10 [Accidental Video]
[Rhode is on the roof of the apartment complex, her toes hanging off of the edge, as she stares down at the ground with an eerily blank expression. There is blood on her hands, from some cuts, which she wipes against the white of her stockings. Broken bottles are behind her, tossed around the roof, as if someone threw them. Wind is blowing her
( Read more... )
...Rhode.
Reply
But they have the power to take Tyki away.
Finally, she answers:]
Tyki was taken.
Reply
He went home?
Reply
[Her voice is deadly calm and quiet.
They took him. They messed with Family. They took Tyki away from Rhode without so much as a second thought.]
Reply
Reply
[And, suddenly, the first trembling break in her tone. She's angry. Furious. Heartbroken. Devastated.
Tyki is supposed to be at her side and only at her side, not taken away on a whim by the damned girl.]
Reply
[carefully:] Yes, he's supposed to, and I'm sure he is ― back home. None of us are meant to stay here.
Reply
[She doesn't look over at him -- she can't, not yet, because Rhode isn't entirely sure Allen is going to solve the problem. Allen is family, but he isn't Family. Tyki made everything better -- Tyki helped her and watched over her and they fought the evil twins together and Rhode is tired of being yanked around like a doll.]
Reply
Good thing she isn't looking. Allen's expression hitches, in that frozen, right-in-the-heart way, before he's able to smooth it out until all that remains of the slip is a slight crease between his eyebrows. She's right. He doesn't know, and her last words to him back home had taught him just how much he doesn't know. That's not to say he thinks Tyki should have been stuck here like the rest of them, but he also doesn't have a leg to stand on. A pause, and when he finally answers, she'll be able to tell from the direction of his voice that he's looking right at her.]
...Then maybe you can tell me. I'll listen if you'll care to tell.
Reply
The first one she draws is the Queen of Hearts.]
...Nothing is supposed to interfere with what we're meant for.
[But things do interfere. Allen interferes -- Rhode had gotten herself attacked by Apocryphos, without a second thought, to protect Allen from harm. And if Tyki were in danger, Rhode would throw away the entire mission -- every last piece of it -- to save him. To save any member of her family. She had even been willing to kill Allen, for what he had done to Tyki, aboard the Ark.
Rhode Kamelot is meant to bring about the end of the world. But Rhode, through Tyki, and Allen, isn't entirely sure she wants to sacrifice that sense of family and her attachment to Allen to do it.
She stares down at the Queen of Hearts for a long moment.]I told you when we ( ... )
Reply
That hasn't changed.
The admission more than surprises him, it suspends him, leaves him all but frozen in the space of the few seconds it takes to decide how he feels about it.
But not because he didn't know this before. Allen has always known Rhode's still human, that all the Noah are, starting from their very first meeting when he had held his cannon to the back of her head but failed to fire, even though he didn't know why back then ( ... )
Reply
I never thought doing what you're meant for was ever as important as walking your own path. Maybe that's what it means to still be human ― you can always choose.
[Neah (it's still strange how he has a name to work with now) had chosen to fight, only for a different family, on his own terms. Funny how the mantra Allen built his life upon had actually originated from him.]
Reply
How horrendously poetic. Allen Walker and Rhode Kamelot, sitting on a ledge, not friends, not allies, but bound together simply by who they are and what they both desperately need to find.
The Heart.
Rhode didn't choose to have the Noah within her awaken. She remembers it, faintly, that night that the Memory took her -- how proud she became, of her heritage, of her family -- and how proud she still is, to be a member of the elite race, the chosen prophets -- superhumans.
But Neah hadn't thought the same.]
... choices are overrated, Allen.
[It's muttered, and Rhode looks away, to stare at the ground.]
They always make things worse.
[If Apocryphos had hit Allen, Allen and Neah would almost certainly be dead. Had Rhode jumped in front of them to save ( ... )
Reply
The edge of the card brushes her hand, and the tips of Allen's fingers with it.]
No, Rhode. Choices make things change.
[7000 years of both sides doing what they're each meant for, 7000 years of fighting, bloodshed, and rebirth that's really just a vicious cycle. "Mad puppets," Neah called them all and chose, the Earl chose, Allen chose and will continue to choose despite being told he has no choice to speak of. Now everything is changing ( ... )
Reply
[It's harsh, and Rhode turns to glare at him. It's impossible to tell exactly what the girl is feeling -- there's a certain level of hatred, in her eyes, but conflicting with sadness, too -- impossible heartache and frustration and -- there, in the very corners of her eyes -- fear.]
You don't know whether or not things are better or worse, Allen. You never will.
[Because Allen doesn't even know who he is. He's awakening -- he's a Noah -- he's one of them --
But that's not entirely fair, is it? Because Rhode -- she doesn't even know who she is, and that's what really pisses her off. She had been so certain, so black and white, and then Allen freaking Walker had to show her how damn good he is.
Her fingers curl into fists and she tears her gaze away from him to glare at the ground.]
Tyki chooses what he wants. He doesn't let anything happen to him that he doesn't want to. And he's not here anymore.
[Finally, Rhode turns to glare at Allen again, and there's the tiniest glistening of tears in her eyes.]You tell ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment