I wasn’t going to fight them, that implies I’d give them a chance to see me. My plan was to find them and stab them in the back while they were unaware.
[That’s not better, Edward! That really isn’t! This is not a stealth game!]
I’ve done that a thousand times before. [He did it to Teresa, he doesn’t say.] I figured—if it puts an end to this bloody scheme, fine, I just have to find them. I wanted to do it after Fugo, but Shroud was persuasive. [He threatened to do—exactly this, basically.]
But Rose was taken in the Vogue and now Wolfwood’s disappearance has left Auguries in such disarray—if they live, they’ll keep doing this, and who might be next?
[ Once Zulius is there, Lapis will hop off Edward's shoulder - shifting back into a human shape, arms folded over her chest as she narrows her eyes at the pirate. ]
I'll be transparent about this. Douman was my... mentor for a good few years and I can promise you, Edward, he'll kill you even if he can't see you. I can't speak for Dickson, but Douman will kill you. He might even make a game out of it.
[ There's no yelling, but there is anger there. Cold, blistering, furious that her friend would consider something so stupid. ]
I don't care who and when it worked before, it won't work now. [ She can understand his upset, she's furious too, but going after them alone was practically asking for death! ]
You make it sound like it's you or nothing, Edward. There's a lot of us who want them dead, but you can't do this alone!
Oh ew, Lapis, Sweetie, he sounds like the worst. Are you doing okay? Dealing with him showing up?
[Lapis checked up on, Zulius raises his hands skyward, waving them wildly. It's fine, he can do the yelling for all three of them. ]
That's CRAZY, Ed!!! You're CRAZY. Lapis is right, you can't just think that'd work! I'm GLAD Shroud stopped you. Because that's suicide. We've already had people taken by them, do you think any of us want you to go get yourself killed in this too? HUH?
[He STAMPS a hoof down. Luckily not on Edward's skull but the night's still young.]
I freaking know. I've come here from taking care of Vergil because I got word some dumbass was making stupid life choices. Spoilers, that's you. You know, they probs ARE gonna keep doing this, but we've gotta handle this together? Like, that's so obvious. Literally everything any of us have learned from living in this city is we've got strength in numbers. Trying to deal with this alone is crazy.
—he was your what. [Cool. Great. He will actually kill Douman if he sees him now or at least make a very determined attempt to do so. He almost offers to do that for Lapis before he remembers what they’re yelling at him for.]
I know we all want them dead, I know what we’re all capable of, but—I’ve seen this before, I’ve been through this before. I’ve lost people because of men like that before. [In a world without gold—
I’ll be with you—
(This is his fault, and he can never tell.)]
I don’t want to die. But I don’t want anyone else to die when I can do something about it. [And they both might be more than familiar with that—they were, all three of them, in the cabin.] And this is what I’m good at—better than the piracy, better than sailing, I know how to kill. [Sometimes he wonders if it might be the one thing he’s unambiguously good at.]
And I’m—I’m trying to be better at protecting. I know I’ve done a shite job of it lately. [Poor Dan Heng. Poor Jun. God.] I thought that the best way to keep the people I love safe is to take the threat out of the picture before it endangers you all. It already has.
[ Yeah she was... kind of dreading this reaction. She's absolutely not going into the specifics of what Douman has done to her but; ]
It's... we have some very bad history, at least from my end. My dad - Husk - and Jinwoo have been helping me a lot.
[ Aka she is very not fine, but this isn't about her right now. Instead she listens to Zulius as he yells enough for the both of them, before her eyes drift to Edward. And she... gets it. She really does.
Killing is what they're good at. And if they can't use that to protect the ones they love, what can they do? But he's putting himself at such a risk thinking this. ]
Edward, you can't. And what happened before isn't your fault, there's only so much we can do against people like this. They'll never listen to reason, and they'll never hesitate to spill blood if it will achieve their goals.
You can't take them out - [ This isn't like Teresa. ] - Douman will kill you, and he'll make an example out of you. If I could kill him on my own, I would have already.
[ The height of treasonous talk, but whatever. Her vitriol against Douman has never been a secret within the Order, even though she always simply obeyed before. ]
All this will do is hurt the people you're trying to protect, and put yourself at risk. We need to work together to take them out.
I was correct he IS the literal worst, BUT ANYWAY!!
[He can tell Lapis doesn't wanna talk about it and yelling at Edward is more important right now. It's important that Edward gets yelled at for being an absolute idiot. ]
SERIOUSLY listen to Lapis, she knows this. We've got a whole city full of people who can work together to fight these guys- like GENuninely have you ever seen anyone fight and win ANYTHING in this crazy place ALONE? Like think super hard!!! You've been here long enough to know we don't do this alone. So why are you thinking "welp, I guess I'm gonna do this by myself like a CRAZY person despite knowing NO ONE wants that and it WON'T WORK!", huh?
[He is having NONE of this insanity.]
You wanna get stomped on? Because this is how stupid, selfish people get stomped on!
[I killed Teresa on my own so. But he keeps quiet, and lets out a breath.
They're right. Damn it all, they're right. Edward hates this, and hates that he can't go after the zealots and just cut all this off at the roots before anyone else gets hurt. But they're right.]
I'm a bloody selfish bastard, you haven't figured that out yet, mate?
[There's no real bite to his remark, just an old bitterness at himself coming out. He pushes his fingers through his hair.]
I thought it would, all right? Certainly they're powerful, but they bleed the same as anyone, and if it bleeds it can die. That's what I was thinking. I didn't know what Lapis knows—and I trust what she says, that if she could've killed him on her own she would've. So. [With a very reluctant tone:] Fine. I won't go after them alone.
[Goddamned Shroud. He's gonna dump a can of paint on him.]
I'm used to working alone. Not here, but back home—most of those I've killed on land, I've killed on my own. [And sometimes casually, like checking off an item on a to-do list.] I didn't want to put you all at risk, not more than [I already have] you've already found yourselves in. So I fell back on what I knew best.
I've not worked together with anyone else to murder someone for—a long time, [and the last time had been when he and Mary had worked together to infiltrate a plantation and kill its master,] but I'm—willing.
[A tired breath.]
I can't find them anyway. I've looked through the tower and combed over the city.
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no subject
[That’s not better, Edward! That really isn’t! This is not a stealth game!]
I’ve done that a thousand times before. [He did it to Teresa, he doesn’t say.] I figured—if it puts an end to this bloody scheme, fine, I just have to find them. I wanted to do it after Fugo, but Shroud was persuasive. [He threatened to do—exactly this, basically.]
But Rose was taken in the Vogue and now Wolfwood’s disappearance has left Auguries in such disarray—if they live, they’ll keep doing this, and who might be next?
no subject
I'll be transparent about this. Douman was my... mentor for a good few years and I can promise you, Edward, he'll kill you even if he can't see you. I can't speak for Dickson, but Douman will kill you. He might even make a game out of it.
[ There's no yelling, but there is anger there. Cold, blistering, furious that her friend would consider something so stupid. ]
I don't care who and when it worked before, it won't work now. [ She can understand his upset, she's furious too, but going after them alone was practically asking for death! ]
You make it sound like it's you or nothing, Edward. There's a lot of us who want them dead, but you can't do this alone!
no subject
[Lapis checked up on, Zulius raises his hands skyward, waving them wildly. It's fine, he can do the yelling for all three of them. ]
That's CRAZY, Ed!!! You're CRAZY. Lapis is right, you can't just think that'd work! I'm GLAD Shroud stopped you. Because that's suicide. We've already had people taken by them, do you think any of us want you to go get yourself killed in this too? HUH?
[He STAMPS a hoof down. Luckily not on Edward's skull but the night's still young.]
I freaking know. I've come here from taking care of Vergil because I got word some dumbass was making stupid life choices. Spoilers, that's you. You know, they probs ARE gonna keep doing this, but we've gotta handle this together? Like, that's so obvious. Literally everything any of us have learned from living in this city is we've got strength in numbers. Trying to deal with this alone is crazy.
no subject
I know we all want them dead, I know what we’re all capable of, but—I’ve seen this before, I’ve been through this before. I’ve lost people because of men like that before. [In a world without gold—
I’ll be with you—
(This is his fault, and he can never tell.)]
I don’t want to die. But I don’t want anyone else to die when I can do something about it. [And they both might be more than familiar with that—they were, all three of them, in the cabin.] And this is what I’m good at—better than the piracy, better than sailing, I know how to kill. [Sometimes he wonders if it might be the one thing he’s unambiguously good at.]
And I’m—I’m trying to be better at protecting. I know I’ve done a shite job of it lately. [Poor Dan Heng. Poor Jun. God.] I thought that the best way to keep the people I love safe is to take the threat out of the picture before it endangers you all. It already has.
no subject
It's... we have some very bad history, at least from my end. My dad - Husk - and Jinwoo have been helping me a lot.
[ Aka she is very not fine, but this isn't about her right now. Instead she listens to Zulius as he yells enough for the both of them, before her eyes drift to Edward. And she... gets it. She really does.
Killing is what they're good at. And if they can't use that to protect the ones they love, what can they do? But he's putting himself at such a risk thinking this. ]
Edward, you can't. And what happened before isn't your fault, there's only so much we can do against people like this. They'll never listen to reason, and they'll never hesitate to spill blood if it will achieve their goals.
You can't take them out - [ This isn't like Teresa. ] - Douman will kill you, and he'll make an example out of you. If I could kill him on my own, I would have already.
[ The height of treasonous talk, but whatever. Her vitriol against Douman has never been a secret within the Order, even though she always simply obeyed before. ]
All this will do is hurt the people you're trying to protect, and put yourself at risk. We need to work together to take them out.
no subject
[He can tell Lapis doesn't wanna talk about it and yelling at Edward is more important right now. It's important that Edward gets yelled at for being an absolute idiot. ]
SERIOUSLY listen to Lapis, she knows this. We've got a whole city full of people who can work together to fight these guys- like GENuninely have you ever seen anyone fight and win ANYTHING in this crazy place ALONE? Like think super hard!!! You've been here long enough to know we don't do this alone. So why are you thinking "welp, I guess I'm gonna do this by myself like a CRAZY person despite knowing NO ONE wants that and it WON'T WORK!", huh?
[He is having NONE of this insanity.]
You wanna get stomped on? Because this is how stupid, selfish people get stomped on!
no subject
They're right. Damn it all, they're right. Edward hates this, and hates that he can't go after the zealots and just cut all this off at the roots before anyone else gets hurt. But they're right.]
I'm a bloody selfish bastard, you haven't figured that out yet, mate?
[There's no real bite to his remark, just an old bitterness at himself coming out. He pushes his fingers through his hair.]
I thought it would, all right? Certainly they're powerful, but they bleed the same as anyone, and if it bleeds it can die. That's what I was thinking. I didn't know what Lapis knows—and I trust what she says, that if she could've killed him on her own she would've. So. [With a very reluctant tone:] Fine. I won't go after them alone.
[Goddamned Shroud. He's gonna dump a can of paint on him.]
I'm used to working alone. Not here, but back home—most of those I've killed on land, I've killed on my own. [And sometimes casually, like checking off an item on a to-do list.] I didn't want to put you all at risk, not more than [I already have] you've already found yourselves in. So I fell back on what I knew best.
I've not worked together with anyone else to murder someone for—a long time, [and the last time had been when he and Mary had worked together to infiltrate a plantation and kill its master,] but I'm—willing.
[A tired breath.]
I can't find them anyway. I've looked through the tower and combed over the city.