cradleproject | WEEK 8

He asked you to what?

[First of all, he was vulnerable this week, but what an uncomfortable thing to ask if you aren't sure you're going to die! He's imagining Arumat Monday morning, were he still alive. "Yes, we're all right on the revenge for now, turns out I wasn't killed after all. Carry on!" But more importantly, what a fucked up thing to do. Yes, draft a grieving young woman clearly struggling with her feelings and add the responsibility of vengeance onto her shoulders. That seems like a responsible decision. Mental sassiness aside, he finds himself rather disgusted by that. Arumat...they're all right, he was never a bad man. He cared, but damn it. He never thought.]

Well, I, for one, am feeling somewhat less monstrous. [Dorian is this really a good idea. Is it really the time to sass when a mentally unstable girl with a scythe is gunning for you. It appears he literally can't help this.]

He did what?! [Is this Clover's grief talking, or did Arumat seriously tell an already traumatized teenage girl to avenge him? What the hell, Arumat?]

Edited 2016-08-02 04:55 (UTC)

Are you kidding me? It isn't enough that half the adults on this ship are murdering?! [ARUMAT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD]

[Anyway, after that little outburst, her eyes narrow and her resolve hardens. Of course Arumat's just as bad as them, what adult here is actually trustworthy?]

[She's still trying to get the scythe - grab it, and turn it off, and throw it away, but she does her best not to let Clover get hurt by it or fall too hard, either. It's, uh, not the best move, considering that laser could slice her any second if mishandled, but, as angry as she is, she doesn't want either of them to get hurt]

What is this going to solve, Clover? It won't bring him back! Bull was already executed, we need to focus on the root of all of this!

[With the scythe out of the way, Chat's got the advantage: Clover is on the ground, weaponless. He takes advantage of that to jump nearly on top of her, crouched and holding her in place with his staff. He's careful not to actually hurt her as he does, pressing the staff on her shoulders and the top of her chest rather than her neck or stomach, where it'd be easier to keep her secured where she is. He's hoping she's not mad enough to fight back with him so close. ...but, I mean, if we're talking about last requests, Chat's got one of his own to share:]

And he asked me to take care of you! [He doesn't have grievances over any requests Arumat felt like giving-- he'd called out the man himself on being especially terrible at comforting people, and maybe that request had been meant to help Clover deal with his loss, just like what Bull had done himself a few weeks prior by giving him the axe. But that doesn't mean he's out of things to share.] So I'm going to repeat myself: I'm not letting you do this.

[The scythe flies out of her hand and for a moment all the rage flickers out of her expression—he'd entrusted that to her, he'd entrusted vengeance to her, she'd failed and is failing at the second and couldn't even earn the first because of it and now she can't even hold onto the damn thing, and she looks so crushed in the seconds between her trying to stand again and Adrien pinning her to the ground.

And of course she fights him, thrashing with all she has, not caring anymore that he is—was—is her friend, fire and fury back in her face.]

SHUT UP! You're not my damn keeper! [Mindless flailing isn't working, so she tries drawing her legs up to kick him up and off of her—a little more methodical, a little like what bits of her training she remembers. She's twisting towards Dorian, too, screaming as loud as she can.] Shut up! Shut UP! You don't get to parade his corpse down the halls and then think there's any reason you're any less of a MONSTER!

[Vengeance and violence are wrong, and she knows it, she knows what they think of her for it; she is evil and monstrous and amoral because vengeance and violence are all she understands anymore and she doesn't have enough reasons to care, but this is Dorian's fault, too; she can't let him make it Arumat's.]

[That certainly wasn't one of his finer moments, no. All right. His need to make light aside, the last thing he wanted was to make this worse for Adrien and Marinette, who don't need to be doing this for him, or to make it harder on Clover, who, seemingly insatiable taste for vengeance aside, appears to be a relative innocent in all this. Whether or not he likes what Arumat has done, he owes it to the others, and, well, to himself, to accept the consequences of his actions.]

That was unworthy. You're right about me. Killing Arumat was a monstrous, unforgivable thing to do, and I deserve to be tossed out with the demons as much or more as any of them have been.

But I'm not worth hurting your friends over. Not when I'll just as likely be dead the next time I'm vulnerable or a suspect. Now, I won't protest what needs to be done, but I think the others who cared for Arumat equally deserve a say.

[The scythe clatters to the ground a few feet away as Ladybug gets to her feet. Chat Noir seems to be handling her, for the moment, so she's going to make sure that scythe is out of reach of anyone who wants to hack Dorian to pieces with it]

No one is killing anyone! [Dorian being so blithe about his own death just makes her angrier] Revenge won't solve anything. And Dorian was being manipulated by this system just as much as you are, right now. If you really want to bring Arumat peace, you need to focus on finding the people responsible for this. All of this.

[She whirls around to glare at Dorian]

And you! What you did was unforgivable, you're right about that, but we're not going to let you die, and don't even think about lying down and accepting it. The only reason Bull confessed was to save you. The least you can do is stay alive to find out the truth of all of these "roles" and "experiments" - the root of this disgusting game.

[He's keeping an eye on her throughout both Dorian's and Ladybug's speeches, holding the staff down. This entire scenario is growing out of hand and he's starting to worry Clover is incapable of listening to anything right now.]

I'm your friend, Clover. [that's all he gets to say before she's kicking at him with both legs, and while even at 40% the suit still absorbs any pain that would bring him, it does nothing for impact and he already wasn't in a particularly good position to keep her down, too careful to actually brace himself on top of her properly. He's thrown off for a second, landing backwards. He scrambles to get up immediately, one hand on his staff as he aims for a low kick to try to unbalance Clover as she's getting up.]

[Something falls in her expression when the scythe hits the ground, wastes no time twisting into rage again, that she would be so callous with something so precious, that Clover let it happen in the first place.]

SCREW YOU! [For Dorian daring to be so calm in the face of this, for Marinette saying she's being manipulated—it only adds fire to her fight and she's screaming louder and louder, over Marinette and Adrien and anything else as much as she's able. She doesn't care about Marinette's grandstanding, cares even less what she has to say to Dorian, knows just what she's doing, just what she wants—

(two plus three plus seven and she hadn't even thought about the nine bracelet then and didn't think anything of it when she was asked you wouldn't want to be manipulated by someone who did such a terrible thing, would you? with the man who would have murdered her brother looking her in the eye but it's not the same, she's pushing everything she'd known and thought and would have done a year ago aside because it's not the same)]

He made a choice! He made his own damn choice and I'm making mine! [And then, shrieking, howling,] STOP TRYING TO SPEAK FOR ARUMAT! [What could Marinette know about him, what could she know about peace?

Clover's coming to her feet and scrambling forward with Adrien off of her.] You don't know anyth—

[And that's as far as she gets before Adrien kicks her onto the ground again. She's trying to pick herself up again, but it won't be hard to pin her like this.]

I know that! [Anything reasonable in his voice cracks as he speaks. They may feel little sympathy for him, or believe he's made his own bed and must lie in it, and that may be true. But still, the man he loved died not minutes ago, and he can't stand to be lectured about this right now. Not about him. The grief is still too fresh to even really be raw.]

I know why he confessed. I don't intend to die here, not now, not if I've any say in the matter, but. Maker, she and others have the right to demand that! Can't you assure her something will be done? Fighting will solve my problem no less than it will solve hers.

Edited 2016-08-02 16:24 (UTC)

Enough!

[ Machias had silently watched the whole thing go down but had been too weary to step in himself, Grell having stopped him from nearly making a mistake earlier. Yet the more he listened on, the more he felt that flare of anger set off and boil to a point his fist was shaking. Especially when Dorian had mentioned the people who cared Arumat deserving their piece in things.

Is his shotgun out? Yes, but it's lowered at the ground, held by the stock and painfully clear he doesn't actually intend to shoot. His fist, however? That hasn't unclenched, even as he finally speaks up. ]

That's enough. Let her go. ... At least let her have her say. He made his choice and he damn well knows it. He can accept the consequences that come with that decision too.

[ He looks over to Dorian, his alarmingly cool expression deceiving his scathing tone as he addresses him. ]

You said as much yourself, didn't you? Killing you might not solve anything, but you know damn well you had a hand in it too. So, if nothing else? Just let her have her say.

Edited 2016-08-02 17:20 (UTC)

[Machias, are you fucking kidding? What do you think is happening here? Do you think Adrien and Marinette are holding down Clover because they don't want her to lecture him?]

She can have her say as soon as her say isn't being delivered via laser scythe! As can you, but at the moment, the interjection isn't helpful!

[When Machias decides to throw his hat into the ring, she's just. Making. This face.]

[She takes a deep breath, rubbing at her mask, and tries to calm down a little.]

Clover. I'm not speaking for him. [Except that you kind of were, Marinette!] I'm speaking to you. Arumat is gone, and there's nothing I can change that, but don't go down this path, please. You have every right to be angry and hate him - we're going to lock him away so he can't hurt anyone else again. I'm asking you to please stop, but even if you don't, I will not let you kill this man.

[AND THEN.... she's not going to admit to agreeing to Dorian, but he's right.]

When violence is off the table, we'll stop restraining her. So don't make this worse, Machias!

[Adrien doesn't waste time going to pin Clover once again and this time he's much less careful about it. He's kneeling over her chest out of reach of her legs and keeping the staff pressed on her ribs so that he's pinning her arms down too. She can still trash, but she's far less likely to succeed in throwing him off now. His chest is heaving, but it's not in exertion-- it's in panic.]

Please just-- get a hold of yourself. Killing him isn't going to help anyone.

[and then Machias butts in and he's distracted for two seconds to swivel around and glare because not helping thanks

... and that distraction might cause him to loosen his hold on Clover a little.]

[yeah no the only point Clover is interested in delivering right now is one made with a laser scythe but later she will appreciate the effort, Machias

but the distraction isn't enough for Clover to shove Adrien off her again, even though she struggles. Even if she did, she wouldn't get far; certainly not to the scythe and back, and without it, she couldn't break through Dorian's barrier on her own to come at him with the injection gun. She's lost. She's failed.

She's still thrashing, though, when she turns to Dorian, snarling.] You said—you said you regretted brushing him off, had the balls to call him a good man to his friend's face! And you—! [to Adrien, to Marinette,] You think you're better for defending him?!

[And something's breaking in her voice and the rage hasn't left her but there are tears spilling over her cheeks now.]

I hate you! I hate you! [It tastes venomous until she spits it out and she hates even worse how childish it sounds, but not that it's been said, even when she's shaking too hard to put up more than a token resistance, even when she's sniveling too much to shout anymore-.]

[Well. He did say those things to Clover, yes. But they weren't untrue when he said them. Still, he doubts Clover wants to hear that from him. He was a good man, but he was also an adult, and a soldier, and for those reasons perhaps it was easier.

Clover's grief more than anything makes him feel sick. He wanted to avoid harming the (relative) innocents on this ship. He doesn't know whether Clover is one of them -- she wields a weapon in anger a little too readily for comfort -- but she's also a grieving, wounded girl who hasn't deserved to suffer the amount she has so far, and he's made her suffering so much worse. For that, he's truly ashamed, so he looks away and says nothing.

Instead, he speaks to Adrien and Marinette]

I think I will return to my quarters now. [He knows they may not like that, but. He can't do this anymore, he can't stay out in public and be confronted by others' emotions when he's so damn exhausted and miserable and angry himself.] I won't leave them for another twelve hours, after which you may do with me what you will. If you feel you must escort me so be it, but I won't give you any resistance or trouble.

[He's not going to wait for permission, or comments. It seems more productive to deal with Clover without his presence, and if he's too exhausted to do more than sleep, all the better, so he uses the last of his mana to fade step past Clover, Adrien and Marinette, right out the door.

If they want to go catch him they can - fade step only takes him a brief distance, and he has to stumble the rest of the way back to his room by himself. But he also isn't lying; if not stopped, he'll go directly there, and won't come out again for another 12 hours.]

WEEK 8 - Execution

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