aurabble | IC Inbox ☽☽ genessia

[It's a plain, empty warehouse. Jaune thought about renting a hotel room-- just because he could--but he settled on something more removed, instead.

He hadn't bothered to try and attack Emerald. He hadn't even spoken to her yet. He stared at her impassively, moving to a table and picking up a nondescript box.]

We'll get to that, don't worry. Pizza? Knowing you, I'm sure you can smell it. You'll do anything not to starve. Even rely on someone who wants you dead. It's almost sad.

I'm a real pity party.

[ She's not taking anything from him. She knows there's something wrong with him, so she just ignores the food. She learned her lesson already. ]

Fuck yeah you are.

What. Is my pizza not good enough for you? [He frowns faintly and drops the box on the ground.] ...Oops.

It's less annoying when you're doing it on purpose.

[ Mostly because she knows it is. It's still irritating, but he always is. He wants her to react- even Emerald can see that much. She doesn't want to give him the satisfaction, whether it's really bothering her or not. ]

Edited 2017-01-25 02:21 (UTC)

Ughhhhh Emerald. Emerald, Emerald Emerald. You're just a bundle of fun, aren't ya?

[He slumps, carelessly kicking the box to the side.]

You know I've thought a lot about this and what I'd do if I got the chance to get revenge. We both have. I had a lot of ideas, but then I thought, "What about Pyrrha?" You ruined her life, not mine.

But I guess Pyrrha lost her ability to think rationally or whatever, so I'm just going to do what I want.

[He steps back over to the table, where there's an assortment of weapons and dust. He starts pouring a liquid over a dagger. He still has his weapon equipped, but...]

I want this to be fun. For both of us.

I love puppies, rainbows, and world peace too, since we're getting to know each other.

[ Her eyes fall on that dagger immediately though. What was that liquid? She probably didn't want to find out. Fun for both of them- yeah right. That sounded like some creep who was trying to get more than he bargained for. ]

Jaune, if you come at me you're going to be able to add your life to my list.

[ She didn't take a step back, her eyes focusing back in on Jaune's. If he wanted to know what she did to Pyrrha, he was going to get it. But far worse. She would plunge him into a nightmare if she had to. ]

...I like puppies.

[He takes the threat to mean she's afraid. Grinning, he rolls his eyes, twirling the dagger around his wrist.]

You can't take something that doesn't exist anymore.

[His eyes turn almost wild and he goes lunging at her.]

[ What Jaune sees is just Emerald moving almost as if she were little more than a flash of light. One second he's about to plunge his knife into her, the next she's behind him and at the table of weapons he so graciously provided. She may not be a huge Dust user, but it isn't hard to know how useful they can be. Grabbing what looks like a nailgun from the table, Emerald quickly turns around toward Jaune and tosses an entire vial of Dust toward him, aiming the nail gun so that it shatters the delicate glass vial around it just before it hits him. The second that it's safe, regardless of what damage that did, he's going to get a heel kicked to his throat, and then the nail gun sends another nail toward his hand to try to knock the knife out of it. ]

[He doesn't have time to curse, or get angry at himself or her. He knew Emerald was fast. Why did he choose to overlook that? He should have bound her somehow. It happens in a flash, and to his self-loathing, there's a very high, feminine scream as he blocks the fire, his Aura taking the damage but not erasing the panic or pain he experiences from it.

Gasping, his scream is muted, and he seems to freeze in terror when he sees the nail gun aimed at him. It's no longer Emerald holding the nail gun, but Battler with a drill, and he can't move. He's trapped, he can't move and he can't breathe it's happening again Battler found him it's all repeating in one cycle and--

He'll never fight again.

His hand twitches, dropping the knife. A nail hitting his hand is pretty harmless at this point, but his body and mind don't make that connection and his Aura seems to pick up on it, channeling to his gauntlet as he simply reacts, sending a strong blast of water at her ribs.

The knife remains on the ground as he rushes toward her, trying to throw another water-fueled punch at her jaw.]

[ The first blast of water sends her flying back. She's not thinking about traumatizing him, she's thinking about taking him down. She warned him. Emerald did everything she could have to tell him that this was what was going to happen if he attacked her. The hit with the water knicks at her aura, but by the second hit she's already dived into a backflip, both feet aimed at his chin in the opening left from that rushed, sloppy, desperate punch. And then she seems to be gone again, but this time not to the weapons table. If Jaune isn't fast enough, he's going to get his own knife, retrieved from the floor by Emerald, sliced into his side, then back and forth on either side at a rapid pace before she throws it at his shoulder. The scream doesn't even garner a surprised look from her, her entire focus on survival and the fight right now- even if she's still holding back. He's too emotional right now to need to do anything but. ]

[If he can send her back, he can eventually stop her. Good. He's no longer thinking calmly, or rationally about what he wants, he just wants to make her pay. Someone has to. If he doesn't stop her, she'll kill him, and he'll be back to square one.

He does his own flip to lessen the impact of her kicks, sliding to the ground and punching it hard enough to crack the surface as a method of stopping. But it doesn't matter, because there's a blinding, white hot fire that eats away at his skin and it keeps happening, going up his back to--

He feels like his entire arm just shattered. He stops trying to get the acid off, not even thinking to douse himself in water, the scream tearing through his throat raw while the world seems to fade in and out for a moment.]

I'm going to fucking kill you.

[His aura is working on reversing the damage, but the it still lingers and it takes every bit of effort to yank the knife out of his shoulder with another scream as he rushes to the weapons table, throwing a vial of earth Dust to create a rock barrier so he can grab some wind Dust and put it into his gauntlet. His weapon glows a paler blue than before and he starts blindly shooting ice crystals in Emerald's general direction.

Combined with his mental state and over-reliance, his aura can only take so much.]

[ The rock barrier was a mistake for Jaune, though. It may have stopped Emerald from getting to him, but it also meant that he would lose sight of her. And when Emerald has a visual advantage, that's bad. Because now Jaune doesn't know where she is, he doesn't know where to look in case something doesn't look right, because she's the only one who can physically manipulate the environment in a way that doesn't match with what she wants him to see. If he doesn't know where she is, she doesn't have to worry about kicking up dust. She doesn't have to worry about running around or him losing track.

The ice crystals just hit the warehouse wall, causing a scattered sparking in some leftover electrical wires, now broken by the ice. It's almost deathly quiet until the door opens and Pyrrha walks through the door, looking concerned as she hurries to his side, Miló drawn and ready to defend. ]

Jaune! I heard you screaming from down the block, are you hurt?

Edited 2017-01-28 09:26 (UTC)

[Some of the dust falls from the ice crystals, catching the light, and for a moment Jaune is left alone, looking for Emerald. He still feels as if he's been burned, but it's more tolerable now. He can catch his breath. He can calm down...as much as possible anyway.

He sees the last person he'd ever want to see now, and he just stares at her completely lost and hurt before the anger sets in again.]

Why the hell do you suddenly care?

[It's impossible to keep the sadness out, his voice seeming to crack, but he speaks through grit teeth regardless.]

Go away-- It's dangerous in here. You need to leave.

Jaune, I...

[ Pyrrha looks hurt, her hand clutching as if he's said something hurtful, but that she blames herself for.

Right, left. Right, left.

The distraction was more than enough to give Emerald time to scale the newly formed rock wall and fire a nail at either of Jaune's shoulders (right, left), then jump down on him with either foot touching down first as if to hammer the nails in deeper (right, left). Her full body weight plus the increased pressure of gravity from the jump and the edge of her blocky heels slams down on those shoulders.

Apparently she also had time to go back to the table. Shouldn't have brought so many weapons, Jaune, because whether he falls from that or not, a garrote wire is going to be pressed against his throat as Emerald pulls up, using her weight on his shoulders to push him down. ]

Stop. [There are tears in his eyes. Livid, resentful, heartbroken.] You don't get to be upset, not when you went and-- and helped that bas--

[It doesn't matter. Whatever he meant to say is halted by explosive bursts of light in his eyes. Is he screaming? He doesn't know. He just knows that he can't feel his hand anymore.

He's in hell. He's always been in hell, ever since that night in the cabin, maybe even before. He just did a very convincing job of lying to himself. There's a flash of white, his aura too damaged and over-exerted from all of his bad habits and reliance on it that it depletes and fails him. Auras are a reflection of the soul, and the failure he feels is crushing.

The perforations to his shoulders don't heal in time. They can't with the nails still embedded in muscle and bone. The skin on his neck doesn't mend, stinging pinpricks licking at his skin as the blood starts to trail down. But that, and the throbbing waves of pain that threaten to make him pass out are nothing compared to the terror he's experiencing.

His pupils are dilated. He doesn't see Battler this time, and he stares at Emerald, defeated and empty.]

Go ahead.

[ For a brief second she pulls harder, just enough that it digs in just a little more, but she stops. She wants to kill him. Her instinct tells her that if she doesn't, he'll just come after her later. This is Jaune- he's a deputy guardian, someone in a position of power. Even if it's only half of him, it's still a half that exists. It's still a half that's there, that wants her dead, that will stop at nothing to get to her. Someone in a position of power like that is exactly why Cinder's wishes to take power from those who have it instead of simply gaining her own? That's one of the reasons Emerald can completely understand it. This is a part of Jaune, just like that murderer is a part of Mercury and the other part of Mercury was the one who told her where to hide in Nova City because he didn't want her to be the one to get hurt.

This being a part of Jaune is exactly why she decides not to kill him, though. It would make sense, but too many people would blame her. It didn't matter what reality was, everyone except perhaps Grell was bias against her, and if Jaune decided to resent her for it, that was it. There weren't enough places to hide here to get away with murdering a Deputy Guardian. And if it came back on her, it'd come back on Mercury, so even if she managed to hide out in some subarchway and get lost for the rest of her stay, he was supposed to be a Deputy himself now. He was trying to change, trying to be a better person, because he didn't want to become his father and he didn't want Emerald to be him. She wasn't going to be the one to hold him down because of her actions.

So she dropped the garrote, though a second later he'd feel a heavy weight hit the back of his neck- the butt of the nail gun. It's carefully placed to knock him unconscious so she can drag him to the hospital and insist on restraints. ]

[He doesn't know if he wants Emerald to kill him or if he just wants it to be over. Any desire to move forward belongs to his other half. They share the same depression, but all that drives him forward is his own resentment which quickly leads to burnout. But he's also terrified. The oblivion he thought he would meet never comes. It passes by indefinitely and there isn't any sacrifice.

Waking up is difficult at first. He doesn't particularly want to. Nothing seems to hurt here and he'd rather stay but his body won't allow him to. He wakes up slowly, blinking his eyes and staring at the walls he hoped he would never have to see again. He's vaguely aware of some discomfort, but the panic from being at the hospital sets in as he tries to get up in a frantic hurry, only then noticing the restraints and Emerald.

The remorse hits him so jarringly, so abruptly, that he doesn't even consciously realize that he's whole, just that he hurt so many people. Emerald included.

Why was she here?]

Edited 2017-01-28 23:39 (UTC)

[ Emerald was only half paying attention, her focus moreso on whatever game she's playing on her phone. The hospital staff had argued against her staying since she was, technically, Jaune's assailant but Emerald was a little too much for them to handle in terms of getting rid of her. She wanted her weapons back.

So she sat there, waiting. It was as safe a place as any, and if he woke up and decided to try to kill her again, she knew where he was instead of waiting for another hair-brained attempt on her life. Once he seems to calm down a little and she loses anyway, she shrugs and puts away her phone. ]

About time you woke up. I didn't hit you that hard.

[ Okay she did. But. ]

You didn't kill me? [It's the first thing that comes to mind, and he blurts it out, wishing that he didn't because it makes the pressure on his neck more obvious. It doesn't hurt right now, it just feels heavy and wrong.

It's not like he's going anywhere. He thinks about trying to leave, or at least asking to be unrestrained. The regret and guilt is what stops him from trying.

He tried to murder Emerald. He deserves this.]

Emerald, I-- [No apology can possibly make up for this. He's still horrified that the side of him capable of that is still there. It hasn't gone away. He's no better than many of the people he despises. His head sinks back against the pillow again in defeat.]

It was more trouble than it was worth, and I figured you wouldn't tell me where you put my weapon if you were all butthurt about getting killed.

[ Just so he knows she's not a good person. She doesn't want him bothering her, she's already long since decided that they're not people she wants to be around. It isn't as though she's forgiving of him trying to kill her, but she knows who came out on top and she's not going to fault anyone for wanting to take a life. ]

I'm positive I have no room to be butthurt.

[Oh, right, her weapon.] It's in the Guardian Skyrise in my office. I kept it there in case Weiss-- in case she decided to do something to her other half and I needed to frame her to protect her. [Looking back now, his logic was convoluted.]

Look. Before you go, we don't have to like eachother. But we've both done terrible things. I've done some horrible things that I can't undo or fix. I wish I could. And you didn't have to do that, especially not after everything. I don't care what your reasons are, I won't forget what you did so can we just...I don't know. I don't want to do this anymore.

[People have the autonomy to make their own choices and anyone who believes in destiny is afraid to accept responsibility. He doesn't state that he thinks she's capable of being a decent person, or that she's less terrible than he thought before, because he doubts that would appeal to her.]

So your plan was to murder me and frame the heiress for it to protect her from herself. [ Just so they're clear. ] You've got guts to actually try to come after me, but you need to attach some brains to it.

[ Either way, Emerald looks like she immediately wants to object to him remembering her being merciful forever, but she doesn't and instead gives him a frustrated look. ]

Give Mercury a chance and never tell him or anyone else I said that and you can remember it all you want. As much as none of you want to believe it, I think he means it. Not becoming a goody two-shoes like you all, but he wants to do better and for whatever reason, he thinks that's his chance to try to push himself and channel his energy. I don't personally care to try myself, but if you could just tell your team that you think he should stay even though he was hired from your boss drinking psycho water, I'll try not to harass your group anymore. Deal?

I didn't say it made sense. You don't need to know the whole story, but yeah. [He scowls a little, but bows his head, looking down at the blanket.] That's fair.

[He glances up at her, biting his lip. He really wants to ask her...]

I don't think Mercury's a completely terrible person. I can't choose for him, but I can give him a chance. There are some people I can't forgive, but I can try with him. Besides--

[Pyrrha seemed to trust Mercury enough to help him. Which still feels like a blow to the chest. He just refuses to act on it now.] Anyway, do you like Mercury?

He's a bad person. The side of him in that video is pretty normal and has been since the day I met him. Like I said, though, when he came to Weiss to ask for the job it wasn't a trick. He's not a monster. I know plenty of those personally for comparison.

[ She makes a face like he just said something that could actually make her throw up. ]

No. I just don't actively hate him.

We're all capable of doing horrible things. It's just-- Why Weiss? There are plenty of other ways he can try to be a better person without working with people who might despise him.

[He either doesn't notice, thanks medication, or more likely he does and decides to make it worse.]

What would you even be called? Precious metals?

IC Inbox ☽☽ genessia

Yeah he did

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