We bring order from chaos...

[irishthor]

Characters: Shay Cormac (irishthor), China Sorrows (inkulcation), and Open
Date: 25th March - Night-time
Location: All over Keelial
Situation: Peridot spiked Shay with Dust and now the obvious is happening.
Warnings/Rating: Shay is an incredibly capable killer and a trained Assassin, so it's very possible that threads involving him may result in injuries and death.


Shay Cormac was confused. Confused, and angry, and feeling betrayed.

He crouches on a rooftop in the Metal sector, letting the shadows cover him, as he surveys the area below. It's still early, so plenty of people are still out. He scowls, his sense showing enemies all around him. Who can he trust? His friends are capable of doing this to him, so he can't trust them.

He feels rage bubbling inside. His so-called friends... thinking about them just made him angrier, and he has to fight the urge to go hunt them down... make sure they couldn't betray him again. Make sure this never happened again.

He stands, turning, free-running over to another rooftop, then another. He needed to do something about this.

((OOC: Shay is currently under the effects of the drug Dust, which amplifies negative emotions. Feel free to have your characters encounter him, or try to stop him, but he will attack, either to wound seriously, or kill. Peridot announced it over the radio here. Final snagging rights go to China Sorrows.

Comments

HI THERE, BFF! I'm sure you're thrilled to see Arno right now!

[stubbornlittleshit]

Shay was apparently insane and on the roof. It only meant one possible solution to Arno, especially because climbing roofs was definitely a part of things. For a moment, he watched Shay with narrowed eyes from a distance of about three buildings over, where he crouched behind a curved bit of roof, trying to gauge how close he would be allowed to come without being noticed. The last thing he wanted was to end up in a long chase, believe it or not. That said, his estimation of his abilities was high enough that he was making his way across quickly enough, so that he could get a better look at what seemed to be going on here.

Ecstatic. :|

[irishthor]

That is until the figure Arno is tailing stops.

Shay can sense that someone's following him. Arno isn't aware that the Templar has the same Sense that he does, but he does... and it's reacting to the Assassin following him. Scowling as the red signature shows up in his sights, he reaches into his coat.

Arno will be able to see him draw something; a pistol... and then aim. And the Frenchman will have about two seconds to dodge a bullet.

Re: Ecstatic. :|

[stubbornlittleshit]

Arno's drawing to a stop too, wondering if Shay's spotted him, and fairly sure he must have. For all his own confidence, Arno wouldn't deny Shay's experience either. Or the fact the man has spent part of his life hunting assassins, though he's not sure about much else about him, if he was born to the brotherhood or found it in a way not connected by bloodline in some way. He's banking on that second one but it doesn't quite appear to be the case as Shay pulls that pistol.

He's ducking, of course, rolling to the side rather neatly, and looking for a spot to try coming across from again, although maybe something else is due first.

"Shay!" he calls, wanting to see what's happening, and if he might be able to do something. "Man, have you gone mad?"

[irishthor]

"Have I gone mad?" He laughs, the laughter not helping a sanity plea. "You ask me if I've gone mad, monsieur?"

The last bit is spat out as he starts to advance, sword being drawn.

"I'm not the one drugging people he calls friend, assassin!"

[stubbornlittleshit]

"Sorry?" Arno calls back, tone fairly dry, even as he considers the fact that he probably should be patient, and understanding, especially because Shay IS drugged, as the message said, and as he's just had confirmed here. Still, he can't quite keep the tone out of his voice anyway. "Are we having some problems in translation NOW?" He taps his earlobe, frowning as he stares at Shay.

"I could just swear I've heard I'd gone round drugging people? Rather new to ME." The rest of the words and the seriousness of what's going on are clear but he can't focus on saying them. Not now.

[irishthor]

"Perhaps you didn't do the deed yourself. That was never the Assassin way, was it? Why dirty your own hands when you can get someone to do it for you?!"

He stops, sword raised.

"I'm a threat to you. It doesn't matter what I say, does it? The Assassins were always single-bloody-minded!"

[stubbornlittleshit]

THAT right there brings back a few specific memories. Standing over Mirabeau with Elise, arguing over whose side was more likely to have done it, for the most part. It's just similar enough that the irony is actually hilarious.

"Always comes back to sides, doesn't it?" Arno wonders now, a dry laugh forcing its way out of his mouth, though in a way, he feels sick. Another Templar, another potential friendship blown if he's not careful. Maybe the people who say this place is a dream aren't so far from the mark. It's got the makings of a disturbing one.

"Aconite's popular with your lot isn't it?" He can't help but call back, ignoring the voice in his head that sounds like Elise calling him a hypocrite, considering how that one ended. "I wouldn't say we claim exclusive rights to drugging." And he's stopping after the words have come out, more bitter than he intended, trying to get some control of the situation and himself.

Breathe, Arno. Just breathe, he reminds himself, gritting his teeth and trying to think.

"What SORT of threat would you say either of us pose each other here? Come on, can't we be reasonable? I didn't want to play this the hard way today."

[irishthor]

"What sort of threat, he asks." Shay growls. "What sort of threat asks the man whose father I'll eventually kill."

His voice is harsher than usual... a lot harsher. Bordering on Paranoid... because he is. He points viciously towards Arno.

"Admit it, you want me dead for some petty notion of revenge!" He spits. "That's why you did this to me. To justify your crusade. Why else would you wait until the one person who can bring us back from the dead to be killed?!"

[stubbornlittleshit]

He doesn't mean it, Arno tells himself, at first. Whatever Shay says isn't so much to do with what's on his own mind, but on whatever he's been given. The announcement from the...rock... made those things all too clear, Arno knows, and tries to tell himself. Still, the accusation stings, even with the knowledge that this isn't exactly Shay talking, or at least a Shay in his right mind.

"Eventually is not now! The man I know is innocent and someone I call friend!" he calls, feeling much like he did when trying to talk down others, to make things better. "Vengeance doesn't justify this!" And then his voice drops a little, the words fervant but quieter. This isn't YOU, Shay, come, let's get you off this roof and something soothing in your hand. You've had a long few days..." he starts, then stops, as if struck when it comes to the end of what's been said.

"My Crusade?" He echoes, disbelieving those words at once. "I try to keep the world free, not trapped in the illusion that control is how one manages to do it, especially not control that you've achieved through artificial means, and have no right to. All it does is hurt people." He adds, not thinking how low that blow might come. "Step down, Shay, please, before anything happens here. Before you make me get involved." He adds, and then, without considering consequences, moves to bridge the distance of the roof between them yet again, putting him closer to danger's way.

"If I'd intended to wait until her death, why would I risk my own life now?"

[irishthor]

"You're already involved, assassin." Shay spits that last word, eyes blazing with rage, hatred, but not specifically directed at Arno. "I've seen the way the Order does things. They'd prefer to sacrifice lives for their notion of freedom. For their misguided attempts to make peace. That's what this is! I'm just another Templar target to you."

He raises the sword once more as Arno begins to approach.

"You step down, sir, or I won't be responsible for my blade sliding into your chest!" He calls out, even taking a few steps back. "Your plan to paint me as the villain and kill me has failed. I ran into your scapegoat before and dealt with him."

[stubbornlittleshit]

Arno supposes it IS true, from a certain perspective. He's involved because other people have gotten him involved, and then it got pushed to this level. And he does agree, in a way, that stepping back is probably the intelligent, actually reasonable thing to do here. Of course, he doesn't exactly want to. What he really wants is to get Shay away from his weapons, and, in some strange way, to prove himself, and his ability to handle situations like this.

And it's not as though Shay hasn't got a point to what he's saying. There ARE plenty of them who would gladly sacrifice lives, not even simply templars in order to bring THAT about. Bellec...he thinks, painfully, his breath constricting a little. God knows Arno does not want to go through that again. Of course, Shay's continuing and that's when Arno does actually flinch, the implication of the last bit there being most disturbing yet.

"Scapegoat?" Merde . "And which scapegoat might this be?" There doesn't seem to be fresh blood around.

[irishthor]

"The scapegoat you intentionally had encounter me in an effort to turn people against me." He gestures with his blade, perhaps foolishly, but he's not exactly feeling rational right now.

He's convinced the man in front of him is trying to kill him. Nothing will shake that idea from his head at the moment.

"You... Why did I think a truce would work?!" He spits, voice growling, eyes narrowing. "I should have expected this!"

[stubbornlittleshit]

Not what Arno had been trying to do, but he supposes that it's perhaps as best as he's going to get just now. Asking after whoever this scapegoat was will only cause more problems won't it? At least it seems that this person managed to get away.

"Should you have?" Arno's keeping his voice calm, though it IS shaking the smallest bit. The words sting even though they aren't meant, and he knows it. It's hard to keep that in mind though.

"It WAS your own idea and I'm thankful it happened." Arno answers, taking a deep breath and raising his arms to indicate he's not about to attack. "Because you kept me from making a terrible mistake. One I won't let you make either, Shay. Not here."