savetheearth | Entry #B-1: "B" [November 19, Video]

Entry #B-1: "B" [November 19, Video]

[The man appearing onscreen this morning is haggard, somber, and distracted. Clearly, he's been awake all night, something he's been doing far too often lately, sitting curled in the middle of what appears to be a cleaned up but ancient school gymnasium's basketball court with his chin on his knees. A few feet away is a blue tarp hiding something sizable and lumpy.]

I know Albero's people are striking Espresso Yourself, early on the morning of Sunday, November 23, at 3:15 AM. They will be there to raze the building to the ground and they do not intend to take prisoners.

[He bites his lip, glancing away from the camera. The calmness he's affected since Anthony's death slips for a second, revealing something like fear. He swallows.]

I've been waiting for a pulse. I was hoping that maybe my other's experience and knowledge could help me, in this regard, but up to this point... it's been all quiet on that front.

[He rises slowly, moving towards the tarp and drawing it away from what it conceals. There are many pounds of dynamite stacked in the middle of his gym, along with several ominous looking canisters.]

I have dynamite and nitroglycerin. I think...

[He takes a deep, shuddering breath.]

I know we can kill a lot of them. Part of me really wants to, and I can't be the only one. But I know... I know that's not what we're fighting for, a criminal record of our own and another reason to be driven out of this city. So...

[He sits again, hard, on the floor, eyes and posture conveying a distinctly dazed quality.]

I think maybe it would be better to use this information to get the FBI on this and catch them in the act, with no blood shed. I'm prepared for both of these scenarios, but honestly... I don't know what's right. I'm so tired. I trust all of you, so... please help me make the right decision.

EDIT: I've been informed that Nick knows about another upcoming opportunity, a chance to hit the Mafia where it hurts. There's to be a meeting of higher-ups in the near future; further details are forthcoming.

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[Well, shit. Julien's had a pulse for a long time allowing him to be calm in most not-at-all-calm situations. He shows a faint frown, eyes weirdly pale with his pupils contracted tight. Does he want to ask where that foreknowledge is from? He might get an answer he doesn't like.]

Absolutely this should be taken to the FBI. Everything gets worse if it isn't. Our problems in Locke are almost all rooted in Albero and what he's doing. This would be his single greatest triumph, making us out to be terrorists, basically - even if he came himself and died in it, even if he doesn't have deputies or whatever, it doesn't take much spin at all to paint us as worse than them.

[and, private:]
Weren't there rumors about traitors on the network?

[... What the hell is wrong with you, L? You know, more than usual?]

Killing them is stupid. [And just . . . really wrong unless there's no other way. But focusing on the strategic aspect is way easier.] Just makes us even more enemies in the end.

[Saretha just sort of stares at the screen for awhile.]

Killing them would practically be suicide. Not just for you, but for all of us. Even if we were able to slaughter all of them in clean, fell swoop, it would result in nothing more than us looking to the world like the bloodthirsty killers that Albero wants to paint us as.

Anyone who seeks just that is doing nothing to help us, and it will only harm us in the long run. We don't truly lessen our enemies that way - we create martyrs for our remaining foes to lift up and use against us.

So, yes... if you are certain of this information, the FBI is the best decision. A year ago, the Numbered were in a position where they had no choice but to hide and cover their heads - we have the ability to do much more than that now, and we should seize it. If we can hurt them via the authorities, we can do much more damage than with a simple massacre.

Tell. The. Authorities.

I'd like to be able to go back to my home city without everyone thinking I'm a monster.

[She's happened to touch on a deep-seated fear of his. The Reincarnate Lazarus wants to help more than he hurts, but to say his pulses and recent experiences have given him a conflicted nature is something of a dire understatement. That detective, the one who was responsible for death during his life and didn't seem to care... is some of that rubbing off on him, despite his best efforts?]

Yes, you're right, of course. We aren't monsters. Behaving like monsters isn't something we should do.

[Monsters behaving like humans... maybe that's more acceptable. Maybe, even though L hasn't sprouted teeth and claws, how far he's willing to go to achieve his ends says more than he'd ever want to admit.]

[for this, he will absolutely ditch the handwriting, and even if he's trying to remain calm it's clear that he's

a bit upset]

I can damn well tell you that killing a lot of them is certainly not the right decision!

I want to slaughter them all. But even so, I can't ignore a chance to have a bunch of agents waiting for them. Maybe the FBI will shoot them all while they're at it.

[L didn't know how much of a relief it could be to hear someone else voice the desire until it happened. The creeping dread that he'd done something terrible by asking for help, revealed a flaw in his character that no one would ever be able to look past again, begins to soften.]

That's how I feel about it. It's not that it's the more moral choice, necessarily... whether or not it is, it's the smarter choice. It makes them look like bullies, and they need to look like bullies for the attitude in this city to ever turn around.

Even the ones who turn into whatever people would CALL monsters are still themselves in the important ways. Not that being acceptable isn't important but that's the unaccepting people's faults.

[Lily looks more than a little bothered by this. She starts slowly, his discomfort quite evident.]

...no, I've... I've seen too much already... Just killing them, it doesn't... it won't fix anything.

[That makes two of them. The spacious, high-ceilinged gymnasium makes the man alone with his agents of destruction seem even smaller and more overwhelmed.

This seems so obvious to so many people.]

I don't...

[I don't know. I don't know.]

...I don't think so, either. I don't want any more of ours to get hurt. I don't want to regret whatever happens.

[The screen shows Lazarus a face as pale as his own and openly unnerved. He'd been hoping for clear direction, and it doesn't get much clearer than this, truly. He's grateful... even if it's also clear that he has misjudged something direly when his Other should have given him the tools, by now, not to.]

What you're saying makes a lot of sense. I feel foolish not to have reached the conclusion myself. I'm not... I don't want to be a terrorist, and when you put it like that it's clear that I can't pursue that course of action.

[He also addresses Julian privately here.]

Identified, and their Numbers are no longer connected to them. So they cannot see this.

[Well that's... blunt, but maybe Lazarus needs blunt right now. Left to his own devices, he's apparently capable of inciting a lot of panic and doubt, if the other responses are anything to go by.

With talk of monsters, retribution and fear, a moral argument would be likely to make things even more confusing. Toushirou's smart to go with the strategic points; L can see their merit without obfuscation of things he simply doesn't, or can't, understand.]

We don't want more enemies... you're right, of course. I'm glad I asked.

Like everyone else appears to be saying... killing them will only make things worse. If we can have an FBI task force waiting for them, to catch them in the act, that would be such a help to our image. It would be proof, at last, that we're being harassed and possibly even more proof that we're being smeared and framed.

... we might want to move the teleporter, however, before things go down. That is terribly important, and I'd rather not the mafia or the FBI take it away from us.

[god damn it, Lazarus. Elian grimaces, and then pays attention to the surroundings]

You're at the school? I can be there shortly.

[~~because you clearly need something more than even a visual can give~~]

[Bluntness is the way of children, fortunately. And Toushirou has enough strong feelings on this subject that mincing words never occurred to him.]

We've already seen what happens when people get terrified. [Because ANTHONY. That's what fear did.] We're already seen as the villains here, the last thing we need to do is make that view more justified.

[His eyes are downcast as he answers. He is actually shaken by the vehemence of some of the responses; perhaps his faith in the inherent humanity of his friends has been strengthened, but in his own? Not so much.]

It would help, wouldn't it? We'd look like what we are... victims in all of this, and the good people in Locke City wouldn't be able to overlook that, no matter how much the media spins it.

[He pauses, glad to have something he's actually been uncontroversially successful in brought up.]

I know you've been busy, so don't worry about it, but the teleporter was moved two weeks ago. It's here at the school now. I could, at least, do that properly.

[The stern-looking woman addressing him has a way of making him feel thoroughly admonished before she says anything at all. He glances away from the screen, but listens closely. He asked for direction, input and help, and she is offering it, with the honesty and candor he needs to hear. Rather than coloring it emotionally, she is, like Toushirou, putting it in terms that are impossible to muddle with highly subjective morality, where he tends to falter.]

The last thing I want is to make Albero look like a martyr.

I'm very certain of the information; gathering it was a pain and planting the wire was the most ridiculously complicated thing I've ever done, but that's when it's happening, confirmed in English and Sicilian conversations I've overheard. So if we can do significant damage just by making them look guilty as hell... that's what I want.

[Julien's nature is to smooth things over, conciliate, make people feel better. Something is wrong with Lazarus, but he has to try and connect with the other part, hope it is real and solid, and try not to shame him into doing something rash.] Things are messed up - you've been there for a lot of the bad stuff. You knew Anthony a lot better than I did. You want to hurt them like they hurt us. That's normal. [just going to ignore how the collecting that much in the way of explosives is not, at all] It's good that you stopped, and asked.

They will hurt for this. They will. But fire is too quick and would just make their cause stronger.

[Private]

...I see. You've reason to believe there aren't any more? Quieter ones?

Oh.

[There's an embarrassed pause.]

Well. Now I feel a bit silly. I'll just blame being in the city jail, shall I?

[He's got a sheepish sort of smile in his voice, too.]

Which school are you at? I'm... likely going to be needing that again at some point, as the only place I'm likely to get employed these days looks to be Germany.

Pay it no mind, that's what I've already attributed it to.

[He turns the camera so Lyall can see more of the gymnasium; he's proud of his efforts fixing it up, even if it still has a long way to go.]

It was formerly the Willow Ridge Boarding Academy, back in the 1970s. It's been defunct for many years and was bank-owned... I bought it, put in a security system, and it's my new base of operations. I'm also making it available to anyone who needs a place to stay or wants to help me with my own projects, which are currently going after Albero, mostly.

[As if that even needed to be said.]

Sheila has also offered to teach there, considering there are some Numbered children who haven't been able to attend normal school. Ultimately I'd really like it if it could be a school, even in the barest sense of the word.

[Rakka looked honestly worried as she tuned in, looking a bit disheveled, although that was no fault of L's.]

I... I know that we could probably kill all of them if we tried, but that's not what we should do, is it?

[Lily is far from alone; the post is a troubling one on multiple levels, for L's discomfort and the discomfort he's instilling in others.]

I know. I understand that getting rid of a problem doesn't mean solving it, or...

[He falters. That doesn't make very much sense out loud.]

I've never been in a situation like this before. My Other is not helping as I thought he would.

If I knew that, if I had a clear idea of what the right thing to do is at all, I wouldn't be asking so generally and so desperately.

[He is absolutely lost.]

[Usually he responds with text, but that's just not fast enough.]

Don't you fuckin' dare.

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Entry #B-1: "B" [November 19, Video]

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