idealism | Fuda #35 [action/written]

Fuda #35 [action/written]

[It's a quiet, sunny day in Luceti. At least, until Tsuzuki is unceremoniously returned from his Mallynapping and tossed into the lake. Hacking and coughing, he swims to shore. He doesn't care who hears him, all he wants is the attention of the robots.

It's not working out as well as he'd like.]

COME BACK! You can't just keep him there!

[After a lot of railing against the sky ~~since the Malnosso is not listening~~, Tsuzuki slinks home to dry up. People who follow the journal system will notice a comment written a while later.]

[Written]
What day is it?

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[ Why hello, therapy subject! ]

It's July 15th.

[Joshua, you have no idea how happy he is to hear a familiar voice.]

I've been gone for two weeks?

Presumably, if you were kidnapped around the first.

Joshua, they have Hisoka. We need to get him out of there.

[ ... Oh. Still.

Well, there goes one plan. ]

And just how do you propose we do something like that?

I don't know. Maybe they'll be willing to trade.

You want to go back in exchange for him. [ Joshua completely skips the joking this time. ]

Yes.

[There's really no point in lying about something as obvious as that. Tsuzuki wipes his wet hair away from his face.]

If it at all possible, will you help me?

What do you think Hisoka would say if he heard you say something like that?

He'd be angry with me. But that would still be better than leaving him there.

Don't you think he'd feel guilty knowing that it was because of him that you were suffering?

Maybe. But he'd understand.

[Realizing how cold that sounds, he tries to elaborate on what he means.]

Joshua, you don't tell someone that they can rely on you, and then turn your back when they're being tortured.

And you instead offer yourself up for more torture? That doesn't help the two of you.

You're wrong. It would help a lot.

How so? At best, they stop torturing him and start torturing you. That's a total gain of nothing.

He'll be tortured less. That's not nothing.

And you'll be tortured more. That's not an empty consequence, either.

It's my job. I've had some time to get used to that.

[And as long as they don't talk about what happened the first time he got enough of it, the better.]

You help me, I'll help you later when you need me to. Do we have a deal?

Edited (me being dumb before bed again.) 2012-07-19 03:58 (UTC)

No.

[ Sorry, Tsuzuki. He may be selfless and caring but he's also an impartial judge. ]

I refuse to believe that your partnership is so imbalanced that one of you is a living meat shield for the other.

[He's very close to losing his calm.]

It's not. He shields me too, in different ways.

[ He's more than welcome to. ]

In ways that you don't do the same?

Not in the same degree he does, no. He'd never allow me to.

[Of course it's tempting to be angry, but he knows he'll regret it. Instead he takes a different road.]

Who helps you when you're in trouble, Joshua?

[ Oh, he sees what you're trying to do here. Alright, Tsuzuki, he'll let you see where this road leads. ]

Here or home? What sort of trouble?

Both here and home, I guess. I remember how you reacted when me and Hisoka tried to.

Mmm, in that case... I help myself.

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