I know what you've been through, but I'm not, and it's honestly the first thing I've learned about myself that I actually like.

It got real a long time ago, Tony. Even more reason to fight as hard as we can while there's enough of us left to have a chance.

[He rolls his eyes.]

You know better than that, or have you forgotten everything up until this point? [Seriously do you really think he'd still be around if that were the case? Most people would have bounced before they were tortured for a week.]

I'm saying if the heat gets too hot, it might not be a bad idea to have an evacuation plan. A plan to regroup rather than just sitting in the fire to burn.

Tony...

[His voice catches.]

You get out if that happens. I'm in the fire already.

Don't give me that martyring shit, L. I already signed my contract and I'm seeing it to the end.

[What was that, do you actually care? It's hard to grasp sometimes.]

Besides, who cares if another street rat ends up dead, right?

[L thinks about what he wants to say.

Albero's coming for me.

I have to make this stand.

I'm so afraid, desperately afraid. I don't want to be alone, because then I might die alone.]

Don't talk like that. You know that Richard and I would care, and that should be enough.

And if the two of you are dead?

[He doesn't mean to snap, but he's been an emotional wreck since he first found himself held at gunpoint. Brave faces only last so long.]

I don't have much, L, but before all of this I didn't have anything.

I know. More than you can possibly guess, I know.

[He still sees Lazarus when he looks in the mirror, but he sees someone else, too. That voice he hears, the one he thought for a long time belonged to Moises, is someone else's now. The strength in his newly-repaired hands isn't superhuman, but it contains resolve. He is no longer the kind of man who would make the decision to stop breathing.]

I know you're afraid of losing more people. We all are, but that's the world we live in now. I don't want to die, and I'm not going to let that happen as long as I have any say in it. I'm sure Richard feels the same.

[Just have some nonsense grumbling that could be protest if it were actual words. You can't argue with him if he makes dog sounds because you don't speak dog.

Take that.

Tony still doesn't know who he is. Sometimes his adrenaline runs off with him, sometimes it's scarier not to act, but at the end of the day he still doesn't always know if it was resolve or just knee-jerk or a lack of anything else to do. It was all too much to make sense of or put into words. So he'll just grumble and make distressed noises.]

I guess.

[Doesn't mean he's gonna like it.]

Entry #A-14: "Antiscriptural" [Video, Forward-Dated Action to Friday, 10/24]

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