prismatica | text; un: ems

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I'm sick of trying to feel better about everything and being kind and showing everyone oh look moonblessed are harmless teehee let's just

be angry

anon is fine

come tell me who or what makes you angry, get it out there

[ Emerald is not anon, but she doesn't mind if any characters are. Unless otherwise stated, please assume she is not responding anonymously. She doesn't know how to cope with feelings of loss, so this is the best and most productive thing she could think of to try to get it out without wanting to punch everyone she speaks to in the face like she has for the past couple of weeks. So please, vent with her and be angry. ]

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[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.

[ She listens, nodding in understanding. They really are similar in a lot of ways, but in Emerald's eyes, she thinks he's braver than she is. More resourceful. He may not have meant to become their leader and he may have made mistakes, but people still had faith in him. In Emerald's case, she doesn't think she could ever do something like that. Even with Akashi pushing her to make her own decisions more, not to simply follow orders but to consider that her place is more than just a tool and preserved by more than how useful she can make herself...t he reason it was so easy for Cinder to impress in her that her role was to obey, not think, is because her entire life before T was spent barely surviving. Lio thrived in similar circumstance, and was able to not only carry himself, but bring others along with him. To set a goal and a dream and think beyond what's right in front of him... Emerald can't help but be impressed with that. Even if she's gained a lot more self-confidence off of her world, she still thinks she's better off following. Lio seems like a leader, though. ]

I can't promise I'm going to go charging into a war with you or anything, but even I can help with that much.

[ She follows his gaze, then thinks of something else, looking like she just remembered something. ]

There's a moon knight named Iruma who's open to being bought off. He dropped my charges after Detective Dick [ she doesn't remember his actual name.. well, Dick is his actual first name but whatever ] arrested me for very loose evidence of corrupting youth because I was teaching them some sleight of hand, so he may be more willing to help you out for the right price. Which is sketchy, but not as illegal as breaking and entering.

[Lio narrowed his eyes. He didn't have solid evidence yet of the Moon Knights' corruption, aside from what they were doing to those they sent to the Lightless and the few rumors he'd heard here and there, but that was altogether pretty damning.]

You were arrested just for that? What kind of bullshit charge is that to stick to someone?

[Honestly maybe Lio didn't even have to try to get arrested if they were willing to charge someone over something so asinine. He might just end up arrested for something innocuous anyway.]

I'd rather not work with any of the Moon Knights at all if I can help it. Even if they can be bought off, I wouldn't trust them not to turn around and report me after the fact anyway.

One of the kids tried to lift the cop's wallet when I was trying to cover for what we were doing. I made sure the kids got away, but unless I wanted to get in trouble for something a lot more serious, that meant letting him arrest me.

[ She knows she could've gotten out of it if she'd fought him, but it would've been a lot harder to get out of assault against a moon knight. She nods. ]

Can't say I blame you. If they're willing to betray the people they work for, there's no reason they wouldn't betray a stranger.

[ But she isn't going to complain that she got out, and she'll figure it out if that IOU becomes too dangerous later. ]

Whether or not you were 'influencing' them, that's still bullshit. You weren't the one that tried to grab his wallet.

[And Lio really had no ounce of sympathy for cops - stolen wallets or not. He'd steal a cop's wallet if he thought he could get away with it, not even for the Demichroma but just as a means to undermine the asshole that thought becoming a cop was a great career choice.]

No kidding... In the future, if you need someone to bail you out, you have my number. Don't waste your time or money bribing them, alright?

You don't have to tell me that. I've been trying to keep my nose clean for over a year now. I promised the guy who disappeared. I was helping them because the moon knights would rather spend their time making arrests than asking why those kids needed someone to teach them in the first place. Prismals can't make chroma.

[ She looks a little surprised at his offer for a brief second. She just offered him help too, but she didn't expect it in return. She never really expects it even after all this time, except for from the people she's close to. Not real help, anyway. 'Save your ass when there's immediate danger and/or glory to be had' help, sure. ]

Thanks. [ She didn't call that person she promised even if she could have because she didn't want to disappoint him. Not that it matters now. ] I'll call. I don't plan on getting caught again, though.

Yeah, I know... And we tend to get some preferential treatment from the government as Moonblessed - free housing, employment and business owning opportunities, rewards for Chroma production...

It's not a wonder a growing sect of the Prismal population here hates us, or thinks their government has turned its back on them.

[Lio smiled at her, placing one hand on his hip in a determined stance.]

Like I said, us villains have to stick together.

[And, taking a page out of Galo's book, he held his fist out for her to fist bump.]

I kind of hate us for it out of sheer knowledge that any world isn't capable of being this easy without a price to pay.

[ She quirks an eyebrow up at him when he holds out his fist to bump it. She doesn't think she's fist bumped anyone in her life. Just when it seems like she's about to blow him off though, she reaches over and bumps it. ]

Yeah, we do.

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