whitehairedprettyboy | 02 $$ [action for anywhere] (fourth wall!)

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02 $$ [action for anywhere] (fourth wall!)

[ He's dreaming. He has to be.

But even once Valmont's done rubbing his eyes in disbelief, they're still there. All twelve talismans, lined up nice and neat on his nightstand.

Well then. He still doesn't know what's going on with this world, but if it brought the talismans here, to him... he might not dislike it quite so much as he did before.

And so, if you see a guy this weekend levitating around town, occasionally shooting fire out of his hands and/or laser beams out of his eyes, and looking giddier than anyone here has ever seen him... Well. That's probably V. Feel free to talk to him/try to keep him from blowing up something of yours. He's in a good mood. He might listen. ]

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[Well shit. He's...far too close right now to teleport, dodge, or even stop the thing properly, but he can slow it down. An impact at full force would have killed him. The curse Nagi spits is killed by the impact of the mailbox slamming into him with the force behind it of a fist aiming to punch, but the softened impact doesn't make it hurt less. He skids back a few yards on his heels before he feels his body abruptly being caught before he can fall to the ground. Uchi has him in her arms while Neba pulls the mailbox away, tightening her grip when a shudder passes through Nagi and he coughs hard, blood dripping down his chin.

After a moment he pulls out of the Gardevoir's arms with a low hiss, throwing up his own with zero regard for his current state. He sends the mailbox rocketing back, practically screaming in his head why won't you just die already.]

[There's a laugh from the armor - a very unhinged laugh, as he clutches his chest again and smoke goes up. Through the smoke the flying discs shoot out again, and the Vulpix yelps in surprise and dismay. She runs up and tries to pounce at Micchy's leg, but he moves it away from her.]

Stop it.

[His voice is strained and weak as he looks up at Valmont.]

I have to do this.

[ Now that he knows he can do it, he stops the mailbox easily, sending it crashing into the ground instead of his face. This is getting pathetic. The boy honestly thinks he can still win? Valmont decides it would be a mercy to kill him and get it over with. His first personal kill. No other situation could possibly have been more delicious.

His hand and eyes both glow dangerously, and suddenly Nagi has three blasts to deal with - one fire, two laser, and all pointed straight at him. ]

[The bad news is, Nagi's not going to get much help out of those three blasts coming at him; the kid's a telekinetic, he can throw up a shield for himself if he's really concerned about dying right now, come on.

The good news is, all this battling you two have been doing has made for something of a scene, and a gentleman named Brad Crawford happens to have a knack for foreseeing particularly notable scenes in space and time — especially when they deal with a member of his team.

It's hard to say how long these two have been watching this little melee; it could be seconds, or it could be pretty much since the beginning. Either way, they've evidently decided that this is the appropriate time to intervene, which comes in the form of, well.

Well.

Whatever control Valmont previously had over his limbs, it's abruptly gone now; against his will, his hands will go slack and drop anything he's holding, and the rest of his limbs will follow in turn, like a puppet having its strings cut one by one. Meanwhile, where he's trapped in his own mind watching this take place, he'll be able to feel the distinct sensation of being wildly out of control of his own body — not unlike being possessed, really — but with no real way of determining who or what might be doing it.

For the moment, anyway.

Here's your intervention, Nagi; make good use of it, because Schwarz isn't really in the mood to see you lose to a guy like this today.]

[For a wild second, Nagi wonders if Valmont has just finally snapped up there thanks to the influence of those talismans. The distraction is exactly what he needed, however, and with a sharp jerk of his arm that causes a lance of pain to shoot up his side, the blasts are sent flying to either side and straight up thanks to the barrier he creates. The instant the threat is gone his arm falls and he doubles over slightly, staring up at Valmont. From here he can still see the talismans clasped in the man's hands, hands that are currently not working like they ought.

A mental nudge is all it takes and he's Teleported one last time, just a couple strides away from Valmont now. His eyes flash and the talismans he's holding are roughly jerked from his grasp, conveniently Misters Rooster and Dragon over there. You've had enough firepower for his tastes, and Telekinesis is his thing, not yours.]

[ ...Well. This was unexpected. And very much unwanted. It's almost exactly like being possessed, except there's no one else in there. Just him, trapped inside his mind while his body utterly refuses to obey. He can't even scream, which is what he would really like to do right now, but all his attempts bounce emptily off the inside of his head. What is happening to him?

And - oh no, what is the boy doing, no, no, don't you dare, give those back, he needs those! But all he can do is watch helplessly as the talismans are wrested from his unresisting hands. And oh dear, one of those was the rooster, wasn't it, and for the second time today he crashes into the ground. Not headfirst this time, thankfully, and the horse talisman is already working to heal any new bruises, but still, that was highly undignified. And terrifying. Please let him go, mysterious body-controlling force. ]

[Alas, no, there is no amount of saying please that is likely to save Valmont now, if only because whatever fuckery has just been inflicted on Nagi here is not actually Schwarz-sanctioned fuckery in any capacity, and the fact of the matter is that these two men aren't so much concerned with Nagi's well-being in and of itself as they are making sure that it's very clear who is and isn't entitled to fuck with it.

With a wrenching twist to another part of the brain (which will likely feel like a brief stab of pain reminiscent of a really bad headache), Valmont's body will puppet itself up onto its knees, wobbling for balance as his arms jerk outwards to form a horizontal line. In the moments shortly after, his left arm bends at the elbow to bring his hand against his hip, and the other bends upward at an angle toward the sky.

I'm a little teapot, short and stout; here is my handle, here is my spout...]

[And that, that right there, tells Nagi all he needs to know about what's going on. Schuldig is here, somewhere, and he's not only rendering Valmont helpless but having fun while he does it, which is pretty much par the course. There's relief to be felt, sure, but in spite of that he can feel a hot wave of embarrassment overcome him for a brief moment. Having to be helped wasn't exactly how he imagined this fight ending, but he also hadn't gone into this expecting for Valmont to be able to heal no matter what he did to him, either.

So with his vision swimming a little he watches Valmont in silence, waiting to see where Schuldig plans on going with this...not yet realizing that he's not alone, either.]

[ He hasn't even got time to catch his breath - not that he could if he wanted to - when he feels his body pushing itself upward. Oh god, what's it going to do now -

Wonderful. This thing controlling him, whatever it is, has a sense of humor. Humor at the expense of his dignity. And the most humiliating part isn't that it's making him do a silly dance. No, it's that it's making him do a silly American dance. Really, he didn't deserve that.

He grits his metaphorical teeth. Wasn't this supposed to be the best day of his life? Where did he go wrong? ]

[ He stops the discs in midair again and holds them there. Really, now that he knows all the boy's tricks, this is getting boring. ]

You have to do this why, exactly? It doesn't sound like it's particularly good for your health. [ He tilts his head at Micchy. He's starting to think that smoke may not be just for effect. ]

[And that's about the time, while Schuldig remains out of sight and keeping Valmont pinned, that Crawford opts to put in his (vaguely dramatic, this fucking guy) appearance, stepping out from the shadows and calmly straightening his tie as he advances on Nagi.]

Having a pleasant afternoon, are we?

[Crawford, this one guy's being danced around like a marionette and the other one's been beaten all to hell and may actually have grievous internal injuries.

YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR IS NOT HELPING.

He tips his head a little to the side, listening to something that isn't there, then nods amicably at Valmont.]

Ah, Mr. Valmont. I do hope you'll forgive this brief interruption of your recreational activities.

[And when things get back around to Valmont, he'll find that control over his voice has been handed back to him, because it'd just be rude to leave him incapable of reply, now, wouldn't it?]

[Whoever Nagi was expecting to see walk into view just now, it was not one Brad Crawford. That feeling of hot shame turns to ice as he instinctively moves to stand a bit straighter, even though his head is still bowed. His breath catches but he doesn't speak, instead keeping his eyes trained on Crawford as he approaches. Everything has sharply taken a nosedive and honestly he cannot place whether or not he's happy to see Crawford here, only that he knows that he's here and that means that things may very well go pretty badly for Valmont in a moment, as if they aren't on that path already.]

['It's almost like he cares', says a voice in his head. 'Interesting, because he's the only one who does.']

You wouldn't understand!

[The discs disappear again as he tries to keep himself upright.]

If this showed up again... maybe... it's not over. I can still win! But I have to prove that...

[He gasps and drags himself forward.]

That I'm strong enough to defeat whatever comes my way!

[Even if he doesn't deserve it... his vision of the world has to be better than Kaito's. And he's the only other one who's qualified. But he's not here... so he'll have to show his strength another way.]

[ Valmont tries to growl in frustration - and finds that he actually can. Well. Suddenly growling at this (admittedly well-dressed) gentleman wasn't particularly dignified, but it's no less so than what his body's currently doing. He figures he's justified in a little more indignity. ]

Are you the one doing this to me?! I - I demand you release me! Right now!

[ It's so cute how he thinks he actually has any control over the situation. ]

Of course I am.

[Which is in a very loose sense technically true in that he absolutely condones this and has the authority to do something about it, but part of the game is protecting your team, and that includes the guy who's still going to be here three days from now when he himself is not.

So much the better to dissuade any unpleasant questions right from the start.]

And I'm not feeling particularly inclined to honor demands from someone who was just recently preoccupied with attacking one of my subordinates.

[ Care about him? Hardly. ~~B-baka.~~ He just doesn't want to see the boy kill himself when Valmont could go ahead and do it for him. It'd be such a waste of his powers not to, really. ]

I haven't a clue what you're talking about.

[ And so saying, he sends a blast of fire straight at Micchy. Might as well shut the boy up. ]

[Micchy moves to avoid it, but Vulpix jumps in front of him and... absorbs the fire. She lets out a high-pitched whine. Please don't hurt him!]

[Meanwhile Micchy drops to one knee and clutches his chest again. Damn. He's not going to last much longer like this... but he can't cancel the transformation.]

[A man with long, white hair wearing green walks down the street and... pauses. Heh. Interesting. Those small glowing things... ah, yes. He can sense them.]

Talismans?

You know this brat - er, this young gentleman? [ Oh no. Did he just piss off psychic boy's psychic dad? ] I mean, I - that is - he started it!

[ That's a gigantic lie and you know it, V. ]

Look, I - I'm a very busy man, you know, I haven't got time to - will you let me go - please?

[ Ooh, he must be pretty desperate if you've gotten the P-word out of him. That ought to fix everything, right? ]

That's true; he did start it. Which I'll admit leaves me rather curious why I've found myself here finishing it.

[Can you just hear the "NAGI..." implicit in that.]

[ABOUT THAT...]

...I warned him not to fight me.

[Which is about as much of a non-answer as you can get. While technically true, it doesn't explain how he got himself in this much of a mess, either. But he's not sure what else he can really say in his defense, considering the implication that Crawford and Schuldig have been watching this occur for some time now.]

You warned me?! I - I utterly destroyed you! The only reason you're still alive is because your friend here bloody cheated!

[ Big accusations from a man who still can't move a muscle. Someday he will learn to keep his mouth shut. Today is not that day. ]

*....what the heck. I mean no really. Sion's seen a lot of things here in Johto, but he can't quite recall seeing a combination like THAT before...*

[ Long white hair and wearing green? You're a man after his own heart, friend. ]

Indeed. [ He holds up his left hand for Naoya to see, dragon talisman grasped firmly in it and glowing. ] Did you have a question?

[ Noticing the man staring, Valmont smirks. ]

Jealous?

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