tushanshu_logs | [OPEN] Didn't I see this movie?

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[OPEN] Didn't I see this movie?

Characters: Erskine, Bakura, and OPEN
Date: August 10, 2016
Location: Central Sector
Situation: Erskine has been failing to deal with some Bad Things from his past and now it's catching up to him. He's having a bit of a nervous breakdown and, as an Elemental sorcerer, is going to be setting fire to a building in the city as a result. Tag-ins welcome from anyone! Come help put the fire out before someone gets hurt. Come shuffle the kedan away from the burning building. Come yell at this idiot?
Warnings/Rating: Bad headspace. Possible violence. Arson. Vague spoilers for the SP series through the end of book 8; will try to keep specific spoilers to a minimum unless noted otherwise. Please let me know if you're okay with spoilers or not and I can adjust as necessary ♥

He'd asked for help.

That thought echoed small and almost forgotten in the back of Erskine's mind. He'd asked for help. It shouldn't have come to this. Maybe he'd been too late, or maybe he'd been past the point of saving.

The evening was hot--too hot. Everything was hot and dry and the fire spread too quickly, jumping from the awnings of an outdoor cafe to the quaint little building behind it. Fire bloomed a brilliant orange against the skyline, against the deep blue of the sky. Kedan screamed, scrambled to get away, to get their loved ones away. Screamed at him, though from a safe distance.

Who wanted to get too close to the man with fire in his hands and rage in his eyes?

((ooc: Please note that for the sake of continuity/planning/etc, Bakura is going to be the one to take Erskine out of the area, and ~~no one is going to die~~ no kedan are going to die. Otherwise feel free to interact as you see fit, even if it's not with Erskine! Fight fires. Be heroes, do cool stuff. Yell at Erskine. It's all good.))

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Clearly he hann't gotten help.

Dove flew overhead, enjoying the evening, until the smoke filled her lungs. Fear spiked through her-- not her own, but that of the Kedan below, running in terror.

Without a second thought, she dove, willing her Light to pull at the flames and try to somewhat tame the blaze if she could. She needed to find the source, but could only rely on the thoughts around her. When she felt the rage, she turned, pinpointing it as best she could.

What she saw made her jaw drop.

Fire curled in both of his hands, willed into being with a simple snap of his fingers and controlled as easily as breathing. For now he simply held it, let it serve as a warning to any who might try to get too close.

Erskine was shaking, both from rage and exhaustion. He hadn't slept in days, despite Anton's best efforts, and had eventually shot past the point of being tired to the point where being awake physically hurt. His judgment and reasoning weren't just compromised, they were flat-out gone. He spotted Dove landing nearby and turned his shoulders to face her, though for the moment he said nothing. His stance almost suggested a challenge.

I dare you to come closer. Wonder what'll happen then?

Her eyes widened as they locked onto his, every one of her senses centered on him now-- at least, the attention she could spare as she felt with the flames. "How can I help? I won't hurt you... What's wrong?" she asked, her own hands alight with fire as she tried to keep it under control.

Another burst of fear shot through her, and she grimaced under the weight of the emotion around her. This wasn't good. Unable to fully block out the fear from the nearby Kedan, her strengths were being pulled thin, and whatever was wrong with Ravel... She hadn't felt anything like it. Ever.

Ravel didn't say anything. What was there to say? Nothing coherent, nothing that wouldn't be a torrent of rage and grief. She wasn't threatening him--beyond the words themselves, she wasn't moving toward him. She was preoccupied with the fire itself, looking panicked, and for the moment at least he felt that he had nothing to fear from her. He closed his hands and let the fire in them puff out.

Unfortunately one of the nearby kedan took that as his cue to stop the situation in its tracks. A tall man, taller than Ravel, tried to sneak up behind him. From the look of it he was going to try to get Ravel in a headlock, maybe knock him out.

Ravel, when he was pressed, moved with an almost inhuman speed. In the blink of an eye he'd spun, shot a hand out to catch the kedan across the jaw, and had the man on the ground with a hand around his throat.

"Erskine, no!!!"

She reacted immediately, her wings carrying her at blinding speed toward him in attempt to knock him off of the Kedan. He wasn't thinking clearly-- no, he wasn't thinking-- and she wouldn't let him hurt anyone else. It was one thing to willingly destroy, but to do so almost without choice made the guilt later unthinkable.

Though she was light, she hoped to at least be able to knock him entirely off balance and away from the man.

He wasn't used to dealing with angels, but Erskine was used to dealing with sorcerers of all stripes, not to mention other, less savory things. Vampires. Monsters. He'd been a soldier for two hundred years, black ops for most of that, and even without his thought processes completely functional those instincts kicked in immediately.

As soon as he felt the movement toward him, saw the flash of wings, Erskine threw his arms up in front of him and molded the air in front of him into a shield. The only outward sign of this was a slight shimmer to the air, but upon impact it would almost completely stop Dove's forward movement--almost, but not quite. Erskine felt his shoes slide backward across paving stones but couldn't spare more than a fraction of his focus on it, lest the shield collapse.

Open

The screams were what had drawn her attention. Errands, with a bit of aimless wandering thrown in, were tossed aside at the sound of that level of panic. Even if Xion hadn't been sure she was the right person to help... She needed to be sure of what was going on.

And what she found was something she maybe could help with, or so it seemed. A fire, people yelling.

"We have to get water. I know there's not a lot, but you have to!" she was all but yelling at nearby kedan over their protests, a panicked edge to her voice. She may not know enough about weather and fires to know how dangerous the drought made this, but the heat was already terrible, and the fire made it worse. That was something she could tell easily enough, even as she charged forward, looking at the flaming buildings.

"Does anybody have any water magic?" It's a half-desparate plea, one for any Foreigner who might happen to be in the area. Xion had ice, but she wasn't sure if it'd help or not.

For Erskine

Of course, eventually she realized that some of the kedan were not aimlessly yelling. That there was anger amongst the shock and fear, and that it was aimed at someone nearby, someone she knew quite well.

As soon as she realized, Xion planted herself in his path, arms and legs spread slightly. Subconsciously reading herself for a fight.

"What are you doing?" It's funny, she'd said the same thing to that stranger who'd tried to kill her the other day. But this time... she knew Erskine. Trusted him. Something was very very wrong, and it was much scarier and painful than anything the other man had tried.

Havoc. Havoc, and screaming, and fire in the Central sector. China was only a few streets over at the time, on business with an informant, and she glanced first to the sky, watching the smoke, before concluding her business and heading that way.

She had thought to find chaos. She did. She had not thought to find Grand Mage Ravel at the heart of it, and for several moments China just stood and watched Ravel, watched his movements. Surely no Remnant had gotten a hold of him, and she didn't see the telltale black veins-- well, that didn't mean everything, but they tended to do that when exerting themselves.

So Ravel had finally snapped?

China let a pair of fleeing kedan brush by her without other acknowledgment, pale gaze intent on Ravel. She did not particularly want to get involved, but she supposed, having shown up, it was now her duty, or some other equally distasteful word involving putting herself in the way of harm for little gain. Where was an Elemental when she needed one? Ah. That was right. Setting the fires.

With ill-concealed annoyance, China headed Ravel's way, and if she made sure the kedan heading the opposite way could get by, well, that was just common sense.

Edited 2015-08-08 04:14 (UTC)

He hadn't been going anywhere in particular. Pacing, more like, though there was something predatory about his movements. The small form in his path stopped him short--not because he detected a threat but out of sheer curiosity.

The gaze that fell on Xion was very nearly blank, save the lingering rage. If there was any sort of recognition in there, any sort of familiarity, it was buried deep.

Ravel clenched both of his fists to extinguish the fire in them, then started walking again. Directly at Xion. If he managed to get close enough he was going to walk right on by her without a word.

By the time they reached the dojo Erskine was shaking again, this time not with rage but with exhaustion and the loss of the adrenaline that had been keeping him on his feet for most of the evening. His suit was dishevelled from the few scuffles he'd been in, but aside from the odd scratch and bruise he was mostly intact.

More than he could say for the building he'd torched.

At least he was lucid again, although somehow he couldn't help but imagine how much nicer it would be to not be. To not remember the screams and the destruction, or the way he'd lost control so quickly. The rage had all drained from his eyes. In its place was guilt, the guilt that normally lurked in them but amplified.

Bakura had dragged Erskine back to the dojo with a grip on the man's arm tight enough to surely bruise, not that he assumed Erskine was in the state of mind to notice or care. There had been others there, and they could deal with the fire (which seemed to have already been getting in hand, when he'd arrived), which left him free to deal with the one in front of him.

"Everyone out," he snapped as they entered, and the handful of kedan who'd been practicing took one look at the pair and wisely beelined for the door. Bakura marched Erskine to the center of the main room and dropped him on the reed-mat floor, stepped back and barked "Spellbinding Circle!" at him, and the glyphed glowing wards swirled around Erskine at his feet, forming a faintly translucent barrier that shimmered in the air.

"Just what--" the thief started, considered for a moment, and added an additional summon ("Field Barrier!") to the mix, as a gently pulsing, nearly-invisible dome came down from the crown of the dojo's rooftop to the ground. "--by the names of the twelve houses of Night is wrong in your head?" he continued, as though he hadn't just stopped to cast a spell in the middle.

Edited 2015-08-08 06:12 (UTC)

Fire.

Xion's reminded vividly of Axel, of their argument the last time she saw him, though she's never seen Axel get anything like this. As he strode towards her, she fought to keep her alarm in check, to not back down, though she does end up taking a step or two backwards.

And then he moved to breeze right past. Not even acknowledge her. She turned, startled and upset. "Wait!" she shouted, hands clenching into fists of their own. If nothing else, just letting him go to do whatever he wanted seemed bad.

Ravel dropped to his hands and knees on the mat, too worn out both physically and mentally from the last few hours to do much more than catch himself thusly. If his arm was going to bruise he didn't notice, probably wouldn't care.

For being one of the legendary Dead Men, as some called them, he was looking pretty unimpressive at the moment.

He didn't know how to answer that question, short of the truth, as self-deprecating as it sounded: a lot. Instead Ravel stayed quiet at first, electing to examine the spellbinding circle Bakura had cast around him with a sense of vague, detached curiosity. It was a different kind of magic than he was used to but Ravel was familiar with binding, at least.

...and a shield around the dojo as well. Shit. If he needed confirmation of how bad this was, that was probably it.

Erskine's silence was not helpful to Bakura in the least, and once he'd ascertained the Barrier was working correctly -- he'd been a little more cautious with large scale spells since one had backfired inside the dojo two months ago -- but this was a continuous Spell rather than a Field spell, despite its name. Like the Spellbinding Circle, it would not expire until Bakura willed it away.

"Something had to prompt your arson spree tonight," Bakura said, when it seemed as though Erskine had no intention of answering him. "What'd he do, fire you? Kick you out of the Hotel?"

Edited 2015-08-08 07:38 (UTC)

Fire him?

The suggestion was so absurd--the idea that he would mind not having to clean, rather than the idea that Anton would actually fire him, mind--that it shook Ravel, snapped him out of the little trance he'd fallen into whilst staring at the circle around him. Granted, if Anton had fired him... if he'd been kicked out of the Hotel... well, maybe Bakura hadn't shot too far off the mark after all. Anton was the only stable thing in Erskine's life right now. To have that torn away from him might have elicited a similar reaction.

But no. Ravel shook his head.

"No, it's... it's nothing like that. I..." He swallowed hard, sat back so that he was resting on bent legs rather than crouching as he'd fallen. "I lost it."

No shit, Sherlock.

"I haven't slept. I lost it."

"You've spent half the months here looking like you haven't slept," Bakura returned bluntly. "And so far as I'm aware, you haven't set anything ablaze before now. Are you going to do the same to my dojo if I release that Circle on you?"

Central had been one of the areas that Seto Kaiba had been scoping out recently, and despite the soaring temperatures, he still insisted on wearing his coat and the black long sleeved shirt and pants beneath it. Some probably thought him crazy, but he didn't care, even if he did sweat a little.

But things were apparently heating up more today than usual, the sight of screaming and running Kedan as well as the appearance of flames above the rooftops catching his attention. He paused to stare and continued to walk calmly towards where the fire was fully blazing, quickly spreading from building to building. He was no fire fighter, and simply stood and watched as the flames roared.

That is until a Kedan woman ran up to him, having recognized him as a foreigner and they all had special powers right?

"Please, help me! My children!"

And she pointed towards the top level of a burning shop where her small family lived. As he looked up, he could hear the screaming of a young child and the crying of a baby. Gritting his teeth, he looked at the woman and then ran towards and into the burning building without a second thought. It was only a minute or two, but it seemed like forever as Seto fought his way through the smoke and flames. Eventually coming across a young boy who held his tiny baby brother. Picking them both up, he ran back down the burning stairs and out the building. Just before the roof of the building collapsed. The relieved and grateful woman took her children, thanking him many times, though he hardly seemed to hear her. Just as they left, the smoke inhalation and the heat got to him, and Kaiba collapsed there in the street.

Funny how fate seems to put people in the same place at the same time. With the buildings burning in central, Yuri quickly rushed in to help. In fact he's carrying an old woman on his back and leading a few others away from a blazing building when he notices the a skirmish going on. He pauses for a moment, but then goes on his way again. Dropping off the old woman and the others at a safe distance, and letting them recover, before running back to where he saw Dove facing off with Erskine?

What the hell is going on here?

"HEY!" he shouts at them, not entirely sure what's what but... is that guy responsible for all of this? He's got fire in his hands after all. But Dove has that ability too. He wouldn't think she'd do this... but then he didn't think Erskine would either. He's... really confused right now.

Edited (Sorry. Excuse my edits. :V) 2015-08-08 21:08 (UTC)

He was prepared-- she was not. She hit his shield full on, reeling back mid flight and flipping before she could dig her feet into the ground. When she slowed from recoil, she fell to her knees for just a moment to recoup, her head snapping back up to the man. Well, she hadn't expected that, though his sorcery was no surprise. It had at least gotten his hand off of the Kedan's neck.

And now she'd have his attention, despite the now incredible ache throughout her body as it doubled to heal her.

Rising quickly, she stomped into the ground, redirecting white hot flame in his direction with the hopes to maybe catch him off guard and encircle him and his shield. She didn't want to hurt him... but she wouldn't let him continue doing... whatever this was. Maybe the Light in her fire would help subdue him.

The shout nearby, pulled her focus just seconds before the increasingly familiar sensation tugged at her soul. Yuri

Edited 2015-08-09 02:36 (UTC)

"No. I-"

Erskine stopped. How did he know he wouldn't do the same, honestly? He hadn't intended to burn a building down in the city, either. Couldn't say for certain that he had enough of a grip on reality to keep from doing it again.

Screams echoed in his ears, the screams of the kedan that he could recall from those few moments toward the end when he'd been coherent enough to realize what he'd done. Older screams, some of them his own. Ravel closed his eyes tight and let his head fall.

"I don't know."

Bakura considered him on the floor for a moment, unmoved by the other man's internal pain. No. You don't know. Realizing that it half the battle, heriret.

"That's the truth," he stated finally, closed his hand around air and with a brief tug of powered, dismissed the Spellbinding Circle. The glyphs faded out, leaving there nothing hemming Erskine to the spot, although the Field Barrier continued to pulse out a gentle rhythm around the dojo.

"Come on," he said carelessly, turning his back on Erskine to head toward the office door. More specifically, toward the open door inside the office, leaving Erskine to follow or not.

His eyes opened, gaze rooted to the floor in front of him for a moment. He wasn't sure if he was going to burn down the dojo, and that was what convinced Bakura to let him free? Issues of trust and honesty aside, it was still a very real possibility that he might burn down the goddamned dojo.

Trust wasn't going to fix that. Anton had trusted him not to destroy the city and look where that had got them. Why had Anton ever trusted him in the first place, knowing what he knew?

Finally Ravel levered himself to his feet, still shaky, and trailed after Bakura.

Fire. Ravel gave a dark, self-satisfied smirk. As if fire was going to stop him.

Dismissing the shield was as easy as giving up his focus on it, letting the dense cushion of air in front of him dissipate. Instead Erskine turned his attention to the fire. He held both hands up, palms toward the flames, and suddenly any of the fire that came anywhere near him was immediately extinguished.

Like Dove, the shout drew Erskine's attention, splitting his focus enough that although none of the flames yet reached him, they drew closer. He snarled. If Yuri joined Dove against him...

Erskine ducked his shoulders and charged Dove. Before he got too close, however, he splayed his fingers and made a quick pushing gesture at the paving stones beneath him. He leapt, and that extra blast of air jolted him higher, making it so that if left unmolested he would easily vault over Dove.

Through the office door was a kitchen, small but functional, and by the time Ravel convinced his feet to carry him through the door, Bakura was just plunking down a second plate of food at the empty chair. A mix of local rice, vegetables and some kind of sauced, stewed meat. Having set the second seating, he retakes his own place where a half-finished plate was waiting. Apparently, the thief was fine with casually interrupting his dinner to find the city partly on fire, and then going back to it like no big deal.

"Wash first," he said, pointing the end of his fork at the sink. "The smell of ash bothers me. There's wine too, if you prefer it, but I hardly drink the stuff so it might actually be terrible, and I probably wouldn't know."

... Okay yeah, it didn't take much observation to see who the aggressor was here. With a serious frown, Yuri grappled the hilt of his sword and with a swing of his arm, sent the scabbard flying from the blade. Today he was carrying Second Star, and thus didn't have the extra power of Dein Nomos. But that didn't matter.

Dove was a big girl though and could take care of herself. Still, he was there to give her a hand, ready to intercept Erskine should it become necessary.

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[OPEN] Didn't I see this movie?

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anyone's free to tag her! c:

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Closed to Bakura | At the dojo | Probable spoilers!

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Open!

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