[Thread] Bringing Down The House
Characters: OU!Jing, AU!Sasuke, OU!Schuldig
Where: At the Obex, near the greenhouse
When: Directly following this post after the latest disappearances.
Summary: Jing decides to try and get the Keepers' attention, a universally BAD idea which needs to be headed off at the pass.
Warnings: Angry!glowy Jing getting his ass kicked...again
( Now he knew how Persephone had felt... )
Where: At the Obex, near the greenhouse
When: Directly following this post after the latest disappearances.
Summary: Jing decides to try and get the Keepers' attention, a universally BAD idea which needs to be headed off at the pass.
Warnings: Angry!glowy Jing getting his ass kicked...again
( Now he knew how Persephone had felt... )
Either way, Jing had gotten very stupid ideas into his head. Being angry at the loss of friends was hardly a problem. Schuldig had had plenty of that himself. He'd stated straight out he'd hardly be helping the Keepers last year when so many had disappeared at once.
But a statement of intent was hardly an active act against them, especially with how much the atmosphere had changed since then. They probably still found their captives vaguely amusing at the point. Now, with their previous shows of strength, ability, and ruthlessness, it was a deathwish to go into a direct attack.
And Schuldig didn't especially want one of the few people left he enjoyed to get himself killed. He already had to go and find himself new amusements, after these recent disappearances. He didn't need another.
That, after all, was why he was currently headed to cut off Jing. His superhuman speed was helpful here, of course. Tracking Jing and his intents was easy enough, and getting there ahead of him was hardly a problem, either. Cutting behind the greenhouse he hurried toward Jing.
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All the same, it was a poorly executed show of it. Clearly Jing wasn't as much a friend to hatred, pain, and anger as Sasuke was.
So thus was the reason of the Uchiha's presence. He's watched not far away from a rooftop to determine Jing's destination, and appeared in front of it not far from the other's range. He also sensed someone else's presence; vaguely familiar but not familiar enough for him to acknowledge it by name. Nothing but calmness was over the man's face. His dress was slightly different - full black traditional warrior garb; Uchiha symbol upon the back and a blue obi holding around his waist. Kusanagi tucked behind it at his back. One hand laid loosely upon his hip as he simply waited. Not at all effected by the surges of power and glow to Jing's skin and aura.
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How immature... I see how letting down people who rely on you... Some alliance leader you'll be than, don't you think?
His hands tightened into fists. Talking and planning and plotting could only take them so far. If something wasn't done, there wouldn't be any alliance left to lead.
Jing saw both Schuldig and Sasuke between him and the wall. Without slowing his pace, he said uncompromisingly, "Get out of my way."
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The important thing was that he made himself ignore the instinct to get out of Jing's way. Instead he countered it with an order of his own. "Stop," he said, trying to make it as final sounding as he could. He threw his mental power into sticking the command directly into Jing's brain. Which was all sorts of wonderful, being as he'd just reconstructed himself and his power last month. He'd probably have a headache after this, which would be great fun, but stopping Jing was probably more important than worrying about that.
Terribly funny, he thought, to be considering yet another person important enough to possibly injure himself. This place just didn't quit.
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The shinobi shifted his gaze toward the other near him and his command. Certainly that wasn't just a command that was expected to be followed or else this man was more a moron than Jing was at the moment. Sasuke himself had yet to bother doing anything other than simply standing there between the wall and Jing. His scarlet hues calmly upon the angered figure in doubt that he would need to go as far as genjutsu to control Jing's actions, though he was ready to bring up chidori in any form necessary. Such chaos wouldn't work in achieving anything.
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"I won't just keep letting it happen," he said lowly. "Not anymore. Too many people... we're not just expendable."
He hadn't been able to do anything the last time this had happened because he hadn't been allowed to remember. Now he knew, and that along with these new hurts were driving him to do things that otherwise he would not have considered. This wasn't a sudden rash decision but more of a culmination of multiple circumstances.
"They keep taking and we keep letting them. Maybe Persephone had the right idea. The Entropi understand numbers. They'll understand that one cannot cost just one anymore."
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They'd all realized so long ago that they were merely cannon fodder. It would hardly matter to their captors if it was enemy or friendly fire that took them down, and the were hardly above doing it themselves.
"So you go through with it. You're gone, and the only thing it's proved is that it doesn't matter to them how many of us they lose or how it happens. Is that the outcome you want, Leitwolf?"
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"Talking and planning can only take us so far, you're right." There was a small pause, "but you're not going to make a difference on your own. You'll just feed a hungry stomach, and damage the organization that had taken so long to form in the process."
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Part of the problem was that Jing had seen so much of it; so many disappearances in the length of time he'd been here. Even those which had not directly affected him had taken their toll on others. Hadn't even Schuldig said that he wasn't the only one who had lost all those close?
His gaze dropped a little, his messy hair obscuring his eyes. For a moment it looked like he was conceding their point. "Even if it doesn't accomplish anything," he began, then his head came up and his eyes blazed green. "Doing nothing is the same as allowing it to happen!"
With that he shook off the lingering command implanted in his mind and made a dash for the wall.
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But at the least he could be a bit of a distraction to Jing. That in mind he said, "And of course, all the people who've disappeared would want you to go out uselessly. Not stick around and maybe find a way to do something productive."
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Scarlet hues shifted to look at those raging gray eyes with readable emotion that was akin to what Jing was feeling - though doubtful that it would be noticed in this situation by Jing himself. Difference was, Sasuke had control over it.
"I'm equally as unforgiving as the Keepers," he said, calmly. "If this is how you plan to continue to deal with these issues that arise than you are unfit to be a leader of any sort." He knew very well this wasn't how Jing was, but Sasuke was a convincing liar; and he had the power to back up his lies which made him all the more convincing. He didn't even smirk - cocky as his words were. "Pathetic."
Scarlets blinked. If he needed to back up his lie. If Jing was going to be that irrational; than Sasuke would use genjutsu. If, and only if. Waste not.
"Continue forward," he said, slowly withdrawing his sword and lining it with a vibrant chirp of lightening, "and I will end you. At least your death would be..." The faintest smile than lined his lips, "less fault on you, I suppose. A preservation of whatever reputation you have left. At least this way the failure wasn't all one you... na, leadersan?"
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As for Sasuke, his cold comments sparked a new anger. He had not wanted the position of leader. He had resisted, argued, put forth every reasonable objection he could think of and then some. But for every protestation he had put forth, they'd cajoled and reassured and kept pushing.
And now that his predictions had come accurately true -- where he'd been put into a position in which he was not objective -- they had the damned nerve to criticize him for it! To call him unfit to lead when that had been his position all along!
Sasuke had stepped into his direct line, blocking his attempt to get to the wall. For a moment he raised his blade; green energy snapped and sparked the length of it, a dangerous warning. He wasn't afraid of the dark-clad man, even getting the feeling that he'd be possibly outmatched on swordsmanship.
And yet...
Yet his rage was neither mindless nor undirected. Slowly the blade came down, the thief releasing a long breath. He was not about to fight people he knew -- people he might even consider friends -- because he was angry at the Entropi. He wasn't going to fight just for the sake of fighting.
"To keep waiting indefinitely... there's not going to be anyone left to protect," was all he said.
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"So naturally, since we haven't figured out a way to protect them from being disappeared, the best thing to do is to stop protecting those who are still around in ways we can. Ever thought," he said, his stance becoming mocking, his tone thick with sugared sarcasm, "that you might be one of the people here someone may want to protect?"
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There were millions of things he could say right now about the alliance and what needed to be done, and what could be done, and why it wasn't being done; but that would diminish the effect his previous words had. So he said nothing, and continued walking on. He'd see Jing later when things sunk in a little and he calmed down. As it was now, Sasuke didn't think Jing was about to make anymore movements toward the wall, and if he was than Sasuke could still stop him if the other man could not.
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He wasn't sure what to think of the whole thing. Although they'd both shown up to stop him, it hadn't been forced.
He turned a glare on Schuldig, but it was more aggrieved than angry at the telepath's words. He looked like he wanted to snap something back at him... why did it always have to be mocking and cruel? The words were right there on the tip of his tongue, to berate the redhead, to pick apart all the little comments and piece together the stories of whom he had lost.
But Jing stayed silent, although with obvious effort. The last signs of his stirred up power were already disappearing; it seemed he was getting better at buckling down and getting them back under control when they weren't needed.
"No," he said shortly, in response.
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It was probably the closest to a true answer on why Schuldig was always 'mocking and cruel' as Jing was likely to get. At the moment, anyway. Especially when Jing's impulse to mention people Schuldig had lost led directly to mental reproductions of bits and pieces of some of them. More annoying than if the thief had actually chosen to mention them.
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