RONIN
the white knight
you and I burned out our steam
Ronin flinches back at her words, eyebrows raising as if he's seeing Flora in a light he's suddenly unsure he finds flattering, his brows drawing together. "It's your friends that are on the line," he reminds her gently. "Do they know that? Have you told them, all of them? They might have already come to Haulani if so. But if it's your choice to stay outside, isn't it theirs as well? Going out and rounding them up would be the same as forcing you behind that barrier when you don't want it."
His immortality isn't something he's ever taken lightly, but knowing what it means if he does fall - seasons, likely, of being out of it, and not knowing what he might wake up to - isn't palatable either. "Right," he mutters, nodding and stepping back automatically as she advances forward. Coward. Manipulator. Privileged.
"It isn't manipulation to tell you the truth," he protests, though there's little heat to it, as if Flora's temper has battered his own down beneath the Arclight to snuff out. "If I thought it would have changed your mind I'd have said it a long time ago," he says, his voice rising only enough to be heard over the gale. "I told you because if you expect us to make that choice, you need to know that choosing to fight means our heads might not be in the game because of it." But her words fall like hail, stinging and relentless against bare flesh, and he lowers his gaze.
"Point taken," he says, of keeping himself on the bench. "I suppose that's my decision made, then. If nothing else, it means that if any backlash comes from Remi going to Starfall, I'll be around to ride it out here." Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, he wipes his hands against his pants. "And in the meantime, please. Be angry, hate us if that's how you feel, but gods, if anything happens, call us."
His immortality isn't something he's ever taken lightly, but knowing what it means if he does fall - seasons, likely, of being out of it, and not knowing what he might wake up to - isn't palatable either. "Right," he mutters, nodding and stepping back automatically as she advances forward. Coward. Manipulator. Privileged.
"It isn't manipulation to tell you the truth," he protests, though there's little heat to it, as if Flora's temper has battered his own down beneath the Arclight to snuff out. "If I thought it would have changed your mind I'd have said it a long time ago," he says, his voice rising only enough to be heard over the gale. "I told you because if you expect us to make that choice, you need to know that choosing to fight means our heads might not be in the game because of it." But her words fall like hail, stinging and relentless against bare flesh, and he lowers his gaze.
"Point taken," he says, of keeping himself on the bench. "I suppose that's my decision made, then. If nothing else, it means that if any backlash comes from Remi going to Starfall, I'll be around to ride it out here." Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, he wipes his hands against his pants. "And in the meantime, please. Be angry, hate us if that's how you feel, but gods, if anything happens, call us."
chasing someone else's dream
