Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20160207063839/@comment-5999656-20160424060323

The force of Raizel's punch sent Platinum falling backwards smack onto the ground. She sat up just as quickly, one hand flying to her jaw as she looked up in shock. It hadn't hurt too much since her Aura had absorbed most of the impact, but her glove came away with a red line of blood as the cut began stinging. Raizel had split her lip.

And now Raizel's argument was pissing Platinum off beyond belief. Last night had been a wreck, but here was this girl telling her to stand by while her friend was alone with the cold-blooded monster child, and that breach of personal morals was too much. Platinum got back on her feet in a flash and started shouting. All the rage and terror in her heart mixed with her voice, so that it was discordant and seething and roaring in her throat.

"You're going to stand there and keep me from doing something when there's a mass murderer waiting to unleash her chainsaws on another friend of mine?! You're the moron here! Don't you get it? It's not about high-and-mighty justice anymore, it's about making sure that I don't stand by while my friends are killed! Don't you see - I'm not - I can't let-," her voice suddenly grew very low and quiet.

"You seem to have misheard me, not once but twice. I said to your face both times that I would only shoot if Cyzarine made a move. I'm not pulling the trigger unless she does something first."

When Platinum saw that wasn't enough, she continued, and her voice resumed a shouting tone and pitch.

"So what's your plan, huh? You'd better have a better idea than I've got if you think there's a viable reason to stop me! So what is it, huh? Your concern, or your trust in Cyzarine? Don't mock me. Your actions last night just prove that you don't care about her at all. You're just as terrified of her as the rest of us. So what is it, then? Is your hate for Faunus so strong that you're willing to let one die at the hands of a 16 year old killer?"

Platinum stepped back so she was out of punching range. It could easily escalate into a real fight right here, but Platinum didn't have time to settle this by stereotypically beating the living hell out of each other. She was confident in her justification, so it was time to see what Raizel could possibly come up with to rebuke her. And when the redhead couldn't, then she was just going to force her way past. Who can fight when they haven't a good reason to?

______________________________

Less than a year?!

As Cyzarine finally explained everything to Automne, the shock only seemed to sink in deeper and deeper. Of course; it all made perfect, terrible sense now, all of it. An atrocity like that took years to recover from, not just years but lots of love and patience and support from friends and family.

''BOB... corpses...''

The image of those black, masked soldiers on the night of the mall attack surfaced in the Faunus' mind. First their cold, cruel efficiency in dispatching the terrorists, and then their confusion as many of them staged a sudden, violent coup. And then after that they found out that Cyzarine and Fen had been kidnapped by the defectors... but then her mind's eye was jerked to the description conjured up by Cyzarine's story, of ice smeared with blood and mutilated bodies and of the girl before her, lying on the ice as her life oozed thickly out of her neck. It was torture. That was torture of a cruelty more concentrated, more rabid than even the one she had gone through seven years ago.

''And so it all makes sense. "More problems", of course, who could endure that without having"more problems" afterwards?!''

Once again Cyzarine snapped Automne out of her deep thoughts. She reached down and pulled her long glove back on and fastened her arm guards over it before speaking.

"Well, I've told them the very basics, so it's not as though they're completely locked out of the loop. For me it's okay, because the guy who did all this to me was arrested and put on trial and given the death sentence. So once he's executed next August, that'll be the end of this story. I'll look into his eyes as he dies. I'll tell him, 'You tried to break me, take away everything I am, but you failed. I won, not you. Because of you I've been given the opportunity to live a life richer and more valuable than anything I'd ever experienced before you captured me, and I've met some of the most caring, most heroic people there are in the world. You thought you were invincible, but in the end you lost. Aren't you proud of yourself? I thank you for transforming my life.'"

She sighed. "Or at least, that's my plan, but I might just sink to hating him again. We'll see."

Automne glanced back up at Cyzarine.

"That's the idea, you know? You can't let you life be defined by the worst things that happened to you. You gotta keep trying hard and working to make a better day. Your team is about to fall to pieces and there are probably worse consequences that are coming up before we can move forward again, but it's not over. Here, let's try to look at it from a proactive point of view."

"I'm gonna be totally realistic with you. No trauma cannot be properly treated and nigh-cured, but it takes a long time and lots of support. And I don't think Beacon is the right environment for that. It's a top university housing students who are talented but young. It's a competitive place where everyone's competing to outperform everyone else, and these are kids who haven't really seen much of the world yet. And the thing is, once people find out about your outbursts they're gonna talk, and the last thing you need is negative attention from other people because they heard about your tendency to try and chainsaw people. And these are teenagers, remember. Everyone's still too busy trying to figure out themselves to properly care for a girl with PTSD. I think you should find people who you can talk to, like your family, and find a trustworthy trained counselor who can help you slowly recover. Because once the news gets out, Beacon could easily become a toxic place towards you that will only make your condition worse, and place more people and yourself in further danger. it'd be best to disappear for a little while until the buzz dies down, and then decide where to go from there."

Automne took a deep breath, then sighed. She was silent for a little while, hoping that this was making sense to the other girl. It was easy enough for her to say these things, but not everyone had the same access or the same understanding family who could carry through with this plan.

"i mean, either way, I think I'm going to have to tell the others the stuff you just told me, about the torture and the skating rink. I won't if you want me to keep it a secret, but I think it's the only way the rest of them can understand where your actions are coming from. Look... I'm trying really hard to be as helpful as I can, but I have limitations like everyone else and I'm not suited to be your only confidante. I'm no psychotherapist."

It was odd, Automne thought, usually she never spoke this much; she was practically monologueing. But Cyzarine definitely needed someone who could hear her out, and maybe be that bridge connecting her to the rest of society. Automne reached up and ran her hand through her hair.

"Anyway, I think until I talk to the rest of them and make sure that Fen is okay, just to be safe maybe you should stay away for a while. "You've got someplace to go, right?"