02. most love like hunters

[worthy]

comment with a character and a month in your subject line. additional prompts or specific scene set-ups optional. receive tags. profit. ♥

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eric bana :U

[prevented]

[Out of Dekim's clutches, Mariemaia can't help but feel lost in the world. She's not even a decade old and yet there's no one on Earth and space who doesn't harbor her some ill will. It's hard for a child to have no playmates, to feel absolutely alone. The lady who has chosen to try and be her mother is clumsy at best. She knows the woman is trying but...

It's just not fair. Why does she have to be hidden away? Kept behind closed doors without company besides tutors sworn to secrecy? The lady doesn't come to see her often. Once a month at most.

Please understand. We have to let things die down first. Soon, you'll have a new name. Soon, you can be out there again. Just not now.

There's only so much that she can bear. As another night falls, she decides to take fate into her own hands. Sneaking into the back of her tutor's car, she leaves the manor that has become her prison. When her poor mentor stops for gas, she bursts from the back seat and dashes out. There's a high-pitched scream behind her and the sound of a body hitting the floor in a faint. Mariemaia doesn't even look back. She just keeps running.]

( out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing. )

[argents]

[ Banagher senses something different long before he's consciously aware of what it actually is. No matter how many times he's been subject to the vague workings of his own mind, he's not yet really come to learn how to utilize it, recognize it beyond the feeling of being called to.

For him, it's dangerous to wander. In less kind terms, he is simply not allowed. It came with the territory of playing keeper to one of the most dangerous weapons of the time, and regardless of the fact that he has little will to use it to its end, he's a risk, plain and simple. But there are spaces of time where he manages to evade his keepers, and wander is what he does, slowly at first. Through warm evening streets lighting up to fend away the approaching darkness, past an assortment of milling people. Like being pulled by something--no... ]

Who?

[ Someone. ]

[prevented]

[The answer to his question soon smacks right into him, stumbling backward and falling. She gets up with fingers curling into bleeding palms to form fists, a casualty of hitting the rough asphalt. With red hair kissed by flame and an icy glare, the little girl bites back a sob born both of pain and frustration.]

Watch yourself, idiot!

[She was meant to rule. To lead. To govern everyone and everything. Now, what's left of her? Her grandfather's words still echo in her head every single day.

We can always find another Mariemaia.]

[argents]

[ Okay, so he hasn't gotten the whole finding the object of his brain's whims down to an exact science yet. Demonstrated by the fact that he's physically cowed by their collision and his "Watch out!" falls just short of actually preventing it.

Banagher fumbles backwards without taking the fall she does, and once he realizes what he's unwittingly caused, he's down on one knee in front of her with his hands outstretched like he's trying to contain a particularly distressed little bird. ]

I'm sorry! I just... [ Well, nevermind what he was doing. Banagher reaches out. ] Are you hurt?

[prevented]

What do you think?

[How dare you! Don't you know who I am? Don't you know who my father is? she wants to yell. Biting her tongue, she thinks better of it. If he does know, it will be the end of her. In the best case scenario, she'd be taken back to the manor and end up with fortified security. And in the worst? She can already picture a mob clamoring for her head on a spike.]

You didn't do much harm. I'm fine.

[The phantom pain of the old bullet wound at her side is acting up again though and she grits her teeth. It's been a full six months since the incident in Brussels and yet the ache remains.]

[argents]

[ Recognition does pass through eyes, though it's nothing so sharp or immediate that it prompts a full reaction out of him. Just a silent spike of consideration. Hasn't it always been this way though, dealing with harsh words and strong personalities stretched thin over old wounds?

Banagher's not sure how he knows, but he does. He's still focused on the unforgiving red that seeps out from between her clenched fingers. ]

Even if that's true, I can't let you go like this! It's my fault, so...

[prevented]

So what? What can a useless boy like you do?

[The rage she's kept pent up for months is coming out in full force. The last time she was out was the former queen's birthday party. She can still feel the sting from the woman's slap against her face during the siege in Brussels. But yes, Mariemaia had smiled as she sat in her wheelchair, acting as an object of pity. Of course, there was no way things were going to go well. The Epyon de Talos had attacked and the rest was a blur. The last thing she remembered was being forced to choke down sleeping medication by her so-called "mother." When she woke up, she was back in the manor with the doors to her bedroom locked and the windows barred. It took a full month before she was allowed to see daylight again.

Her bleeding hands don't seem to bother her. Probably the adrenaline kicking in. She just wants to go, to get him out of the way. Without a second thought, she tries to run past him, aiming a kick at his shin.]

[argents]

Hey--! [ Well, that smarted--on both counts. But Banagher barely has time to linger on the sharp little insult before her toe connects straight with his leg, causing him to yelp in pain and nearly trip in his attempt to turn and stop her. Even if his last goal was to cause a commotion and possibly be discovered (and subsequently dragged back to the ship for a round of questioning on his nonexistent motives) he can't help but try to grab her by the crook of her arm.

If they were lucky, the public would regard the potential row as an argument between kid siblings. ]

Wait! What are you trying to run from?!

[prevented]

You, obviously!

[Struggling to pull her arm from his grasp is futile but you can't blame a girl for trying. No way is she going to be put away in that manor again. Short-sighted as it may seem, she doesn't care where she ends up as long as she's in control of her own fate. If she ends up a starving pauper, at least it was her decision. Maybe a few years of throwing herself into the hard life would make people more inclined to forgive her. She would rise from the ashes like one of the heroines in the stories. A modern Cinderella who shunned her evil stepmother and ran because her fairy godmother was never going to come.]

[argents]

That's not what I meant! [ He's taking no comfort in her struggle against his grip, and his arm slacks. Banagher isn't really finding an intelligent way to say that he sensed her running, escaping, long before she'd crashed headlong into him, either. Definitely nothing logical that might make her more inclined to trust him. ]

I'm... not really supposed to be here either. So at least let me help you with this. [ He turns her arm up to indicate her bloody palms. ] And then you can go, if that's what you want to do.

[prevented]

[Stilling in his grip somewhat, she continues glaring at him. There's something about his words that convey sincerity. She's not exactly sure why she believes him but she's certain he isn't lying. The sight of her bloodied palm makes her wince, and she grits her teeth as the pain starts to register.]

You're some sort of criminal, aren't you?

[No, that's not a statement that makes much sense at all but what else can one expect from a mind that was born less than a decade ago?]

[argents]

A criminal? [ Banagher looks at a loss for all of the two seconds it takes to process that question. ] No! Nothing like that, not at all.

[ Stilling, he cranes his neck around to look back the way he'd came. Searching. Though the sky has darkened, the outline of a dark infrastructure still looms in the distance. Lights wink in and out of existence along its frame--orange, red, green. A dock, neither visited nor esteemed enough to be considered a spaceport. Banagher indicates it loosely. ]

There's a ship docked there, one that I wasn't really supposed to leave.

[prevented]

But you did. There must have been some reason you were confined.

[After all, there was a big reason why she wasn't allowed to see the world. What great trespass did he commit against the world?]

[argents]

A reason? [ Well, yes. But not a traditional one. ] They didn't confine me, because I wasn't really what you'd consider a prisoner. [ Even if he were to tell her the truth, who's to say she'd believe him? Her shrewdness was alarming for someone so young, but he the fewer people the could involve in this mess, the better. ]

[prevented]

Hm, that sounds suspicious.

[And yet she's going along with it nonetheless.]

Where's your ship headed then?

[If she can hitch a ride, all trespasses are more than likely to be forgiven.]

[argents]

[ He realizes far too late that he's gone and backed himself into an unfortunate corner. None of it had been a lie, but his naive sense of trust landed him with an explanation he wasn't ready to give. Banagher doesn't have the grace to keep the fact that he knows this from washing across his face. ]

...I can't say. [ Coordinates. Coordinates unlocked by his suit. ] It might be dangerous.

[prevented]

Well, can you take me with you?

[Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It doesn't hurt to ask. She'll have a better chance escaping search parties if she's travelling by sea.]

[argents]

[ Banagher weighs his options. Which admittedly, are few. His voice drops. ]

What are you trying to escape from that's worth putting yourself in danger?

[prevented]

Do you not watch the news or something?

[Seriously 8|]

[argents]

[ Girl he's clueless, you're homefree. ]

Um, well. I haven't been to Earth in a long time, and media is restricted in a lot of ways in the colonies, so...

[ Not that he really knew how much of a blackout there actually was, but since ping-ponging between ships, his access to much of anything has been cut off. ]

Are you famous or something?

[prevented]

I suppose you could say that.

[His loss is her gain then.]

Look, you owe me a favor now, don't you?

[argents]

[ Whyyy, child. Why do you give him such intense Audrey vibes, sob. Banagher pauses, though it's not because he necessarily disagrees. ]

Come on. We should take care of your injuries first. They must hurt, right?

[prevented]

Yes and you did it. So you owe me a favor, right? Tell me.

[argents]

Mm.

[ Yeah that's as much confirmation as you're getting out of him. :| But it's pretty much as good as a yes, so he's going to start walking regardless. ]

[prevented]

Hey! Wait up!

[short stubby pug legs, ok?]

Are we going to your ship now?