Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20160207063839/@comment-5999656-20160326055450

Platinum and Fen quietly walked back to the polce station. Neither said a word to each other, and they were almost shy despite having known each other for years. The intensity of the evning's events had left them feeling rather drained and both were realizing something: they both knew the other very, very well. The intimacy of their understanding of the other's mental capacities was almost humbling, the extent to which it went. Who knew?

Platinum slowed when she saw Raizel sitting on the bench outside and... was that Cyzarine comforting her? Platinum had never perceived the younger girl as being capable of sympathy, especially after witnessing her gruesome tactics firsthand. An older, suited man stood off to the side, whom Platinum took to be one of the girls' guardian. Probably Cyzarine's. She drew closer and was further startled to see Raizel's cheeks glinting with thin, shiny streaks, and realized with a jolt that the redhead had been crying.

Now that - Platinum was at a loss. She had never perceived that the rebel was capable of being affected by her words. By her fists,s ure, but somehow it seemed to Platinum as though Raizel was too thickheaded or self-centered to be affected by her attacks. And that was further proof of the deadliness of carelessly spoken words. Platinum winced - both because the jabbing pain in her hand was starting to set in and because she realized how hurtful she'd been.

Fen glanced and Platinum, then switched course and headed towards the entrance of the precinct.

"I'll be getting some bandages," she called back. "For your hand, and for Cyzarine's nose," she added, gesturing at the green-haired girl. With that she strode through the sliding glass doors, past Ardon, leaving Platinum to apologize alone.

Here goes everything.

She came up to the duo sitting on the bench. Her hands were in her jacket pockets, and she fidgeted a bit before beginning. But she quickly grew fed up with the awkwardness, and hissed as she withdrew her right hand and flicked it, sending a small spray of blood onto the concrete. Being sheepish really wsan't her strong point.

"Look, Raizel, those last things I said - I didn't actually mean any of them. I don't think you're hopeless or worthless or anything. But I let my feelings get the better of me, so I'm sorry for that. I won't do it again, promise. I really am sorry."

She stopped shortly, and rocked back and forth a few times, before clenching her fist. All she could think of doing was being totally, one hundred percent honest, if she was to try and explain why she'd acted the way she had.

"I just wanted to be a good leader of a good team, and I got caught off guard because it was turning out so, so much harder than I thought it was gonna be. I don't like seeing people die when I could have done something about it, and I just... you know, my gut instinct has always been to try and do what's right. I never realized it would be so hard to convince someone else to see things the way I do. But I get that I was trying to force my beliefs onto you, which is wrong."

She took a deep breath.

"So if you want to call this team thing quits, you know, I can't blame you. But if somehow you're still up for it after all this, I'd be willing to give it another try too."

That was her explanation. Plaintive and childish, it was. Platinum's face grew warm as she realized how silly she probably sounded. But if Raizel still gave her trash talk after this, this time she was gonna take it silently and walk away herself.

"I - yeah, just... sorry."

She didn't notice that Fen had drawn up to stand beside her until the girl started speaking.

"I fucked up big time," she said simply, drawing everyone's attention. "If I hadn't kept provoking Raizel back in the dorm none of this would have happened. So if we're going to blame someone, it might as well be me," she added. Being the scapegoat wasn't Fen's desire, but she realized that she had to fess up to her mistakes if any progress was going to be possible.

"Fen?" Platinum queried, taken aback by her friend's acceptance of the blame.

"Alright? Okay, so yeah, we all messed up hugely in the last four hours. If it's gonna be someone's fault, it's mine. So there. But what now? Are we gonna give this team thing one more go or do we go our separate ways? I for one am eager to make up for the terror I've caused, so I'd be up for a team."

For some reason a sad song started playing up in Fen's head, one she'd last heard years ago.

This town is colder now, I think it's sick of us,

Alright, so Team PRFC started off with a bloodbath and a dramatic chase scene and police intervention.

It's time to make our move, I'm shaking off the rust,

Maybe it was all over, maybe it was just the beginning,

I've got my heart set on anywhere but here,

But Fen knew one thing: she wasn't going to let her future be dictated by fate. She was gonna step up and take control of her life. Finally.

I'm staring down myself, counting up the years,

Steady hands, just take the wheel,

And every glance is killing me,

Time to make one last appeal,

For the life I live...

Because the fact was that if she didn't, the Nine Dragons and their enemies were going to destroy everything that she considered a part of herself. Her passion, her moral limits, her faith in the unshakability of human nature over evil of all forms,

Stop and stare

I think I'm moving but I go nowhere

Yeah, I know that everyone gets scared,

But I've become what I can't be,

Even if it was hopeless, this was going to be her last stand, her last effort to prove that she wasn't just a puppet whose role had been dictated from the moment of its creation. And if was going down, she was definitely not doing it without a fight.

Stop and stare

You start to wonder why you're here not there,

And you'd give anything to get what's fair,

No, she didn't like Raizel or Cyzarine. But were either of them bad people? Definitely not criminals of the caliber or degree she would soon rub shoulders with. So she really wasn't in any position to be picky.

But fair ain't what you really need,

So there.

Oh, can you see what I see?

But what then, of her dear sister Zanipher? The brilliant, charming, loving protective one who simultaneously provided an upside to a life of white-collar crime and personally coerced her into this position of no return? What of her emotionally suppressed older sister?

They're trying to come back, all my senses push,

Untie the weight bags, I never thought I could.

Fen really, really wanted to make this work. Never before had she experienced the feeling of having a caring older sister who was not only immensely talented but also brilliant, witty, who made time in her busy schedule to have one-on-one talks with her younger sister, and, in short, was everything Fen wanted to be. Except Zan was a criminal, and that was the reason she could do all this. Goddammit. How does one reconcile a life of criminal activity and being your own, good self?

Steady feet, don't fail me now,

Imma run till you can't walk,

Something pulls my focus out,

And I'm standing down...

Zan was the only thing keeping her from saying, "Screw it, I'm not going to take advantage of other people to have more money than the loads I already have!" So there: she would talk to Zanipher, but she swore never to exploit the Dragons' manpower and resources to gain an unfair advantage over her company's competitors. Simple as that. Okay, so maybe it might be hard to stick by that decision if they were going through tough times in the economy, but her family was already filthy rich, so they'd make it.

Oh, do you see what I see?

Fen snapped back to the present. Once she had sorted out her own doubts about her future, the issue at hand between four crazy teenagers seemed way easier. Not easy, but a solution was possible.

"It's all up to you guys," she said to Cyzarine and Raizel.