solipsistically | IC Inbox

So you think you're... what, above the possibility of being hit by this?

[Five, are you stupid? He knows you've done the solitary hitman life for, like, a whole age at this point, but honestly. Auditory powers don't sound like something anyone can just avoid, if you ask him.]

No, you plebeian. I'm just smart enough to stay out of the line of fire. I have to hear it to be affected, and I have to be near the asshole to hear it. This is not rocket science, Diego. Even you could do this math.

You're really trusting the news to keep you out of the line of fire? Come on, Five. How many times did we stop idiots like this as kids? How many times were the news crews actually that on top of it all?

In case you haven't noticed, we're down by several members of the team. Klaus is in no shape to fight and Allison and Luther aren't even here. The reason we were as successful as we were when we were kids is that we had a well-oiled machine.
We basically had this guy in our back pocket, with Number Three.

I don't feel terribly inclined to leaving the apartment if I don't need to and I'm so tired of cleaning up everyone else's messes at this point in my life, Diego. You want to go take him down, be my guest, but be careful. If I need to go out, I'll do it if I know I won't run into him.

I'm not a hero, Number Two. I haven't been in a very long time.

Yeah, well, Allison can't exactly do that anymore, even if she was here, can she?

[There's an instant twist in the hollow of his chest at those words even existing in the universe. Even if it's one his sister doesn't currently, and may never, inhabit. Even if Allison doesn't have any way to know he'd said it, ever. It's a sharp spike of guilt that jolts to the front of everything as soon as that text was sent.

The sharpness of that pain doesn't ease for the last of Five's words, either.

I'm not a hero, Number Two.

Yeah... neither is Diego.
Not really.
Not anymore.

But for all his bluster, and adamant vehemence against their father, Diego had never truly let go of the ideals Reginald had carved into them. All the training, all the hero talk, it never left him, even as he left that house, that family, that life all behind thirteen years ago.

The idea that his purpose for existing was to save people was burned into his bones.]

Fine. Whatever.

I know that. You're only proving my point. We're not in a good place to take this on right now. We're too out of sync and people are missing.

[ To be honest, he expects the blow-off when he doesn't respond the way he knows Diego probably wants him to. For all the competing he'd done with Luther growing up, they're so much alike. They believe so strongly that all those years of training meant that they have a purpose to save people; that it's all they're good for.

Number Five is better at killing people than saving them. ]

Don't be stupid about it if you're going out there.

But we're not.

[It's an instant, knee-jerk, default response and he immediately remembers that... Five wasn't there, for the last eight months. He doesn't know.]

In the last place-- we were mostly there. When I first got there, all seven of us were there. Then Vanya disappeared. Then you-- a version of you-- whatever. Then Vanya showed up again, but didn't remember the first time she was there. So we had six of us.

And there were threats there, too. Things that the displaced there came together to take on and fight. And that's the thing... we weren't as out of sync as you'd think. Not us three. Luther, Allison, and me. In a fight, it was like slipping on an old glove, perfect fit.

[And there hasn't been enough time between these two universes for any kind of romanticized coloring of events to have taken place over his memories, it's just... the truth.]

I'm not an idiot, Five.

Yeah, well. I haven't slipped on that glove in longer than you've been alive. Dealing with Vanya was a little different.

[ But also...not really. Not that different. The only real difference is that Vanya is his sister and he loves her. He loves her maybe more than he loves the rest of them because when they were little, he always felt weirdly responsible for her in a way that none of the others seemed to, except for maybe Number Six now and again. He doesn't love these people; they're strangers to him. His siblings, sure, he'd never admit it but he'd die for them. But for the other Displaced? For the locals? He doesn't fight for people anymore unless they matter to him. None of these people matter to him. ]

Yes, you are, but that's not what I meant. I mostly meant just don't be too impulsive if you're going on your own. This guy seems pretty low-level and the worst I'm guessing is you'll end up doing something heinously embarrassing, but all the same. Just be careful.

And remember...you don't owe these people anything, Number Two.

Was it, really?

[He's not sure it was. And goddammit, he hates the fucking universe. Every single time he'd tried to start doing better with her, something came up. And wasn't it just fitting that the last time saw him shipped off to an entirely different universe, to boot?]

Fuck you.
I'll be fine.

We didn't owe people back home anything either

I happen to give a shit about Vanya, so yeah. It was different.

[ Rolling his eyes to himself, Five shakes his head. Luther Junior over here wants to play the hero, that's on him. ]

No, but we were too young and stupid to know that.

Don't do that.

[Things are different, in Five's last memories than Diegos-- those months he wasn't around.... fuck this imbalance of time discrepancy is going to be annoying to deal with, isn't it?]

I guess.

Don't do what? Be honest? Okay. Good talk, Diego.

You're not the only one that cares about her, okay?

When did I say that I was? Read it again, Diego. I care about Vanya, that's why fighting for her was different.
I couldn't give less of a shit about the people here if you paid me to try. I'm not fighting for them.

Okay.

[He's really just touchy because-- well, when isn't he? But especially on the topic of their sister, who he had spent the greater part of the last four or so months on the most precarious edge with. He hates how hard every inch of progress they made with each other was. He hates that was all ripped away from him by virtue of showing up here. He regrets not trying harder, and doing better with her, sooner, now. And he hates that there's no guarantee she'll remember a single ounce of it if she ever were to show up here.

But none of that really has anything to do with Five at all. He's just unwittingly managed to hit a sore spot and Diego, being Diego, reacted instantly.]

Right.
I get it.

Jesus, Diego. Go do what you need (or I guess want) to do, just be careful. Me? I'm not going out except for my morning coffee. EPD is on their own.

[Read @ 8:36pm]

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