(no subject)

[bondsoflove]

Characters: Sasuke, some poor NPCs, and you.
Open? Yes.
Where: An alley.
When: RD15, late morning.
What: Stop the Knight of Fire from gutting an NPC and wearing their intestines as a belt! Or don't, whatever you want.
Warnings: Possibly violence.

They would never see him coming. 

He shook the girls with clones, sending one of them to the markets and one of them to the tavern to flirt, chat and brood in the way they find so attractive. He slunk off into the castle by using Naruto's prank jutsu--who would have known it would actually be useful?--to turn himself into a girl with long lashes, an hourglass figure, and waves of black hair like his mother. 

He made the tailor stammer by leaning forward and displaying cleavage, but it meant he got a display model of a tunic and leggings without having to wait to have flames embroidered around the edges, and a good solid pair of leather boots to go with it. He changed in his room at the Heroes' Headquarters, releasing the jutsu first so he'd actually fit into the clothing, and after tying the handkerchief Bakura had given him around his face to obscure his features and strapping his broadsword to his back, he set off towards the seedier areas of town. 

It didn't take long for him to find his target. A man, slow-moving with a mean glint in his eyes and hands that kept straying to the front of his pants every time a girl walked by. 

Sasuke crept up behind him and jabbed the soft tissue under his jaw, stunning him for the drag into the alleyway. And he waited. 

He wanted to see the light in the man's eyes go out.

Comments

[shiromadoushi]

There was the feel of something... not right.

It had been plaguing Bakura all day, enough so that he went out for a walk to try and escape it.

Only it hadn't gone away. It'd gotten worse. If he were in an RPG (a video game type, not this odd mock up of a LARP) that nagging NPC guide would be fluttering in his vision like a hyperactive child pointing at the exclamation point in the distance. Hey! Listen! Hey! Hey!

Finally, he gave into the railroading, heading for that bouncing exclamation point.

"Someone there?" he called, giving whatever it was a warning before peering into the alley.

[bondsoflove]

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder. Bakura. He grinned, although it would be invisible with the mask, and poked the NPC's boot with the tip of his sword.

"Came to see what happens?" he asked, voice a shade hungry. "I'm waiting for him to wake up."

[shiromadoushi]

"...what happens when what...?" Bakura asked cautiously.

[bondsoflove]

"When I kill him." Another prod, and the NPC jerked a little, but didn't wake. Maybe Sasuke had stunned him too hard... "Think he'll bleed? Or will he just dissolve into ink and paper?"

[shiromadoushi]

....shit.

"They bleed and die like normal people, Sasuke..." Bakura pointed out, voice soft. "This is their world, after all..."

[bondsoflove]

His eyes narrowed, and this time he kicked the NPC in the shins, hard enough to bruise. It drew a groan, but still no consciousness.

"It's a fucking book," he replied, equally quiet, but much more dangerous. "It doesn't matter what happens to characters in a fucking book. And in the real world, people are slaughtered for no reason every fucking day."

BTW, assume this is all in Japanese. Since it would be.

[shiromadoushi]

"And you want to be just like those people? Killing for no reason other than to see what happens?" Bakura asked, a note of something cold in his voice. "Causing pain and destruction to people just because they aren't as real as you are, not knowing or caring if they have their own existence that feels just as real to them as ours does to us?"

[somewhatpointy]

In a place like this, sometimes it paid to keep moving. To keep looking for something, anything that might be interesting. Ryo wasn't the sort to really care what the townspeople thought, and so he moved pretty openly through all the parts of the town, heedless of what they might say if a hero was running around in a particularly seedy area. He wasn't on his horse today, at least, choosing instead to get a little exercise and walk on foot. Still, the day seemed like it would be another boring one...

...or not. That was interesting. A dude with a handkerchief tied over his face dragging another unconscious dude into an alley. Yeah, that would definitely liven up the day. Ryo wasn't carrying any weapons; they'd given him a battle axe when he'd arrived, but he didn't need it. He was bad enough on his own when it came to hand-to-hand.

He approached the alley looking just as casual as if he were walking into a restaurant to see how long it would take him to get seated. Didn't take long at all for him to spot the two he'd seen enter earlier. "So what's going on here?"

[bondsoflove]

He recognized the face and the tone, from his arrival two days ago. Didn't associate overly positive feelings with the meeting, but that didn't matter as long as he didn't try to get in the way.

Sasuke touched the tip of the sword to the NPC's throat, just watching it glint. "I'm going to kill him when he wakes up, and see if he runs on blood or ink," he said, voice flat and dull. "Want to watch?"

[somewhatpointy]

Ryo didn't recognize the face thanks to the mask, but he thought he recognized the voice. Not like he cared at the moment, not with that tone. And really, anyone acting like this was going to irritate him...not like it took much to do that.

"Just a bored little serial killer in training, aren't you?" Ryo crossed his arms, weighing his options. He certainly didn't seem too worried. "Tell you what--how about instead, you just walk out of this alley and leave the guy alone?"

[bondsoflove]

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he pressed the sword a little harder, still not breaking skin.

"And if I don't?" He was sure he could fight the guy off, if it came to that; if nothing else, he could lop the NPC's head off if his opponent took a step.

[somewhatpointy]

Ryo studied the situation carefully. He was unarmed, the other guy had a sword...okay, yeah, there could be a problem there for some people. And for the unconscious NPC's sake, perhaps a bit of a distraction in order. "Well, if you don't..."

He spread his arms as though he were about to receive something. "HENSHIN!" If Sasuke watched, he would see Ryo glow a weird shade of green and sort of shift into some sort of humanoid bug-thing. The transformation was quick, almost instantaneous.

Ryo, now in his Rider form of Gills, growled softly at Sasuke to let him know just what he was getting into.

[bondsoflove]

Henge, Sasuke thought, although it was like nothing he'd seen anyone transform into before. Normally he'd take it on, but with his power drained, he wasn't sure it was worth the risk.

Carefully, he lowered the sword, then turned, and raised it again.

"What stake do you have in his life?" he asked.

[rutagraveolens]

It was Rue's second day in Schwanheim and it was still no less disorienting than the first. It was like the Capitol with all the people going about their business, gossiping and whispering, but yet not. It was much more simple, almost rustic, though compared to District Eleven, anything was nicer and fancier. Even the poorer district was nicer than the shacks families in District Eleven lived in. Everywhere she went, Rue looked around with wide eyes, amazed at everything she saw.

Whether there was a game or not, Rue wasn't sure. No one seemed to know anything about them, much less anything about Panem or the Capitol or the districts. A world without games... wasn't that what people whispered that was what the afterlife was? Maybe this was where people went after they died.

That was a question Rue wasn't wiling to ask yet. Later, but not now.

As she wanders around the city, she turns down an alley and sees a masked man standing over another, unconscious man. Before she can even stop herself, Rue's picks up a rock and throws it.

"Stop it! Leave him alone!"

[bondsoflove]

Reflexes as strong as ever, he blocked it with a clang of metal against the flat of the sword. The voice was high, childlike; a look over confirmed it was a child, the same girl with the dark eyes he'd spoken to over the orb the day before.

"This isn't your business," he called, flatly. Avenger or not, he remembered what it was like to be a child and see death.

[rutagraveolens]

Rue quickly scrambles for another rock, keeping her eyes on him even as she backs up slightly. She wasn't like most children; Rue had already seen death. Since she was old enough to remember, there were always games and there were always children dying. Once she was young enough to not understand why, but now she knew. She knew all too well.

And that was why she couldn't let someone else die.

"Why do you want to hurt him?"

[bondsoflove]

There were a million reasons. To prove I'm still strong was one of them. Because I can. Because my family demands blood. Because he looks like a man I hated. But what came to his lips was a familiar phrase--as much a lie then from his older brother as it was now, from himself.

"To measure my ability. Why do you care?"

[rutagraveolens]

"Because you shouldn't hurt people! It's not a game!" Shouts the little girl who had already seen too much blood and violence at age twelve. His reason made no sense. She knew careers trained as early as they could in preparation for the Hunger Games, and maybe they killed outside of the games as apart of their training, but it still didn't make it right.

[bondsoflove]

"I know." And he did, intimately. Death was a game to gods, but when it became one to men, the world turned sour.

He turned away from her and back to the man under him, prodding his boot again with the tip of his sword. "You should leave if you don't want to see it."

[emblazing]

"Sasuke."

It's firm, Daenerys walking purposely towards him in clothes she would have worn among the people of Qarth. Drogon on her shoulder, Viserion in her arms and Rhaegal on the wing. She stops short and watches him move the blade towards him, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you mean to kill him?"

[bondsoflove]

Sasuke smiled when he saw her, darkly--he dipped into a bow, one hand at his side and the other still holding the sword.

"Do you want his head when I'm done, Khaleesi?" he asked, and put the tip of the sword to the man's neck.

[emblazing]

"No, I would have you sheathe your sword and leave. They are not worth your blade. They are not the ones who brought us here, save your anger for them. "

Daenerys had blood on her hands. Not directly, but she had lain waste to cities before, had killed every slaver in Astapor, put the bodies of the slain at Mereen to show how she felt about those who enslaved others. It was justice, She had told herself. For the children.

This was nothing but wanton slaughter, and Daenerys would not partake in it.

[bondsoflove]

Her words gave him pause, although he didn't move his blade from where it rested. The NPC was still out cold--would probably remain so for a good ten minutes, at least. Save it for the ones who brought us here.

"I'm gathering intelligence," he said. "We don't even know if they can be killed." Ever so slightly, he increased pressure, but not enough to break skin. "It would be a waste of effort to try to take out our captors and find out after the fact that they don't bleed."

[emblazing]

"Then prick his skin and be done with it. That is sign enough. You need not take his life. " She said firmly, her features impassive. "Perhaps part of it was intelligence, that you were gathering, but perhaps half of it was that you are restless and eager to quell your anger." The Khaleesi had learned to become shrewd, to to calculate others natures because who could be trusted?

[bondsoflove]

"And if I am?"

Sasuke didn't move. Her expression was calm--it was refreshing to be looked at like a human, and not a wild, predatory animal. That alone kept his hand still, although it would take more to convince him to drop his steel.

He still wanted to feel the cut of blade through flesh.

"Collateral damage, Khaleesi," he added.