[Elijah]

The boast of the maître d' didn't matter. His colleague's table throwing didn't matter. The living food, the banter, the laughing, none of it mattered.

The only thing that Elijah focused on at that moment was the boom of the shot as he found the wielder of the gun at the door, the weapon trained on him after the warning was fired. He stood, frozen, his kukri stuck in a white-knuckled grip as his very life was threatened.

Many things could go wrong here. The immediate consequence of making a wrong choice would be his death. All the man needed to do was twitch his finger and the student would fall, and he would be in critical condition if not just dead on the spot. The less immediate consequence would be the man pointing his gun at someone else, and a life that wasn't his own would be snuffed away instead. He couldn't let that happen.

He couldn't let that happen again.

Elijah took a deep inhale, cursing his shaky breath as he blew it out. He took several more to ensure his voice was as clear as he could make it. "You didn't hurt anyone," he agreed. "But it was no thanks to any of you."

He sniffed, finding his momentum and taking it. "Do you realize what would've happened if anyone here tried to leave? If anyone defied orders to stay? The reason why no one was hurt was because no one wanted to be hurt by refusing to listen to you. The hostages' actions have kept them in one piece, not yours."

Seeing that nothing he did would outmatch a bullet, Elijah worked his fingers out of their tense state to drop his kukri. He made sure his distancing his weapon from himself could easily be heard by kicking it to the wall, the metal skittering as it slid across the floor. "I didn't want to hurt anyone either, but my actions have caused people to be hurt anyway. To die anyway."

Then, slowly, he stepped forward and raised a hand, poised to grab the gun itself. It was a massive gamble; he was banking on the man's guilt to be true and back down from the threat. In the best case, he would give the gun to him. In the worst case...

Well. If he dies he dies he guessed. "Would you risk doing the same for a dream?"

Claudio Bernardo

[Claudio Bernardo]

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[attr="class","sixShtiny"]TAGGED:

Elijah

[attr="class","sixShnotes"]NOTES:

Rubber bullets still hurt, as it turns out!

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShright"]

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]hehe"Oh, so you know so much about what is and what isn't to our credit?" The man's skinny arm, slinked like a snake through the door and its frame, tightened its grip on the pistol. His voice rose further, booming much more like the maître d's as he honed his aim. "And what, you didn't want to hurt anyone? Were the knives supposed to be warning shots, then? We didn't bring out a single weapon on the civilians, only you two! Only when you two wanted to play hero with everyone's lives did we pull them, and you're not even heroes — you had to go and make this a scene while the rest of the city's burning!"

[break][break]

hehe"Don't talk to me — to any of us — about what it means to dream!" The gun stilled, and the man grit his teeth. "You pretentious, arrogant, little shit!"

[break][break]

heheA boom echoed through the restaurant. A flash of fire burned from the back of the barrel, far faster than anyone present would have seen in Elijah's position, and from it, tore through the air with a snap of a hiss; just as quickly as it came, the sound vanished, just as did any bullet who found its mark. This bullet, however, didn't find itself buried into Elijah's chest, where it should have rested both inside and alongside him. But before the two, in the moment that the trigger was pulled, a fog whisked through the space between. As the bullet fired through it, human flesh stretched out from its inside, curving upwards with the bullet in its stretching hold before letting it go, transforming again into misty vapor, as the bullet thud into the ceiling

[break][break]

heheReaching out from the cloud, a hand wrenched the gun out from the man's grasp. In fact, as the hand twisted the muzzle toward the ceiling, it outright pulled the man from his space behind the door and out into the open, who stumbled forward as the weapon was forced out from his control.

[break][break]

heheBy this time, the crowd of civilians had, in the chaos of whirling food and booming gunshots, fled from the scene, with the invading waiters having little the means or, as things played out, motive to maintain their control. Most of them laid there on the floor instead while the cloud shaped himself a new, burgeoning into the boisterous body he was just before.

[break][break]

hehe"...Hey, D'eadsh?" Claudio dropped the magazine from the gun, clinking to the floor as bullets tumbled from it, thudding as their rubber tips met the ground. Near Claudio's chest, opposite his heart, a puff of cloud remained, lazily drifting up thinly like a wisp of smoke. "Can we leave now? We can, hight?" He placed a hand over the wound. It didn't bleed. However much that came from the nature of his transformation, though, was unclear. "That hu't a bunch, y'know?"

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holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

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[Elijah]

Elijah stared at the gun, lips pursed by the speech. There was irony to be had about the man thinking the students were the ones to pull out weapons first, as he thought back to the waiters armed with knives and brass knuckles, few as they were. But no matter what assumptions either of them had, no matter how well Elijah could justify his actions, it was clear that he lost control of the situation. As if he had any to begin with.

Before he could react, the man fired his gun.

The shot rang in his ears and he froze, his eyes shut tight as he expected pain to follow. The feeling of the bullet wound would overtake everything surely, even as he fell to the floor and the impact would bruise. Even if the blood seeped into his clothes and pooled around him.

However, nothing came. There was silence but he was still standing. He didn't feel anything. Slowly, Elijah opened his eyes and seconds passed as he took in the scene before him. There was the man who shot him, finally revealed from behind the door. And there was Claudio, who stood between him and the man.

The thing with working with others that he failed to remember was that he wasn't the only one making decisions. That his partner was just as capable of reacting to his choices as his opponent was.

Elijah turned to look around them at the question, wondering himself if there was anything else they needed to do. The civilians were gone. The other party, the people they were supposed to protect them from, laid on the floor, having lost their will to fight. They've succeeded in their goal. The victims were safe. But as the Canadian looked back to the cloud, he knew he should've done better.

He stretched his jaw and sighed, having clenched it in his time staring at the wisp of smoke exiting Claudio's wound. "Yes." He crouched down and picked up his kukri, sheathing it before standing up. "We're done here." Careful not to step on the people lying around, he moved to the entrance and pushed the door, holding it open for the other student. He glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Do you need to be taken to the infirmary?"

Claudio Bernardo

[Claudio Bernardo]

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[attr="class","sixShtiny"]TAGGED:

Elijah

[attr="class","sixShnotes"]NOTES:

No takeout, but a sweet victory! Right?

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShright"]

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheThe maître d' lowered his ladle. The rest of the men, too, who rose their heads to what had become of their final guard, held their breath. Their eyes followed the magazine to the floor, tensing their bodies as it clattered and bullets spilled out. All of them, every single munition, was tipped with rubber, falling out from their loaded assortment into a loose, dotting pile of metal, gunpowder, and nonlethal points.

[break][break]

heheClaudio held the gun. Looking down to it, twisting it in his grip, he hummed a low, thoughtful sound before reaching his hand over the top. He pulled on the slide, a deft maneuver of at least some familiarity, and launched from it the bullet still in the chamber. With a quick laugh, he snatched it up out of the air, gripping it in the center of his loose fist.

[break][break]

hehe"Nah, it'sh not that serioush." He offered a grin. "Not my firsht bullet, rubbe' o' otherwize! They're neve' fun, don't get me w'ong, but I can deal. Though–" he tucked the bullet into his pocket before reaching the same hand across the restaurant for Elijah's prosthetic– "it'sh uzually easie' when I don't gotta change the bullet'sh t'ajectory; otherwize, you'd have jusht gotten hit through me, y'know?"

[break][break]

heheClaudio yanked the arm out of the, by this point, fully unconscious man who stole it in the first place. He handed it to his classmate, holding back the urge for the punchline. "I'll get rid of the gun, too. I would just leave it, but, y'know, had to grip it out of the hand, touch it with mine, all that kinda stuff... Don't worry too much about it, though."

[break][break]

heheAs they walked out of the restaurant, leaving behind the slumped and disheartened men, Claudio pocketed the gun. "About the gun... about all that, heally!" He patted Elijah on the back. "At the very leasht, the people got out! It ish a shame that we didn't get anything to go, though... That chili wash p'etty good, if you were curioush at all."

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holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

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[Elijah]

Elijah watched the cloud hero as he emptied the magazine, noting how the clattering of bullets on the floor wasn't as sharp as he expected. Rubber? Those were less lethal than their metal counterparts. His mouth was drawn in a thin line. "Right." Why was he still smiling despite everything? "Next time I'll move away from the gun."

His eyes rested on the offered prosthetic, brow furrowed. Part of him wanted to refuse it; it was useless with the hand mangled as it was. At the same time the rest of the arm was intact by comparison. The shredder's teeth hadn't gone past the wrist.

Elijah sighed as he took the arm. "Better the gun's with us than with them, if only to dispose of it in a safe place." Nudging the right side of his jacket off himself, he reattached his arm to his shoulder before pushing it back through his sleeve. He couldn't hold anything with his right hand but he could still protect himself with it if anything.

He took a halted step forward; a reaction to the pat he received. There was a squint in his eyes before it faded away. "I guess. We can only hope they make it to their homes safely." He tilted his head at the comment on the chilli. "Was it? A shame then, that all that food went to waste." As well as other things, he couldn't help but think.

Elijah tucked his hands back in his pockets as he walked alongside the cloud, tense of how the rest of the night's going to go.

Claudio Bernardo

[Jinx]

☆ MISSION SUCCESS ☆

Babel is a dish best served- Wait, that's not how the saying goes?
Great thread you two!

+ 50 Tokens!!

Elijah - 175 // 225 tokens
Claudio - 18,250 // 23,250 exp

tag: Elijah Claudio Bernardo