pawnstorm | [OPEN] Far from Skid Row, I dream we'll go

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[OPEN] Far from Skid Row, I dream we'll go

Who: Robin Hood, and anyone unfortunate enough to be in his general vicinity
When: Nebulously between the arrival in Cochrane and now
Where: Gammon
What: Robin Hood is an idiot and a scoundrel, do not associate with him.
Rating: Probably not.

[Arriving in a whole new city is really exciting! For about 0.04 seconds, and then it's time to just immediately fuck off and go roughing it in the country. He's spent an entire month getting to know Caissa, and he'll probably go through a similar canvassing process for Cochrane, but...maybe later. For now, Robin can be found in the following places:]

i. hello from the other side (inn).

[If he's even here at all, it's probably either to sleep or to immediately leave as soon as he wakes up. He's only just gotten used to Caissa, so being shuffled off to another huge city is pretty irritating. And that's not even taking into account that he's expected to fight in some war - that part doesn't bother him as much as it might other people, but if he's going to have to do something unpleasant he might as well enjoy himself until then.

And that means not sticking around any longer than he has to, so he can probably be found doing things like sliding down banisters or jumping halfway down a set of stairs so he can spend 2 fewer seconds indoors on his way out. Watch out, guys.]

ii. tourist trap.

[The countryside of Gammon is supposed to be beautiful, and that's where Robin is spending the majority of his time. Maybe other people are, too! And maybe they're observant enough to notice the pitfall trap a few steps ahead of them, but if they aren't, they're gonna have a bad time.

It's not very deep, and it should be pretty easy to climb out of, unless someone particularly short falls in. It's an annoyance at worst, but what might be more annoying than the trap itself is Robin laughing at anyone unfortunate enough to fall for it from his perch in a nearby tree.

Should someone avoid the trap, it wouldn't be unnatural to look around for who set it up, and while Robin is mostly wearing green, that red hair of his sure stands out when someone is looking for it. For his part, he'll just give anyone who doesn't fall in the most disappointed look.]

iii. mission fae-led.

[When Robin isn't being a jackass to people he might not even know, he's...actually, he's always being a jackass to people he might not even know. And that's not even strictly limited to other people. Raised as a druid, he's always been particularly sensitive to fairies, and seeing as people shunned him for this ability, he tends to prefer the company of fairies to that of his fellow human beings.

The fairies in Blanc are...not exactly the same as the ones he's acquainted with, but similar enough to be comfortable with them. The fairies in Gammon are...to put it bluntly, less willing to put up with his bullshit than any of the other kinds he's met. That's why he's got one climbing up his back, and another one chasing his Carrier around. He looks like a babysitter who got stuck with two overbearing children.

Incidentally, the Carrier, for such a small bird, seems to be putting up a pretty good fight. It's a plucky little thing.]

iv. wildcard.

[hmu if you want to do something else instead!]

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....right, well.

[Moving on!]

I was looking for you, anyways. Have lunch with me?

I'll pass. This pitfall isn't gonna reset itself.

[If he's going to be fighting in a war, he may as well make sure he's up to his own...standards, when it comes to this sort of thing. Duping people into falling for a harmless trap like this so he can laugh at them is one of the only ways he knows how to feel even a little less worthless for relying on things like this.]

Besides, I make it a general rule not to let anyone I've pissed off recently treat me to anything.

[His general rule is not to let anyone treat him to anything, ever, actually, but it's close enough.]

I brought it with me, so we can eat here.

[She pats the bag on her back, grateful that she at least fell forward rather than backwards.]

Besides, if I haven't born a grudge until now, you being a pervert shouldn't be enough to tip the scales, should it?

Here's a hint from someone who's been around a lot longer than you, kid. If you want someone to spend time with you, maybe don't call them a pervert.

[He hasn't left yet, which is probably a good sign, but he has absolutely no intention of eating anything she's brought with her.]

Here's a hint from somebody who's been around for less than a year. If you don't want someone to call you a pervert, maybe don't look up their skirt multiple times.

If you don't want people looking up your skirt, don't climb all over them while they're upside-down. The only way I could look to see what was going on was up, you know.

[He fusses with a small pile of sticks, working on remaking the cover for the pitfall.]

For some insane reason, I thought you might at least hesitate to comment on it.

[She watches him work with obvious interest, shuffling up behind him and shifting her weight from hip to hip as she waits for him to finish.]

I mean, you went a while without doing it, I'll give you that.

And, to be fair, I was kind of rescuing you, so don't forget—

[Quick as a bunny, there's a small foot planted in his back, with a surprising amount of force almost entirely focused and trained thanks to Jae-ha, in an effort to knock him into his own pit.

She keeps speaking, without the slightest pause.]

—you kind of owe me for that. I helped save your dignity, you know?

[>implying he ever had any in the first place

It takes him a minute to orient himself when he suddenly finds himself flat on his face in a pitfall of his own design, but when he straightens up to face her, there's a steely wariness in his eyes. He's more or less unhurt, but this only serves as a reinforcement of his paranoid belief that he can't let his guard down for even a second. It might seem ridiculous to other people - all Hakuno did was give him a harmless shove, after all, but that he dropped his guard enough for her to do it is...

It's terrifying, frankly, because after two years of living in situations where something like this would get him killed, he doesn't know how else to respond to it.

Something has snapped shut, as sudden and viciously as a bear trap.]

Like hell I owe you for anything.

[Hakuno settles down on the edge of the pitfall, her knees together but her feet swinging idly—just shy of giving him his third show. She leans forward to look down at him, her chin braced on the heel of her palm. The sunlight filtering down from the trees dapples her with light, making her eyes seem a bit deeper, a bit darker, but also catching on something not quite hidden by her neckline and glinting red.

His pendant.

After a moment, she breaks the thoughtful little silence she had subsided into as she effectively stripped him with her gaze.]

Mm. You don't. It's more the other way around, all things considered. But, unfortunately, it turns out I'm actually a really selfish, stubborn person; even if you ask, I don't think I can leave you alone or let you shove me away.

What makes you think we're close enough for you to even be in shoving distance?

[As far as Robin is concerned, as long as he'd still be willing to kill someone if it benefited him, they're not friends. And so far, there isn't a single person here who's met that criteria. Not even Hakuno.]

You're just about the closest thing I have to a childhood friend.

[Is she... joking? Is that a sad, terrible truth? Maybe. She blinks, and tilts her head.

Maybe.]

And, you're also somebody I was really jealous of, a little bit. There wasn't really a time to tell you that, back then, but it got worse the longer I fought.

Yeah, my position was really something to be envied, all right. Who wouldn't want to be thrust into some pointless war with a Master who forced their loss?

[Who wouldn't want to have to come to terms in the worst way possible that you're useless without all of the things about yourself that you hate? As easy as it is to blame Blackmore for taking away his way of fighting back, the fact that he didn't have anything else is ultimately what cost them the second round.

Two years of hell define Robin's entire existence. Take that away, and there's nothing left - there's nothing to be jealous of.]

...how big was that village?

[She doesn't expect him to answer. She would fall over in shock if he did, honestly, so she continues on, her soft, quiet voice piercing in the stillness of the afternoon.]

A thousand? A hundred? ...more than just two people, right?

[Her mouth twists into something that could almost be called a smile, if it weren't so... bitter isn't the right word. It's a breed of bitterness, a kissing-cousin to it, shot through with a generous helping of naked self-loathing.]

Even if you hated every moment... even if there was only survival to cling to and desperately stumble towards, no matter how much you wanted to... to find some other way. In the end, even if they would have cut you down themselves, given half the chance—you managed to save them. Maybe they resented you, and for all I know you could have regretted it in those last, those last, lonely seconds, but—

[Her voice cuts out. Helplessly, brokenly, all she can say is—]

...did you know? The opponents I faced... before you, and directly after. Both of them were just children.

Edited 2016-08-17 04:07 (UTC)

You don't get to talk about me like you understand.

[His tone is carefully neutral; Hakuno is treading on very shaky ground, but he tries to put his thoughts into words anyway.]

I don't really care about what happened to you, or who you happened to kill. You would have died if you hadn't killed them, right?

[It's not anything to be proud of, that's for sure, but...]

Sitting here feeling sorry for yourself is the same thing as insulting them, insulting me, and insulting my Master. You have a lot of nerve to sulk like this when you killed all of us for the sake of your own survival. I mean, I know I'm not worth the effort, but if you really care about those kids, then shut up and get over it. They didn't die just so you could throw a goddamn pity party.

[Bite your tongue and keep going, even if it's the most miserable experience of your life. Once someone else's life is on your shoulders, you can't afford to feel sorry for yourself anymore.

Robin's first victim was the man he'd been, so maybe that's why it's easier for him to detach himself from the people he killed. Maybe he just got used to it, maybe it was because never having any meaningful relationships meant he didn't think too hard about permanently snuffing out other people's. Whatever the case, this is probably the only advantage he has, from an emotional standpoint.

It's really, really easy not to feel anything at all. Not for himself, and not for the girl sitting at the edge of the pit.]

If you were just going to end up like this, you should have let me kill you.

That's why I'm jealous. In the end, I did kill all of you. Every last one of those 999 lives, those 128 Servants—my survival meant that you all were reduced to a price tag. A number, when in the end that's really all I was. And, worst still, I—...for a moment, when I made my wish, I considered... considered fixing that. But, in the end, I had you all serve as the price for protecting a world I will never know myself.

...it was scary, but when the Moon Cell started to delete me I was almost—

[She cuts herself off, a strange smile settling on her lips. And suddenly the softness is gone, and it's like he's looking up at a doll, something cool and with hard edges. Her own way of closing up, and perhaps it makes it obvious that rather than just being foolish or hopeful, she had been making a very difficult choice to heedlessly trust him up until now.]

Well. I suppose it doesn't matter. I'd rather kill you a fourth time and hate myself even more rather than forfeit my own right to mourn. You don't get to look down on me for my feelings.

[And maybe, maybe he said the wrong thing too. Poked somewhere he shouldn't have. Because—]

...just so you know, even if you had killed me and gotten to the Core, Dan Blackmore would have been slaughtered at the cusp of victory for being too good a man to parrot the wish of a war-driven ghost to the Moon Cell. So, if nothing else, even if I'm a half-baked Master who doesn't know anything, I'm glad I spared you that.

Uh, considering I'm one of the people you killed so you could sit on your ass and cry about it, yeah, I actually do get to look down on you. It's not like my life ever meant anything anyway, but I thought maybe it might amount to something if you won the Grail War.

[Of course it wouldn't. Nothing he's done has ever been worth anything.]

At this point, what you're describing sounds like it would've been way better than what actually happened. Guys like my Master just love throwing themselves onto their own swords for their own pride or ideals, and it wouldn't have been my fault for being so useless if he went out like that.

[He leans against the wall of the pit, staring at the other side of it, muttering something. He doesn't intend for Hakuno to hear it, but if she's paying attention, it's barely audible.]

...I'm not even good enough for some stray bits of data to use as a foothold.

[But that's okay, isn't it? If he doesn't care either way, then it should be fine. It's not like he has anything to be proud of, anyway, so more of the same shouldn't be this upsetting.

But it is.

Maybe he'll just stay in this pit for a while.]

That's not what I'm upset about, you stupid—

[There's an edge, now, one that always crops up for some reason when she thinks about Twice H. Pieceman. She doesn't have the words to explain how or why even his memory is enough to get her hackles raising, but here and now that and Robin's entire demeanor so far is enough. Too much.

She throws her shoe at his big dumb head, suddenly furious.]

Moron! Idiot! Bark-for-brains!

[There goes the other shoe, thrown even harder.]

You aren't listening at all! You just zoomed in on something that I already came to terms with, and dug it up but—idiot, I'm jealous because in the end, your life meant more than mine!

[Both of Hakuno's shoes hit their mark, and Robin tosses them back up a few moments later, almost like he's daring her to throw them again.]

That's a nice thing to say, but you're wrong.

[This is a knot that's too big for one person to untangle. He didn't have any friends, or anyone that he cared about. His only family died when he was young. Claiming the mantle of Robin Hood was something he did out of a sense of obligation, not out of any genuine affection for the people living in the village, and while he never expected anything in return, he never expected them to react the way they did, either.

In the end, he was an inconvenience. By trying to help them, he just focused more negative attention onto them, which gave him a lot more to retaliate against, which - well. He can't blame the villagers for siding with the people who were in a better position to provide for them, even if he doubted they'd really be provided for.

On top of that, if one were to look into the legend of Robin Hood, all they'd be able to find were tales of a completely different person. Someone who was the hero his people deserved, and someone that this incarnation had tried to emulate. There's no record of the person he was before then, of course.

He's not sure he remembers what his name was anymore, anyway.

There's no trace of anything he ever did. No lasting impact on anyone. If anyone deserves the title of Heroic Spirit the least, it's him, because despite all his efforts, nothing changed. Even after being summoned, all he could do was flail uselessly for two weeks.

So when he disagrees with her, he says it with more conviction than anything else he's said. No matter how many times Hakuno insists to the contrary, he's not in a state to accept any other viewpoint. He might not ever be.]

My life wasn't worth a damn thing. It still isn't.

Then, enjoy it now that things are different.

[She fights with the urge to yank at her own hair, unspeakably frustrated at this downward spiral of a conversation. She can't refute him without anything that she said just going in one ear and out the other. Certainly, she herself knows that feeling of utter impermanence, of the haunting certainty that in the end, she barely made a ripple for all that she stopped a typhoon.]

...do you want the rope?

No. I'll get out myself.

[He says that, but he doesn't move, except to pull the hood of his cloak over his head.]

Go eat your lunch, kid. I don't know why you were looking for me in the first place, but I don't really care anymore.

[It will be a pain to get out himself, but if the intent is to put distance between them, he can't just let her close that gap.]

Fine.

[Suit yourself, Robin; Hakuno certainly is.

She shifts her bag off her back and digs out her wrapped lunch, crossing her legs at the knee and apparently fully willing to enjoy her nice little meal here. At the cusp of a pit.]

[No...Hakuno...you were supposed to leave...

While she eats, Robin pulls out a hunting knife and sharpens a couple of sticks. He's not leaving until she does, but he only has so many sticks, so he'll probably run out of things to do eventually.]

[Don't tell her what to do, you loser?

She's perfectly happy, sitting right here, enjoying her nice, extra large, perfectly enough for two people, lunch.]

[Ugh you're gonna get fat!!!

The silence is nigh unbearable, but he's already decided he's not going to be the one to break it, so he starts shoving the sticks into the side of the pit opposite from where Hakuno is sitting. There are maybe three or four of them that are thick enough to hold his weight for even a second, so he's got to make this count. He's really got to find something better than sticks for this kind of situation, but...it'll do for now.

Barring that, he could just do it the old-fashioned way, but climbing up a dirt wall sucks, so if he can make this work, he'd much rather just be able to use footholds instead.]

[OPEN] Far from Skid Row, I dream we'll go

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