Niles // Zero (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cyclopticsadist) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
middaeg2020-04-26 09:59 pm
cyclopticsadist) wrote in middaeg2020-04-26 09:59 pm
Final exit before toll.
Who: Niles and Azura
When: Backdated 4-22
Where: Princes House (+ Niles)
What: Niles is about to break a bunch of laws and doesn't want to drag anyone down with him.
Warnings: Possible discussion of torture?
[With a concrete plan, a date, finally in place, days are suddenly moving quickly for Niles. It's his birthday before he knows it, and it hits him that a step he's been putting off has to be today. He didn't think Azura knew his birthday, but that damnable other him may well have blabbed. He needs to end their bond and needs to do it before any potential birthday celebrations or gifts came his way. It had to be this morning. It had to be before breakfast.
He gets up, and starts putting together sentences in his head as he gets dressed. When she gets out of the shower he's got the brush in his hand and is tending to his tail. Gaze alternating between his task and her face, he speaks.]
I'm making my move on Linden soon.
When: Backdated 4-22
Where: Princes House (+ Niles)
What: Niles is about to break a bunch of laws and doesn't want to drag anyone down with him.
Warnings: Possible discussion of torture?
[With a concrete plan, a date, finally in place, days are suddenly moving quickly for Niles. It's his birthday before he knows it, and it hits him that a step he's been putting off has to be today. He didn't think Azura knew his birthday, but that damnable other him may well have blabbed. He needs to end their bond and needs to do it before any potential birthday celebrations or gifts came his way. It had to be this morning. It had to be before breakfast.
He gets up, and starts putting together sentences in his head as he gets dressed. When she gets out of the shower he's got the brush in his hand and is tending to his tail. Gaze alternating between his task and her face, he speaks.]
I'm making my move on Linden soon.
no subject
Define "move," exactly.
[ She grabs her own brush and stars running it through her hair, looking at him through the mirror over the sink.
If he's going to bring up the big discussions when she's in a towel and getting ready, she won't stop her routine. Gosh. ]
no subject
No. You shouldn't know details.
[That is how it has been, and how it should stay. But he understands what she's asking]
What I mean is, soon I will be on the run. A wanted criminal.
no subject
[ said without missing a beat ]
Why are you doing something ridiculous like running?
no subject
Wanted is what matters. So far my activities haven't affected you, but once I take what I need, it will be inevitable.
[He's fiddling with the tip of his tail in his lap now, running a finger over the edge of the stinger thoughtfully.]
If we are still bonded.
no subject
[ honestly dude
Azura's short hair has made her morning routines much quicker, but she goes through the motions of re-brushing her hair while she talks. Stalling. ]
Reconsider, perhaps.
no subject
Azura. He can put me back there. [And fear.] And he will.
no subject
Then tell someone else, tell the other council members what he's done--because gods forbid someone with his temperament end up on our local government--Let me tell someone about this, if you don't want to handle this, avoid him, do anything besides going out and making a mess of everything you've built up in the time you've been here, honestly, Niles!
[ Her voice is frustrated, but not unkind. She knows, she knows, but the fact that he feels like this is his only option is ridiculous. ]
no subject
[That frustration is echoed back to her across their bond, and in Niles' voice. He crosses his arms, and his tail slides off his lap as it flicks to the side, thumping gently against the side of the bed.]
As you pointed out, I'm already a criminal. I killed a man in the black city, kidnapped Connor, stolen more than a few things, and what I've already done to Linden clearly qualifies as stalking and harassment.
[And at the outpost he was actively assisting a necromancer, but she doesn't need to know about that. No one needs to know about that.]
Need I remind you that the original illusion was set up by a Coven fae? Linden broke no laws torturing me. If this is all explained to the authorities, he won't be the one getting punished. I shot him with a gun I was trying to steal, remember?
[He's never had help from law enforcement, and has long distrusted the Coven, despite their generosity. He's thought this through, he's been looking for a way out recently now that his blood lust and cravings for vengeance had faded. But no matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, it always came back to needing to cripple Linden's magic permanently, which the Coven would never do.]
1/2
[ gods, gods, why is he being so thick-headed about this, why can't he see that there are obvious ways out that don't involve more blood being spilled? ]
So--why are you so opposed to that, anyway? If you're so against doing jailtime, turn him in and then leave!
[ Azura slips past him into the bedroom and starts rifling around in her dresser for her clothes. ]
no subject
And then it's gone. Her voice sounds clipped and measured. ]
...you could have asked me for help. For some better way of dealing with this. Months ago. In fact, I should have been the first person you asked. And don't say that you didn't want to get me involved. I was involved the day it happened.
no subject
[Niles flinches at the anger, but he doesn't back down. Whatever the case may have been at the time, going to the coven now is not an option and she knows it.]
...The agreement I remember making was that you wouldn't help me, but that you understood why I had to retaliate. Please don't stand in my way.
no subject
[ like, you know, intimidation that doesn't involve actual de-fingering. she's not above that, at this point. ]
You can't possibly expect me to let you walk out, now.
no subject
1/2 again
Then you expected far too much of me.
[ Ah, it's really going this way, isn't it? ]
You're asking me to detach from you while I still can, aren't you? That's the part you don't understand, here. I can't. I've already gone past that point.
[ She's been dancing around saying it, because there's been no point in saying it to him when he understands 'not saying it' perfectly fine, that's the whole base of why they get along so well, but if he sounds so final about this, about going off and doing whatever he wants to do and telling her all of this, then, then--she wants to say it. ]
It's because, I...I--
2/3 i lied
I...
[ Why is it so hard to just say it? To him, specifically. She doubts she would have this much trouble saying it to Corrin if prompted. ]
I cannot possibly detach myself from you, because despite the opinions you have about yourself, I heavily disagree, and...
[ Just say it.
Just say it.
Just say it. ]
3/3
[ she sounds tired. her voice comes out weary, like saying that much knocked the wind out of her. she averts her eyes because there's no possible way she can look at him right this second, and her fingers curl in her now-rumpled dress. ]
no subject
He walks over to her gingerly, and kneels at her side.]
And I you. [He's not yet able to say it directly. Less out of belief in the fact itself, and more in not thinking it could ever sound sincere coming from his lips.] But. [He hangs his head.] I can't let him have this power over me.
no subject
...then why won't you let me help you?
[ If she has to go out and put her lance up to someone's neck and strike fear of the gods into them for him, she will. She knows how to, especially after what happened in the dungeons earlier this year. ]
no subject
[If she was willing to participate, there were gentler tactics that could be used for Myr. With Mello gone, needing to keep him occupied was an old problem rearing its head once more.
He takes a deep steadying breath and reaches up for her hand without lifting his gaze from the floor.]
You don't have to help with the violence, but you must understand there is no pacifist solution here.
no subject
[ Azura hesitates, but she grimaces and tugs her hand away from him, crossing her arms.]
Can you not just frighten him? Scare the daylights out of him so that he never thinks of crossing you again?
no subject
[He folds his arms across his own chest and stands, turning away from her.]
Leo taught me a great many things about tactics. Bluff strikes and intimidation are useful tools, but when your enemy has a super-weapon? The power to quickly and completely send you to your own personal hell? A preventative strike is the only option.
no subject
A preventative measure...
Ah. Fuck. Is being around him making her automatically think of violence as the answer, here, or did her time in the torture dungeon just tinge her way of thinking, a little?
Why can't she just try diplomacy? It's basic politeness.
Azura tugs on her dress and clears her throat. ]
Then let me talk to him. I've spoken with him before, during the storm a while back, and he was perfectly civil with me. If he's not willing to extend that to you, he's willing to extend it to me. If not him, then whoever he's Bonded to. Whoever they might be--I'm sure they don't want to see the aftermath of whatever it is you have planned.
[ He gets what she's saying, right? Get whoever L is Bonded to to convince him to leave Niles alone.
And vice versa. Christ, both of you. ]
no subject
And now she was looking for some way to shield him from all of it. At the mention of L's bonded, of Myr, his focus on her breaks, and his face turns towards the window. He'd spoken to Myr already, more than once, so he knows how open the faun would be to trying. There was a degree to which he trusted Myr. Or at least, trusted Myr's hold over L. He'd watched them both long enough to see just how much L changed when his bonded was around. On his best behavior. Desperate for approval. It...could work.
But would it be any better? That just shifted the power from L's hands to Myr's. Myr, who'd now seen it himself. Myr, who was undoubtedly harsher than he presented himself. Myr who had enough in common with L that he'd bonded to the man. He shakes his head. It would work, but it's not what he wants. He wants no one to have that power over him, full stop. And his way was the only way to make that a reality.
As she finishes up, ties her ribbon and begins to pull on her gloves, he opens the window.]
I'm sorry, Azura.
[And then he jumps out of it, landing on the ground a story below and vanishing into a nearby alleyway.]
no subject
Fuck. What is with this dick and jumping out of windows?
Azura's dressed now, that's a small blessing, so she doesn't hesitate to run out of the house and immediately go looking for him like a house cat that's mistakenly escaped, criss-crossing allies and streets and shouting at the top of her voice, trying to trace him by their bond. ]
Niles! Niles!
[ She has no idea where he went, or if he plans on coming back home, so it turns into a wild goose chase, but she ends up being out for a better portion of the morning and afternoon looking for him before she gives up, exhausted. ]