Had to do a little work, yeah. She still hates cold days, [ the driver's side door opens with a loud creak as if to emphasize yang's point, ] and sudden acceleration. Oh, and sharp turns. And turning on the air conditioning or heat too soon after starting up.
Still! She gets you where you're going like a charm. [ sometimes the bond between a half-functioning vehicle and its owner is something that can be so personal--
dubious safety of the truck aside, emerald's question gives yang pause. sure, they may not have been on speaking terms for a while, but ruby wouldn't have kept such a major event happening to their sister to herself. unless she means.... ]
The crashes during the blizzard. Me and Ruby got caught up in that. It was me driving and...well, the same thing happened to us that happened to everyone else. [ a breakthrough in their relationship and then crash, boom, bang-- ] That's the only accident I've ever been in and I'm not in a rush to repeat the experience.
You'll be safe, [ yang says quietly. i won't let myself hurt you. ]
[it's something she's heard not enough times in her life. nobody has truly seemed concerned about her safety before she fell in with an actual family. they might have told her she'd survive, they might have said that it's not a life-threatening risk, but there is a gulf between nonlethal and safe. she smiles, climbs in slowly. it already feels like it belongs to yang, like it's an extension of her. the love that she's placed into it radiates from every half-broken piece. and it's not like emerald knows how to fix a car or anything anyway.]
I wish I could've had a breakthrough. I just thought that Goodwitch was my mom for a while. [she did, of course, have another, much more serious breakthrough, but she's not about to get into that right now. she tries a joke, goes for a weak snort of a laugh. a self-deprecating joke that can break the ice.] Like I need to be more confused about stuff like that, you know?
[ yang perks up, broad smile in place that looks like it's going nowhere soon, and hops into the truck once emerald's inside, shutting the door behind her with more gentleness than necessary. no, the door won't going to fly off if handled with a little force, but she reasons any unexpected noise might make her passenger run for the hills.
best to be cautious. ]
Deerington knows exactly where to dig, huh? [ it always knew. every fear, every desire, every idle thought dragged out of you and scattered upon the ground like bones spelling out a bleak prophecy.
she huffs a bitter laugh of her own, humorless and more than a little tired, rifling through her pockets for the keys. ] Our breakthrough helped, but I think it gave me a bigger stupid complex.... [ how can she help ruby if there's so much she can't keep her safe from, why can't she help anyone, what's it mean if she can't, who is she if she can't ] So that was a fun trip to nowhere.
[ yang slips the keys into the ignition, buckles her seatbelt. she glances over to emerald to make sure she's buckled up as well and starts up the truck, carefully backing out of the driveway and onto princess lane proper. ]
But I promise our trip is going somewhere and it'll actually be fun.
[the caution is appreciated... it's a little nerve-wracking and she feels it in her gut, but she immediately feels safe with yang behind the wheel no matter how dangerous their ride might seem. like most things, it'll take care and a lot of careful knowledge to work properly, but she knows that yang has been able to put in the time to learn every single nuance of this. and from the position emerald's in? maybe she can learn a little about it, too. just from watching.]
It will be. And any complexes we end up talking about are gonna be, like... [she's trying to joke, but bringing it back to the reality of the situation makes it a little harder to discuss things like that. but she's still gonna try.] We're gonna be working through them instead of getting new ones.
[she looks over carefully, puts her hands in her lap. nestles herself into the seat. she's giving yang the control and power here, but she's comfortable with that. it's not frightening. it's not something she's worry about. she trusts yang. she's never stopped trusting yang, really. em clips the seatbelt over her chest, straps herself in for the ride. she's. got this. she's got this under control. both of them do.]
Yeah, [ yang answers, nodding in emerald's direction. ] We'll be move forward. The both of us.
[ control and power are fine as long as an equaling of the scales by the end. she's seen first-hand the results of people given an overabundance of both, and it's never pretty. ruined families, ruined lives, ruined worlds.... no, she'd rather build (or rebuild) with someone rather than spearhead it on her own. they got this. they do. really.
yang would try to fiddle with the radio to find something to fill up the silence that stretches between them, but as the dream has crumbled so too has the local station. instead of 24/7 music, it's nothing but static with brief moments of noise that sound too similar to screams for comfort. not exactly great "car ride with your sort of estranged sibling" material.
fuck it. she'll do things how she always does: completely live. ]
So I know I just told you that I've only been in one accident--and that's still true, by the way--but did I ever tell you about that time I hit that bastard with Bumblebee?
[ a beat before she realizes clarification would nice. ]
[the silence is almost deafening, but she's stopped hearing her own words echoing in her head, at least, so she'll take that. she'll take it as a sign that things are going a little better. and then when yang does say something, she turns her head very slightly, slides her eyes over—]
[and then yang gets to the money line. and emerald smirks, and she holds back a laugh, but not very well because it's still at the edge of her words.]
No way. Fuck that dude. Tell me everything.
[there's an emotional response that she can't quite place when she thinks about whether yang has told her about this yet. a fragment, a ghost of a memory, just of... relief, and security, and trust. love. but it's gone before she can wrap her hands around it.]
[ yang quickly turns her head toward emerald, satisfied smirk plastered on her face as she refocuses on the road. that's the reaction she was hoping for. ]
Yes way. You remember how Ironwood's shut the Atlas border at home? Well, we were stuck in Argus with no way in. We tried the military and they completely shut us down. "Atlas is doing you a favor," "trust in the glory of Atlas," blah, blah, blah. [ a roll of her eyes. ] The only person they were interested in was Weiss so they could drag her home to her dad.
[ another asshole of the highest order. yang can't remember if she'd high-fived her teammate over arresting jacques freakin' schnee, but that was number one on the list of things to do when getting back to remnant. ...okay, evacuating the citizens of mantle to safety was the real number one priority. that high-five is at least number three or four on that list, though. ]
Since we couldn't get things done the legal way, Juane and Ruby came up with this crazy plan to steal an airship from right under their nose. That's the illegal vehicle we got busted for when the Ace-Ops got us in Atlas, [ she says while taking the final turn toward their destination. ] Blake and I's part in the plan was to shut down the communication tower so they couldn't track us or call for reinforcements.
We rode there on Bumblebee and she went in on her own. Apparently, stealth's not my forte. [ she pauses then, brow furrowing with the weight of difficult memories she's about to share. ] And then everything went sideways almost immediately.
[lots to think about. including ruby rose and vomit boy working together to commit grand theft auto? and this is the girl who's afraid to say ass?? unbelievable. their little sister is a gremlin. but she has the good graces to keep those thoughts inside while yang continues the story, and when she gets to the part where trouble started, em is pretty sure she knows how it went. even without having the memory.]
Let me guess. He ambushed her at the comms tower while she was alone because he's too chickenshit to try any of his creepy abusive garbage without separating the two of you.
[she hasn't yet noticed how quick this drive is, so lost she is inside her own memories of how horrible a person adam taurus was. and how happy she is for her sister that she was able to remove him from blake's life. and the healing warmth of the sun makes someone else new.]
Got it in one, [ she answers grimly. ] He'd stalked her from Haven and all the across Anima waiting for a chance to get her alone. It was the perfect opportunity. He wanted to....
[ the rest of the sentence dies on her tongue, floods with with the iron taste of ashes and the distant echoes of anger. she grips the steering wheel so tight the metal of her prosthetic creaks, takes a deep calming breath. the past is the past, and he's so far behind them that he doesn't even show up in the rear view mirror anymore.
she flexes her grip one last time, relishing the grounding, comforting feeling of leather underneath her left hand. ] Gods. What a fucking asshole.
Anyway. Something in my gut said that something was wrong. Heh, guess my dyke senses were tingling, [ she chuckles. look, she's been getting into earth comics again. ] And when Ruby and the others called to ask why communications were still up, I knew it. I tore through the woods on Bee just kinda...following my instincts. [ it's a terrible explanation when said out loud, but it's the only one yang has. luck, destiny, love--call it what you like. all she knows is that she'd known exactly where to go exactly when blake had needed her. that was enough for her. ]
I ended up coming up on these cliffs where I could see them below me underneath a waterfall. Blake was on one side and he was on the other probably giving some bad speech about who freakin' cares. And I didn't even think, [ yang does stop to think and parse the nonexistent traffic before turning into the parking lot and pulling into a spot close to the entrance of the diner, ] just angled my bike to make sure I'd get him and drove right off.
[ the truck cuts off with an exhausted shudder and she fully turns toward emerald, grin wide. ] Let me tell you, nothing beats the view of that jerk getting slammed with a motorcycle at high speeds.
[dyke senses. that gets a snort of laughter from her, which is sorely needed after the joint realization of what exactly it was that adam wanted to do to blake. emerald is enthralled by the story, listening along and admiring, however quietly, yang's decision to charge headfirst without thinking because she knew it was the right thing to do.]
[then she gets to the part with the impact and em is pretty sure she can hear the sound of all his bones exploding as yang describes the impact. and she's grinning openly, almost vindictively, right back at her sister.]
Gods, I really hope that killed him. Or at least shattered every bone in his body. [a moment's pause as she pretends to think of a biting remark that's already mostly formed on the back of her tongue.] You know, since you can only have aura if you have a soul. [she unbuckles her belt but she's letting yang dictate the pace of things here; it might not be in the best taste to talk about motorsniping someone around other people, after all.]
So how did you end up getting rid of him for good?
[ yang snorts and shakes her head, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the door, dangling one leg out of the cab. the remaining glitchy townspeople likely wouldn't give them a second glance if they discussed committing attempted vehicular manslaughter against The Worst Person on Remnant. thanks for that, end of the world. ] I really wish Bee managed to do both, but no. He was winded, at best, and super pissed.
[ to put it mildly. yang stares into the middle distance, shoulders slumping when emerald asks the big question. she...didn't like talking about this. for obvious reasons. ]
Stabbed him. Me and Blake, [ she clarifies. ] He'd broken Gambol Shroud in half and noticed too late that it gave both of us a weapon. He walked to the edge of the cliff, fell over. I think he hit the rocks before hitting the water. And then it was over.
[ yang lapses into a long silence, absently picking at a loose string poking out of her sleeve with her right hand. emerald doesn't need to know the rest. she likely saw it back in january and if she can't remember, yang won't say. that part is for her and blake alone. ]
...even if he was a bastard, I didn't want to kill him. He had every right to be mad that the world hurt him. He really did. [ she loops the string tighter and tighter around her finger. ] But then he took it out on people who couldn't fight back. He became.... He was a monster. And if we hadn't defended ourselves, he would have moved on to hurt everyone who so much as spoke to Blake.
[ i will make it my mission to destroy everything you love. and yang knows the power of a promise spoken from the heart.
the string snaps and yang twirls it in her fingers. ]
[the silence is less overwhelming than emerald had expected. there's no doubt that this was going to be a heavy conversation, and it's possible she could have led into it a little better, but. whatever. it's out there, it's happened. and she's... encouraged, which is a terrible thing to feel, but. she's encouraged that yang can have complicated emotions like this, too. even about things that seem like they should be easy. even when the way you're supposed to feel is written in stone and soot and blood.]
[her eyes are unfocused, and when she speaks next she's as understanding as she can be. but beyond that, she's curious.]
So that's a normal thing to feel? [she can only dance around it so much, but maybe she can avoid yang picking up on it enough to get through the conversation.] Even if everyone else would probably agree with what you did—I mean, hell, here I am thinking it was the only right way to get rid of him. But it's normal to still be... I don't know. Conflicted about it? Even when the answer seems so obvious?
[she doesn't know if she wants to dance around this point quite as much. but that's something to save for their meal.]
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hallucinogem) wrote2020-06-10 04:49 pm
STAGGR
no subject
Still! She gets you where you're going like a charm. [ sometimes the bond between a half-functioning vehicle and its owner is something that can be so personal--
dubious safety of the truck aside, emerald's question gives yang pause. sure, they may not have been on speaking terms for a while, but ruby wouldn't have kept such a major event happening to their sister to herself. unless she means.... ]
The crashes during the blizzard. Me and Ruby got caught up in that. It was me driving and...well, the same thing happened to us that happened to everyone else. [ a breakthrough in their relationship and then crash, boom, bang-- ] That's the only accident I've ever been in and I'm not in a rush to repeat the experience.
You'll be safe, [ yang says quietly. i won't let myself hurt you. ]
no subject
[it's something she's heard not enough times in her life. nobody has truly seemed concerned about her safety before she fell in with an actual family. they might have told her she'd survive, they might have said that it's not a life-threatening risk, but there is a gulf between nonlethal and safe. she smiles, climbs in slowly. it already feels like it belongs to yang, like it's an extension of her. the love that she's placed into it radiates from every half-broken piece. and it's not like emerald knows how to fix a car or anything anyway.]
I wish I could've had a breakthrough. I just thought that Goodwitch was my mom for a while. [she did, of course, have another, much more serious breakthrough, but she's not about to get into that right now. she tries a joke, goes for a weak snort of a laugh. a self-deprecating joke that can break the ice.] Like I need to be more confused about stuff like that, you know?
no subject
best to be cautious. ]
Deerington knows exactly where to dig, huh? [ it always knew. every fear, every desire, every idle thought dragged out of you and scattered upon the ground like bones spelling out a bleak prophecy.
she huffs a bitter laugh of her own, humorless and more than a little tired, rifling through her pockets for the keys. ] Our breakthrough helped, but I think it gave me a bigger stupid complex.... [ how can she help ruby if there's so much she can't keep her safe from, why can't she help anyone, what's it mean if she can't, who is she if she can't ] So that was a fun trip to nowhere.
[ yang slips the keys into the ignition, buckles her seatbelt. she glances over to emerald to make sure she's buckled up as well and starts up the truck, carefully backing out of the driveway and onto princess lane proper. ]
But I promise our trip is going somewhere and it'll actually be fun.
no subject
It will be. And any complexes we end up talking about are gonna be, like... [she's trying to joke, but bringing it back to the reality of the situation makes it a little harder to discuss things like that. but she's still gonna try.] We're gonna be working through them instead of getting new ones.
[she looks over carefully, puts her hands in her lap. nestles herself into the seat. she's giving yang the control and power here, but she's comfortable with that. it's not frightening. it's not something she's worry about. she trusts yang. she's never stopped trusting yang, really. em clips the seatbelt over her chest, straps herself in for the ride. she's. got this. she's got this under control. both of them do.]
no subject
[ control and power are fine as long as an equaling of the scales by the end. she's seen first-hand the results of people given an overabundance of both, and it's never pretty. ruined families, ruined lives, ruined worlds.... no, she'd rather build (or rebuild) with someone rather than spearhead it on her own. they got this. they do. really.
yang would try to fiddle with the radio to find something to fill up the silence that stretches between them, but as the dream has crumbled so too has the local station. instead of 24/7 music, it's nothing but static with brief moments of noise that sound too similar to screams for comfort. not exactly great "car ride with your sort of estranged sibling" material.
fuck it. she'll do things how she always does: completely live. ]
So I know I just told you that I've only been in one accident--and that's still true, by the way--but did I ever tell you about that time I hit that bastard with Bumblebee?
[ a beat before she realizes clarification would nice. ]
Adam, I mean. In Argus.
no subject
[and then yang gets to the money line. and emerald smirks, and she holds back a laugh, but not very well because it's still at the edge of her words.]
No way. Fuck that dude. Tell me everything.
[there's an emotional response that she can't quite place when she thinks about whether yang has told her about this yet. a fragment, a ghost of a memory, just of... relief, and security, and trust. love. but it's gone before she can wrap her hands around it.]
no subject
Yes way. You remember how Ironwood's shut the Atlas border at home? Well, we were stuck in Argus with no way in. We tried the military and they completely shut us down. "Atlas is doing you a favor," "trust in the glory of Atlas," blah, blah, blah. [ a roll of her eyes. ] The only person they were interested in was Weiss so they could drag her home to her dad.
[ another asshole of the highest order. yang can't remember if she'd high-fived her teammate over arresting jacques freakin' schnee, but that was number one on the list of things to do when getting back to remnant. ...okay, evacuating the citizens of mantle to safety was the real number one priority. that high-five is at least number three or four on that list, though. ]
Since we couldn't get things done the legal way, Juane and Ruby came up with this crazy plan to steal an airship from right under their nose. That's the illegal vehicle we got busted for when the Ace-Ops got us in Atlas, [ she says while taking the final turn toward their destination. ] Blake and I's part in the plan was to shut down the communication tower so they couldn't track us or call for reinforcements.
We rode there on Bumblebee and she went in on her own. Apparently, stealth's not my forte. [ she pauses then, brow furrowing with the weight of difficult memories she's about to share. ] And then everything went sideways almost immediately.
no subject
Let me guess. He ambushed her at the comms tower while she was alone because he's too chickenshit to try any of his creepy abusive garbage without separating the two of you.
[she hasn't yet noticed how quick this drive is, so lost she is inside her own memories of how horrible a person adam taurus was. and how happy she is for her sister that she was able to remove him from blake's life. and the healing warmth of the sun makes someone else new.]
no subject
[ the rest of the sentence dies on her tongue, floods with with the iron taste of ashes and the distant echoes of anger. she grips the steering wheel so tight the metal of her prosthetic creaks, takes a deep calming breath. the past is the past, and he's so far behind them that he doesn't even show up in the rear view mirror anymore.
she flexes her grip one last time, relishing the grounding, comforting feeling of leather underneath her left hand. ] Gods. What a fucking asshole.
Anyway. Something in my gut said that something was wrong. Heh, guess my dyke senses were tingling, [ she chuckles. look, she's been getting into earth comics again. ] And when Ruby and the others called to ask why communications were still up, I knew it. I tore through the woods on Bee just kinda...following my instincts. [ it's a terrible explanation when said out loud, but it's the only one yang has. luck, destiny, love--call it what you like. all she knows is that she'd known exactly where to go exactly when blake had needed her. that was enough for her. ]
I ended up coming up on these cliffs where I could see them below me underneath a waterfall. Blake was on one side and he was on the other probably giving some bad speech about who freakin' cares. And I didn't even think, [ yang does stop to think and parse the nonexistent traffic before turning into the parking lot and pulling into a spot close to the entrance of the diner, ] just angled my bike to make sure I'd get him and drove right off.
[ the truck cuts off with an exhausted shudder and she fully turns toward emerald, grin wide. ] Let me tell you, nothing beats the view of that jerk getting slammed with a motorcycle at high speeds.
no subject
[then she gets to the part with the impact and em is pretty sure she can hear the sound of all his bones exploding as yang describes the impact. and she's grinning openly, almost vindictively, right back at her sister.]
Gods, I really hope that killed him. Or at least shattered every bone in his body. [a moment's pause as she pretends to think of a biting remark that's already mostly formed on the back of her tongue.] You know, since you can only have aura if you have a soul. [she unbuckles her belt but she's letting yang dictate the pace of things here; it might not be in the best taste to talk about motorsniping someone around other people, after all.]
So how did you end up getting rid of him for good?
no subject
[ to put it mildly. yang stares into the middle distance, shoulders slumping when emerald asks the big question. she...didn't like talking about this. for obvious reasons. ]
Stabbed him. Me and Blake, [ she clarifies. ] He'd broken Gambol Shroud in half and noticed too late that it gave both of us a weapon. He walked to the edge of the cliff, fell over. I think he hit the rocks before hitting the water. And then it was over.
[ yang lapses into a long silence, absently picking at a loose string poking out of her sleeve with her right hand. emerald doesn't need to know the rest. she likely saw it back in january and if she can't remember, yang won't say. that part is for her and blake alone. ]
...even if he was a bastard, I didn't want to kill him. He had every right to be mad that the world hurt him. He really did. [ she loops the string tighter and tighter around her finger. ] But then he took it out on people who couldn't fight back. He became.... He was a monster. And if we hadn't defended ourselves, he would have moved on to hurt everyone who so much as spoke to Blake.
[ i will make it my mission to destroy everything you love. and yang knows the power of a promise spoken from the heart.
the string snaps and yang twirls it in her fingers. ]
We did what we had to do.
no subject
[her eyes are unfocused, and when she speaks next she's as understanding as she can be. but beyond that, she's curious.]
So that's a normal thing to feel? [she can only dance around it so much, but maybe she can avoid yang picking up on it enough to get through the conversation.] Even if everyone else would probably agree with what you did—I mean, hell, here I am thinking it was the only right way to get rid of him. But it's normal to still be... I don't know. Conflicted about it? Even when the answer seems so obvious?
[she doesn't know if she wants to dance around this point quite as much. but that's something to save for their meal.]