prismatica | text; un: ems

I'll be right back.

[True to his word, Lio only spent five to ten minutes down the road, shopping at the nearest convenience corner shop, coming back with an armful of charcoal, and a shopping bag with like four bottles of lighter fluid. They were lucky it was barbeque season.]

Here. This should be more than enough. Not sure if anything will explode, unless you want me to grab some propane, but it's probably not a good idea if we're trying not to get caught.

[ Emerald managed to find rocks to put around it, though it's questionable how effective it will be because they're not really consistently sized- it's not always an easy task to find perfect rocks, especially in a city. Some of them are crystals she found growing, others are like, weird concrete chunks she found nearby or actual rocks. IT's a circle okay, she didn't have a long time to look. ]

Well, if nothing explodes, it'll be a bigger fire?

[ Or some wooshes maybe.. she's definitely not a pyromaniac. What she is is someone who is going to take one of those bottles and start dousing some junk with the intention of throwing it at the fire-- which is still going at about the same level as it was before. ]

[Better than nothing, right? Probably. Hopefully.

Lio wasn't going to question it.

Instead he was going to start grabbing more scrap to throw in, gathering it together for Emerald to start dousing as well.]

Should we try to keep it in the drum? Safer, maybe. Not as satisfying, but safer.

[God he hoped Galo didn't find out about this somehow.]

Yeah. That's the plan.

[ What Emerald wants to do is decidedly not fire safety oriented. Once she has doused her item in the lighter fluid, she picks it up and does a jump shot to throw it into the current fire, which bursts into embers and bigger flames for the duration of the lighter fluid bring burned up. ]

[Fireball basketball? That actually was pretty satisfying, to see the flames jump up in the air in excitement at the fuel soaked piece of trash.

Lio followed Emerald's lead, wadding up some newspaper that he'd coated in the stuff, and tossing it high into the air, watching it arc into the drum. The flames jumped once more, licking upwards happily at the fuel.

Lio should have found himself smiling. Instead he was frowning, gritting his teeth.]

... Let's make it a competition. Whoever can get the flame to jump highest is the winner.

[ Emerald looks at him for a moment, thoughtfully, then closes her lighter fluid bottle and tosses it in. Like, the whole bottle, with the lid on so it'll make pressure inside the bottle as it heats and ignites. It's definitely going to explode and she's already backing away so she doesn't get hurt.

Like that was definitely not fire safety 101. But that's her best idea to jump the flame as high as she can.

(Or maybe wide? She doesn't know.) ]

[Lio watched her, curiously, before realizing she was planning to chuck the whole bottle in. His eyes grew wide and he reached out to her - ]

Wait, I don't think you should -

[And into the fire it went, Lio's mouth a bit agape as he grabbed Emerald by the arm to drag her even further back. And, roughly twenty seconds later, it did indeed explode - loud and high and spraying flaming debris all across the alley.]

Fuck!

[Lio went to grab a nearby bucket of water he'd set aside just in case, dousing the worst of the flames, while working to stomp on some of the other embers with his thick soled boots.]

Fine, you win! This was a stupid idea!

[ Emerald's been in an entire city on fire so this weirdly doesn't seem like that bad to her, and she's got her aura to protect her from any immediate damage from the flames. But it feels like a rush-- her adrenaline is pumping, which is what she wanted. She gives a glance to Lio and then sighs and takes the outer layer of her top off, leaving her bandeau on, and uses it to smother and stomp out some of the flames. ]

The trash fire was depressing anyway.

Probably because I'm a depressing person. [He said in irritation - though he was really irritated with himself more than anything. Obviously this fire wasn't the worst he'd seen, it was barely a spark compared to the worst fire he'd ever single-handedly been responsible for, but he was keenly aware that he wasn't immune to being burnt alive any longer.

And the guilt at causing a fire hazard while dating a firefighter was starting to really eat at him. The explosion had just been a really hard kick to his conscience.

He let out an exasperated sigh.]

I hope you got something out of this. I didn't. Sorry I dragged you out here, Emerald.

Happy people piss me off anyway.

[ She's fine with that. It's not him that she's complaining about. After a couple of seconds she adds: ]

I used to set fires in barrels like that when I was younger. It's a good way to keep warm on the streets, but now it's just.. [ Not something she wants to go back to. ]

It doesn't matter. My heart's pounding, so at least that's not anger for a few minutes.

[Lio couldn't help the little breath of a laugh that had escaped him at her 'happy people' comment. Lio didn't necessarily feel the same way, but he could certainly relate.

He beat one more of the smoldering fires with his own jacket. The thing was probably better suited to the job anyway, being made of some pretty advanced fireproof material.]

Sorry, to bring back bad memories. I grew up homeless, too, and on the run.

[Lio snatched his jacket back up, brushing the soot off the interior.]

I mostly lived out in the desert, though. Less cops out there trying to hunt us. We only ever stopped by towns to steal supplies, so I didn't make the connection between a trash fire in an alley and homelessness.

[ She looks at him for a moment, curiously. It's rare she meets someone who's from a similar circumstance to her, if not exactly. It's rare she can really talk about anything like this. ]

I didn't have a choice but to live in a city. Our world is infested with monsters that can sense negative emotions. Living outside of city barriers is a death sentence for anyone on their own, but especially if you're Grimm bait.

[ Being scared and starving and alone and hurt and angry didn't make Emerald the most attractive company. With most of the outer flames out she looks at her jacket and just tosses it into the barrel. Hers is decidedly not fireproof, so there's no sense in keeping it now. ]

Avoiding cops and stealing were my bread and butter though. [ She lets out a bitter puff of a laugh. ] I liked going for jewelry or things I could fence. That way the people with the food didn't have a reason to call the cops on me.

Edited 2020-06-11 18:10 (UTC)

[The situation Lio had found himself in had been all too common in his world, though he was always unhappy to hear that similar problems had plagued people of other worlds as well. He leaned against the stone of one of the buildings, folding his arms across his chest.]

We burnish were the ones seen as the monsters. I know a great deal that tried to hide what they were after they awakened, go about their normal lives keeping their powers a secret, but one way or another they were always caught.

Our bodies would run internal temperatures over 500 degrees Farenheit, so any simple heat tracking equipment would out us... Not to mention the urge to burn would sometimes overwhelm people to the point of resulting in literal explosions. It just wasn't option for us to hide in plain sight.

[He fiddled with the earring on his left ear as memories flooded his mind.]

So... I can't say I have any experience in fencing, for that reason. Most of the time we could only steal necessities - food, clothing, equipment, vehicles. Things we could take back to our camps. There were a lot of years where I did it alone. Well, alone except for my 'spooky kid ghosts'.

In other words, people suck and hate anything different or powerful no matter what planet you're on.

[ Emerald doesn't really seem bothered by him. The one person she believes loves her back home is turning into a literal monster and everything she knew about the world was a lie, worrying about if someone was part fireball part horror movie just sounds tiring. ]

I can make a person see and hear anything I want, but only one or two people at a time.

[ There's not much point in hiding it anymore. She's been outed to her enemies, and she's promised not to be a criminal anymore. It seems pointless now, but she isn't the type to back out of her word easily. ]

It's a lot easier to steal a little small thing worth a lot that way as long as a store isn't busy [ because she can't do more than that without seriously hurting herself-- two people is asking for a migraine as is ] but I also didn't have anyone else to steal for.

Sure seems that way.

[Lio furrowed a brow at her curiously when she admitted the existence of her powers, almost not sure what to make of them. Making a person hallucinate seemed like a... well, useful skill. Maybe not even something that necessarily had solely malicious applications, either.]

... I'm almost curious to experience that myself - not that I'd ask you to spend the Chroma just to sate my curiosity. But being able to convey something to someone just using your mind... I'm sure a lot of artists would kill for that kind of power. Was it something you were born with?

If I did it, it'd just look normal to you. I can't do anything that I can't imagine myself though, so if you want to see someone you have to show me a video or something. I don't mind spending chroma, I have lots.

[ She had two boyfriends until recently and gets chroma out of consensual fighting with people on top of that. She doesn't sleep alone. She's not balling like some of the super rich people here, but she's never super worried about using her semblance or aura. At least with just one person.

She's pretty sure she'd die if she tried to use 9 with chroma involved or something. It's not that she can't, after all, it's just... dangerous without chroma involved. One mind connecting to multiple minds doesn't go very well. ]

Uh.. [ How does she answer that? She never actually went to school, and she doesn't think there's really a known answer anyway. But she has thoughts. So she just starts with the base explanation. ]

In my world, people adapted to be capable of bearing our souls forward as an aura. Aura can be used as a shield or to add force into a weapon or an attack, and anyone who's activated their aura has a unique ability called a semblance. It's not super well-researched I think and like.. most of what's publicly known is a complete lie anyway, but my theory is that we're born with the capability, but as you grow up it becomes whatever defense mechanism you need to survive impending trauma.

[ She shrugs. ] That's the only way I think it makes sense anyway.. like, mine I needed to be able to hide and steal and create distractions because there was no one else to help me- so I could make people and things up. Someone else I know got struck my lightning and now she can absorb electricity and convert it to strength. I saw another person watch his friend run through with a spear and he could suddenly heal her.

[ Well, she doesn't know what the exact details of that one are. It wasn't healing exactly, but that's what it looked like to her. ] There's no proof, but that's what I think.

I'd be more interested in seeing things you'd want to show me - things like your own world or experiences, or the people you care about.

[Lio listened, as she explained. He'd said more than enough about himself and his own world, he absolutely didn't mind hearing about hers in return. If anything, hearing about other worlds so insanely different from his own fascinated him. He thought he would have stopped being so surprised by now, but it seemed like people never failed to impress him with their stories.]

That's amazing. I awoke to my abilities, too - we burnish weren't born being able to synchronize with the Promare, even though it was labeled a mutation for a really long time. It's just that some humans were more susceptible to it at differing points in their lives. For me, I awoke when I was a child. For many others, they were adults with completely normal lives before they awoke.

I don't know if there was any rhyme or reason to it... the research was kept hidden by the government, and the one researcher that had done the most work on our behalf was murdered. So I'm no stranger to having to figure this stuff out through anecdotes.

[ Her world isn't a place that she wants to think about, really. She doesn't want to go back there. Mercury is here, in Prismatica, and she isn't keen to show Cinder to anyone for reasons far too complicated to explain to someone she's just met.

That's the extent of the people she cares about from her world, and she's going to get upset if she shows him Akashi. She doesn't want to expose Mayuzumi to someone she just met while he's still at risk (she's protective) and while there are others she could show who she's come to like here, she ends up deciding to go with a slightly more playful solution.

Lio's own voice comes from behind him, plain as if he had been the one to say it, and when he turns around, it'll look like there's a clone of him standing right behind him, smirking.

"That's a pretty personal question. Her world's situation is complicated."

If he looks to Emerald, she doesn't really look like she's doing anything. Sometimes she'll touch her temple if she does something complicated, but it's not necessary beyond helping her focus. She doesn't need to focus much right now since she's just replicating what she sees in his head. It looks and sounds perfectly real. Though it does require concentration, so her response to what he says is a little shorter than it might've been otherwise. ]

One day I'm going to run into someone whose government isn't keeping world-breaking secrets.

[Lio whirled around when he heard his own voice, seeing... himself. Wow, that was a bit disorienting. He held up his hands in a gesture of peace as he turned back to Emerald.]

Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I just didn't want you to think I was asking you to do something with your powers for my sake - I wouldn't ask you something selfish like showing me my own fantasies. That's really incredible, though.

[He turned back to his clone, reaching out to touch it, to see if it would even feel solid or if it really was just a hallucination.]

You get the feeling this world is the same way? That there's something they're not telling us?

[ It really is just a hallucination, so his hand goes right through it. Emerald lets it go a second later and everything goes back to normal. She's willing to do stuff like this and play around, but she's not really in the mood to play and the point was made. ]

It's fine. I'm a villain in my world and everything here is... exploding trash fire mood.

[ She knows she's on the wrong side of things but she doesn't think anyone's right really. She's watched the world burn and her partner and leader laugh and smile, and she couldn't. She doesn't belong there. But that's also a betrayal of that person she cares about enough to become a murderer, because she promised to go with Seijuro and Chihiro and put all of that behind her. Now Seijuro is gone, and it all feels like she's losing everything important to her bit by bit. Personal right now is.. a bit much. ]

Definitely. They're committing mass-kidnapping but acting like we're on some kind of sexy vacation and providing us with everything so we don't ask questions while asking us for free military support. It's suspicious.

I was the villain in my world too.

[Being the leader of what was labeled a terrorist group would get you pegged with that label pretty hard. There were still people in Lio's world that believed he ought to be behind bars right alongside the person who actually did the most harm and damage, despite Lio's efforts literally saving the planet from complete destruction. Ignorant minds just weren't so easy to change.

He nodded to Emerald's assessment.]

I don't trust them either. I'm concerned with how they're handling their energy shortages too. They have mass incarceration of their own people happening right below our feet. [Lio stomped on the ground a few times to emphasize that the Lightless was literally just beneath them.] And from everything I've heard, resources to the Lightless are purposefully limited to the bare minimum, and it's made impossibly difficult to get out once you're down there. I'm hoping I can do something about it.

Didn't you give up everything to save your world? That doesn't sound like a villain to me.

[ Emerald's villainy isn't something she can say is for a good cause. It's a completely selfish venture. ]

What are you thinking of doing?

[ Emerald.. wouldn't be against helping with something like that. She's not sure if it's just because it would be something to throw herself into to distract herself or because she genuinely thinks that it's unfair. Part of her just wants to follow someone else's direction right now so she stops feeling so lost. ]

I told you I was an arsonist, didn't I? My resistance group regularly attacked the city of Promepolis and its surrounding towns. We never killed people, but we burned a lot of buildings. I also once went berserk and attacked the entire city on my own - no coordinated attack, just ruthless burning, indiscriminately. I still don't know how many innocent people I hurt or killed in that attack.

[And the guilt about it was going to eat at him for a long, long time, even if his rage had been more than justified.]

What I did was by no means legal, or 'good', even if it was the righteous thing to do. Most criminals do what they do as a means of survival, because they have no other option, even if there are those in gangs or syndicates that are willing to exploit them for this reason. Which is why I'm so concerned about this criminal population in Lunatia...

[Lio pushed himself off the edge of the wall, and to the edge of the alley, looking out onto the street. From here, even across town, he could make out the tall edge of the lookout posted by the entrance to the Lightless. He made a sweeping gesture towards it.]

The criminal underworld here is a problem, and it's not contained to the Lightless. It's leaking into the rest of the city, and they're growing ever bigger because the Moon Knights are creating a situation that necessitates their existence in the first place. So the first step is to get into the Lightless. Find out just how bad the situation is down there, see what's being done to the people the Moon Knights are so hellbent on keeping locked away from the rest of us. I'm attempting a legal avenue of getting down there right now, since it's more convenient than the illegal avenues, but if worse comes to worse I'm not afraid of getting arrested.

Depending on what I find, I'll go from there. But if I'm going to be here for a long time, the long term goal is for there to not be a Lightless anymore.

You don't have to explain that to me. Cinder found me robbing a jewelry store and promised me if I went with her I'd never go hungry again. She did so much more than I could've ever asked for after that, but I agreed to help bring the world to its knees for the promise of hot meals.

[ And so Emerald did anything she asked. Would do anything she asked. She doesn't care about any of their goals or the results of what they do. She doesn't want what any of them want. That's why she's not much of a threat here... but she would do anything for Cinder. ]

In the end, you chose not to be one. You obviously wouldn't do it again with how much you freaked out about my little stunt there.

[ She even gives him a little smirk then. ] You're looking out for the weak even. Doesn't that make you a hero now?

[ Her smirk fades soon after she says it. She'd normally be much more into teasing someone about something like that.. but truth be told, she agrees. It's not like she isn't aware the Moon Knights have corruption in their midst. She was arrested before and got out within a day because one of the Moon Knights made a deal with her to drop her charges. Those people are being treated like they're less than because they've committed crimes, which only makes the problem worse. While there are a couple of people who are flat-out psychos who can't be helped, most people break the laws because society isn't giving them the help they need to survive on a basic level. Emerald does have empathy for that. Too much, but in a slightly quieter voice, she adds: ]

If you can't get in the legal way, let me know. If we can find a way to knock out any surveillance. As long as we avoid large groups I can walk you right past a couple people at a time.

[ She would've killed to have someone look out for her that way when she was on the streets. Well, she has killed because of the one person who looked out for her. This is something she can offer, if he needs to use her. ]

[Lio shrugged in response to her teasing about the fire.]

I wouldn't care so much, but these fires don't listen to me. They'll hurt others whether I want them to or not... and I'd rather not upset my firefighter boyfriend if I can help it.

[He scoffed a bit at her comment about being a hero, a little sarcastic smirk on his own face, but his features softened as she continued.

He... hadn't expected an offer like that. Maybe he should have, given the two were way more similar than they were different. Emerald certainly understood his perspective on a level that Lio couldn't say many others ever would. And the natural leader in him wants to rope her into his cause, even if he didn't have a formal following any longer.]

... I appreciate it, honestly. Even when I was back home, I knew I couldn't make a difference on my own, no matter how strong I was. It's why I sought out Mad Burnish, and offered them a tangible goal to follow: build our own society, away from the world that had turned its back on us, and bring down anyone who would stand in our way.

I never actually meant to become their leader, but their two strongest members saw what I had to offer and put their faith in me. I still don't know if they were right to do it... I made a lot of mistakes that cost a lot of lives, that nearly cost them theirs... but I don't regret at least trying to make a difference.

[And he sighed as he looked away from the building, to the actual surrounding streets. Some graffiti littered the walls here, though not nearly to the extent that it did closer to the Lightless itself.]

Give me a month and a half. If I'm not any closer to gaining access by the end of June, I'll contact you. And Emerald, from one villain to another... thanks, sincerely, for all of this.

text; un: ems

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