nysalogs | (open) back to ordinary

Entry tags:

(open) back to ordinary

Who: mikazuki augus (

sparsity) & various & you!
What: october plot - open prompts, closed starters.
When: various days in october.
Where: olympia & thesa.
Warning(s): violence, probably murder.

I. YOU'VE GROWN OUT OF US

[ All things considered, the events leading up to Olympia's current state are familiar in the way the lay of a skeleton is familiar, flesh stripped from bone, the impression of something once whole. Bare joints exposed, a working order, if not quite... right. Explosions rocking a populated area, terrified people, dubious claims opening up a chasm of blame for anyone free to explore. It leaves too much to people he doesn't trust. Too much like the colonies he saw falsely accused.

Years ago and yet fresh again, for all the subtleties he doesn't understand about it. All he knows is that people are ready to fight.

Mikazuki isn't really the vigilante sort, though he's moving through the streets of Olympia like he is, eyes trained and alert as he glances down alleyways he passes, storefronts and establishments a little too dark. He's most familiar with the marketplace, as much as he's a familiar face there too. All its corners have been thrown with smoke, illness, and shadow. Electricity is in the air, the same sort after the announcement. Mikazuki tastes it as he rounds the bars he knows, looking no where near old enough to enter one and now not marked by Ashti's stone or uniform to signify he's patrolling them, instead dressed in somber neutrals.

His pace only slows when he comes across one of the posters strewn about the city, wide things pasted sideways to the front of a building. Broad daylight, people around, hunters, accomplices. None of that matters. Only the face on it matters, a boy no older than himself, blocky angles and friendly eyes.

Reaching up, he scrapes his nails across its topmost edge and tears it off, crumpling the pieces in his palms. To anyone within earshot that may have stopped in light of his display, he passes a glance to. ]

What?

[ Polite, as always. ]

II. AND YOU'VE BEEN DYING TO GO

[ Every so often, the liveliness of Olympia drives Mikazuki to space. Not because of the noise, but because the conflict this time isn't his noise. It's not Tekkadan, not their conflict, save for those here with him now in the crossfire again. That's the only loyalty he owes, the only allegiance he has. Except this one thing.

Show us we can trust you.

Those words shadow his footsteps as he makes his way through Thesa and into the hangar, the chilly smell of alloy and fuel stinging pleasantly in his nose. He knows his way by heart now, just like he knows his way by heart through the stasis units on Alria to the one he visits day after day. It's quiet up here, compared to the surface below. There's an odd shuttle that takes off or docks in a whir of hydraulics, the natural shift and boom of metal, even at rest. But it's not any of the mass produced training machines that he's focused on as his footsteps thud across the catwalk lining the hangar perimeter, secured in front of the mobile suits. No, it's farther down that he focuses on, where the makes of suits starts to shift. Eventually, he slows next to a hulking white machine, crowned and clawed in gold. ]

Sleeping like usual. [ With no one else around him, he's actually addressing the suit. Hands in pockets, his gaze travels up and up, settling on its clean, quiet face plate. Repaired from that moment he was brought, breathing, to Thesa. ] I wonder what you'd want to do about this, too.

[ ...if there was any doubt that he's legitimately talking to a robot. ]

(ooc. closed starters below, if you'd like something specific feel free to hit me up here, rivalry, or axia#4656!)

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That depends on what you think innocent is.

[ Mikazuki makes that distinction because he knows he and Atsushi are of different minds on this in particular. Even when angry, there's a softness and an urge to understand in the other boy's eyes. Mikazuki lacks this. Even so, it's a statement with no ceremony to it, no challenge. All that glimmers out from the tone of his voice is — something tired, maybe. ]

But this isn't the first situation we've been in that's like this.

[ He'd gotten a do-over, but he never expected anything other than what he knows, in the end. ]

Really?

[Another situation like this, huh..? Well, maybe Atsushi isn't much different. He'd done some crazy things when he'd turned full tiger, in the past; he'd likely have been killed, if caught, even though he'd had no control over what the tiger did.]

I think... intention matters, when it comes to innocence. If you do a terrible thing by accident, I don't think that should be weighed as heavily as doing a much smaller evil on purpose.

[Not... that he feels any less guilty...]

[ Turning that answer over quietly, Mikazuki shifts, looking down the street, to the people milling through it. It's familiar enough, sharpened into focus through those long days of peace he'd grown to know it by. Yet now every body stood to make an obstacle for him. A potential fight. He's sure he thought that about Chryse, when threat of siege came down on it. Gjallarhorn's attempt to flush out the beasts — the rats.

So familiar, and yet so new. ]

Do you thinking explaining why you'd kill for money matters if you still killed someone?

I think killing someone by accident shouldn't make one as accountable as killing on purpose, for money or any other reason.

[He tries to explain himself calmly, but there's still something uncomfortable about the topic; about the way Mikazuki picks this particular example, maybe.]

Is that what you did? Killing for money.

[ It'd be nice, if circumstances always accounted for that. Sometimes, all anyone sees is a dead body, or, even gentler, a life lost. Or just another kill count, if they were lucky enough to retrieve the bodies. But Mikazuki doesn't argue the other side of it. There's no reason for him to. Hands still in his pockets, he looks to Atsushi. ]

I decided to kill because I'd be killed if I didn't.

[ A clear cut. ]

It was what I could do for everyone, so I didn't stop.

[It's a good enough reason. God knows Atsushi himself has killed in self-defense and (especially) in defense of his friends - or tried to, at least, driven wild in a panic, and he considers that just as bad as having done it for real. So he can't judge Mikazuki for having done what amounts to the same thing.

But there's still that indescribable feeling of something being off. It's not what Mikazuki has done... Maybe it's more his attitude about it.]

This isn't that kind of world. [He thinks; he hopes. Maybe it's naive, but Atsushi does try to avoid killing if at all possible. He always has, really. Maybe that one fateful encounter with Akutagawa is half the reason why he can't stand the guy, needing to believe that Akutagawa is bad enough that he deserved being shot to death at the time. (Admittedly, Akutagawa has never since done anything to convince Atsushi otherwise...)] There are other options, here.

Have you stopped now?

No. [ He doubts he ever will. His tone remains the same — no arrogance, no lust for it. It just is. ] It's not the world that makes those decisions for you.

[ Just like it doesn't matter if this is a different planet versus the ones he used to know. El Nysa, Mars. Olympia, Gjallarhorn. All he knows is that someone's thrown a false flag after one of his allies, his family. It's so familiar he tastes the air of those battlefields in his teeth. His loyalty lies no where else, and he'll destroy for it as many times as he has to. As many times as it's threatened, no matter where he is. ]

That's true. But some worlds allow you more of a chance than others to choose to stop.

[It's probably wrong to take the moral highroad when fear and past trauma are Atsushi's main motivators on a good day, but he can't help it. He needs to believe these things; he needs to tell himself that there is a "correct" way to live. If he didn't have that... how could he ever find a way to deserve to exist?]

If you've killed before, you must realize, right? It doesn't change anything.

[And if there's no reason to do it, who would?]

[ It'd be easy to try and rake his teeth over that belief, the stubborn naivety. But there's a difference between the gentle treatment of those who were born with it and those who had to fight tooth and nail to maintain it, because that's how they interact with the world. Mikazuki doesn't have to agree to know the fundamental difference — and more than that, to accept it.

Quietly, he puts his hand to that empty space on the wall. ]

It changed everything for us. [ At every pivotal moment that allowed them to take a step forward, Mikazuki was there, finger on the trigger. ] When I stopped was when we lost.

[ He won't make the same mistake twice. ]

But you're still here.

[That's not losing, is it? It's more like a second chance - which isn't to say that Mikazuki had it easy, because Atsushi is making no such assumptions. On the contrary: as little as he knows about Mikazuki, he understands his feelings pretty well. Under different circumstances, Atsushi might have ended up like that - or a lot worse.

But it's still not right.]

I won't say that you were wrong to have done what you did... You were probably right. But this place is different. And we don't have all of outer space to hide in.

We just have this planet. [And one space station, but that barely counts.] That's all. We'll all have to live together, here.

[Murder does so put a damper on things.]

Still here... isn't the right way to put it. [ A strange turn of his expression. ] I came back.

[ From something he wasn't supposed to. From something no one ever just came back from. ]

But it doesn't matter if this place is different. I know where my home is.

[ He had it all along, and all trust in those outside of it had done was take it away from him. Alliances, politics, mercy. Mikazuki can't find space enough within him for them. Playing those games rather than doing things in the way he was used to had done nothing but lead him down the wrong path. Isolated, dark, his back to the wall until — nothingness. Just thinking about it makes that chasm of loneliness yawn wide in him. Looking down, his voice drops. ]

So I'll destroy anything for him this time.

[ And a chance to do so seems poised to present itself — no sooner than the words leave his mouth do footsteps come pounding through the alleyway to their side, harsh whispers, tendrils of... magic. Eyes sharpening, Mikazuki's hackles raise. ]

"Came back"...?

[Atsushi doesn't understand - but Mikazuki is under no obligation to explain, of course. Atsushi soon has very different things to discuss, too. He's just not sure where to start. Everyone should make their own choices, and Atsushi shouldn't butt into people's lives. He really doesn't want to butt in - but if Mikazuki goes down that road, it won't end well. Not for anybody. Even apart from the moral aspects, Atsushi presumes (right or wrong) that nobody will be able to get away with murder, here. Not for long, at least.

So he opens his mouth to try again, a little frustrated - but then there are footsteps coming up to them, Atsushi catching the shift in Mikazuki's mood before he realizes the danger they're in. There's no time to respond, something coming flying in their direction, and Atsushi barely manages to get between it and Mikazuki, raising transformed arms in front of himself to defend the both of them from any weapon used.

It's just too bad that it isn't necessarily a weapon.]

[ Not a weapon at all, but magic. That inherent, consuming thing Mikazuki has only started to grasp the concept of for all his time on this planet — something he can now understand better in a fight. It comes in the punishing form of winds, sharp with the smell of ozone. As Atsushi takes the position in front of him, Mikazuki braces his grip on him from behind as the full brunt of the spell hits them like a battering ram. He grunts with the force of it, heels skidding back. Stubbornly, he anchors his weight in his legs to keep the both of them upright, violent licks and whips of the spell cutting past them like knives.

Releasing a breath as it subsides, he hones his gaze over Atsushi's shoulder to see the wild-eyed look of the foremost fugitive as he looks between them and the wanted posters. That's apparently all he needs to see them as threats, pursuers. Another spell roils around his wrists as he cracks an untamed grin, wild with both power and fear: Good likeness on those pieces of shit, huh? Out of the way, brats! Today isn't the day I'm going to Simwe's dog!

Frowning, Mikazuki pushes on Atsushi's back. ]

Another hit like that will come...

[With a small yelp of surprise, Atsushi suddenly finds himself pushed back with incredible force, Mikazuki the only thing keeping him from toppling over. Atsushi tries to resist the pressure too, transforming his legs so his claws can dig into the ground, but the cobblestones don't help him much, and with no chance to hunch over and brace himself, he still relies on Mikazuki more than anything.

At least it stops eventually, the sudden lack of pressure almost as disorienting as the presence of it had been. Gasping for air - it's just not easy, breathing in such hard wind - Atsushi nods.]

We need to split up.

[A gamble, really, but if their attacker can only "fire" in one direction at a time, it will be a great help - and if his power is halved that way (or even if it's only a matter of his attention being split), they'll stand a much better chance, too.]

You go right!

[Which is as much of a warning as Atsushi gives before running off to the left, himself, staying low by going on all fours. It's part efficiency, part showing off: if he can present himself as the bigger threat, hopefully the terrorist will focus on him - and then Mikazuki can take the guy down.]

[ Mikazuki obeys instinctively, never needing an elaborate plan to take action. And he's never sharper than in a fight either, using the space Atsushi makes with his charge to duck out from behind him and to the right. Part of him had briefly caught on the shift in Atsushi's body, how it morphs into a beastlike visage, but he can't focus on it in the moment that the mage's attention falls away from him, their plan to divide his attention momentarily successful.

His next spell billows through the alleyway with a strident howl, wind whipping, cold and unforgiving. Mikazuki backs himself into a stack of crates, shoulders locked as they press flat against the rattling, wooden side of one. As he casts at Atsushi, Mikazuki can't draw and fire his gun — the wind might have it ricochet dangerously, or carry the shot towards the other boy. ]

The timing...

[ There, as the spell releases. Mikazuki is sure he can't cast again in such a short amount of time and darts out from his spot, lunging to take his other side.

Except when he goes to swing his fist at him, hoping to take out his arm with bone-breaking confidence, he finds his advance cut short as the mage catches him by the fist. Momentum frozen, his eyes go wide with the sort of look an animal might have when he hears the words: I told you, kid. Not today. Another spell whorls over his arm and hits with ravaging force, the blades of air flaying across the skin of his cheeks, tearing clothes. Huffing, Mikazuki flashes a colorless smile. ]

Yeah, maybe. But... [ His opposite hand comes to grip the mage's arm, twisting. ] Who's got who?

[ Anchoring, Mikazuki throws his weight down, shifting the balance enough to give Atsushi a clean shot. ]

[Staying low, with all his limbs transformed - and it's a little surprising how easy it is to move that way, when it's not something that he has done often - Atsushi can dig his claws into the pavement, and resist the power of that spell... for the most part. He manages to avoid being swept away by the wind, but he can't exactly advance, either, the myriad little cuts not nearly as annoying as how hard it is to breathe.

The timing..? Atsushi looks on as Mikazuki seems to have an idea, meanwhile circling behind the mage. It doesn't help, much: Atsushi tries to advance again, but even putting all his strength into it, it's incredibly slow-going. Still, at least he's going, inch by inch - and when Mikazuki makes his move, Atsushi is at least a little closer to the mage than the guy is probably expecting. Combined with Mikazuki's strength, that's enough: the mage loses his balance, if only for a split second, and the spell wavers, fading almost like a vision - at which point Atsushi brings up a huge, striped fist, and knocks the mage on the back of his head with a loud roar.

It's almost too easy a finish, their attacker falling to the ground unconscious. But then, it was two against one from the start.]

[ Still having the man by the arm, Mikazuki feels the impact of Atsushi's hit tremor through his grip as he crumples face-first into the ground. With a dark crinkle of his brow, he releases him, trying to catch his breath after the force of the wind spell had threatened to rob his lungs of it completely. It's over quickly, but that's how Mikazuki prefers it when an enemy gets it into their mind that they're going to underestimate him, them, because they're young.

With that same expression heavy in the lines of his face, like a switch that had been flipped from the brightness in the way Mikazuki learns things, he reaches for the gun in his waistband, arm straightening smoothly afterwards like a sight at the end of the barrel. ]

[Atsushi isn't letting his guard down just yet, but even so, it's a shock on a whole new level, when Mikazuki pulls out that gun. That kind of thing may be excusable in a life-or-death situation, but with their enemy unconscious?! Even apart from the fact that handing terrorists over to the authorities is the wisest choice if you take the future and safety of the accused refugees into account, killing someone who can't fight back is just wrong.]

What are you doing?!

[Atsushi jumps between Mikazuki and his target, grabbing Mikazuki's wrist to move his aim somewhere harmless - if he can. He should have probably kept his arms transformed for that, but he doesn't want to risk hurting Mikazuki, so it's a very human hand that's trying to push the gun-wielding hand away.]

He's already down!

[ His arm slants aside under the force Atsushi exerts when he grabs him and obscures his aim. Mikazuki doesn't strain against him, or look at him with any particular ire for his attempt at mercy. His gaze is honed and serious, unnervingly calm as it slides up to meet Atsushi's. ]

Yeah. And it's time he disappeared.

What would that accomplish?!

[In some ways, this is worse than if Mikazuki had gotten angry. Rage and a desire for revenge would be understandable, even if they are wrong; whatever this is, is far more chilling, missing even those basic human emotions.

A little overwhelmed by his own emotions at this point, Atsushi closes his hand a little more tightly around Mikazuki's wrist.]

We need to hand him over to the authorities. With the information he gives them, the suspected refugees may be proven innocent!

[ Mikazuki keeps steady under that wild pressure routed through Atsushi's grip, almost too steely to really be human flesh and bone. But his skin is warm with the muscle and blood beneath it, the same as anyone else, even if that warmth doesn't reach his eyes in this moment. Though threads of tension pull in his arm to keep it where it is, his finger remains on the trigger. ]

Proof doesn't mean anything to them. If it did, Olympia wouldn't be hunting us right now.

[ Shino wouldn't be fearing death again, Archer wouldn't have been dragged down and injured by the guard and the refugees they sanctioned, Leanne wouldn't have had to flee the city. ]

What else are they supposed to do?! They know that these people are somehow involved, and if no one's turning themselves in to explain -..!

[Maybe it's a weak defense, but it's all Atsushi's got. In spite of everything, he wants to believe in the city that took them in. People do strange things when they're scared; he can't blame Olympia for hunting down the only people whose involvement they have any evidence of.

He also can't blame the accused refugees of being afraid to turn themselves in, but... that's exactly why he's been hunting terrorists!]

If the fugitives don't turn themselves in, bringing in the actual culprits is the only thing that can get them off the hook. It's the only thing that can turn things back to the way they were!

[And that's what he wants, in the end: a simple, quiet life, missing so many of the people he knew before, but with many new people to make up for it; a community of refugees displaced from their own world, but banding together to form a new one; a city full of kind people, and opportunities for anyone willing to work hard.

It's been as close to paradise as Atsushi could have imagined life on another planet to be - until now. He doesn't want to let go of it yet.]

Things aren't going back to the way they were. [ He's seen it enough times. In one brief movement, he removes his finger from the trigger, the lines of his body unhinging to match the lucid hum of his brain. ] You don't know what'll happen if they turn themselves in either.

[ It's why even the youngest children among them would rather die fighting than end up in enemy hands. Drugs, beatings, manipulation. If their blood and souls weren't wrought of that unforgiving iron, the will to resist, anyone could be made to say anything, regardless of what the truth really was. It's the paranoia of children snatched away if they slept too long or got too hungry for something. Every time that trust in something better shatters, Mikazuki finds less room for anything other than what he already knows in the pieces put back together. His heel scuffs back. ]

Justice... is what's convenient to them.

[ Hunt first, ask questions later. Except there weren't any questions to ask dead people. ]

You can have this one, but I'm not letting Shino go.

[ Olympia is now just like anywhere else to him.

Not where he belongs. ]

[It's only when Mikazuki takes his finger off the trigger that Atsushi realizes how firmly he was gripping the guy's wrist. He relaxes, eventually releases, though he still stands very deliberately in the way. If Mikazuki wants to shoot the terrorist, he'll have to shoot Atsushi first - and Atsushi wouldn't put it past him just now, but that's not important. Who cares if Atsushi gets shot? He'll heal - and he's used to pain.]

I'm not asking you to.

[Whatever Mikazuki wants to do about Shino is up to him: Atsushi isn't about to interfere. But killing? That's something he can never approve of.

It still hurts. He's had this feeling before: the idea that Mikazuki is always one step away from destroying himself. Risking your life for someone can be admirable, but that doesn't mean it should be done lightly. Atsushi feels like Mikazuki doesn't take his own future into account at all - and that is extremely painful to see, even to someone like Atsushi, who doesn't consider himself worth the air he breathes. He still hopes for the future; he still aims for better. That's the one thing he's never seen Mikazuki do, and it's excruciating.

But it's not something Atsushi can change. Atsushi may or may not be able to help Mikazuki out from time to time, but in the end, Mikazuki makes his own choices.]

... Please be careful.

[He knows it's pointless to say; he knows Mikazuki won't listen. But he says it anyway.]

[ Those two points intersect in Mikazuki's mind, irreparable. Letting a criminal go free was an action that would lead to compromising their situation. Even if captured, he could lie about the refugees' involvement, he could break free, he could come back at them. Mikazuki had always destroyed whatever threatened him to the fullest extent that he was capable of, because there was no promise or alliance out there that cared about kids like them. Let alone one that would protect them any better than they could protect themselves — than Mikazuki could protect them.

But no gunshot comes. He's true to his word, returning the weapon to his waistband with a quiet shift, devoid of malice. Harming someone he has no fight with isn't in his blood. At least of his own volition. Taking this guy down had been both them, as surely as blood trickles down their faces.

Contrary to what Atsushi's expression is telling him, Mikazuki nods, not bothering to wipe any of it away. ]

You too.

[ It's all he can say as he turns his back to him and goes to exit the alleyway. ]

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