concoursec | (no subject)

Entry tags:

sonic: espio the chameleon

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Characters: Espio and Ace
Location: Out.
Rating: PG/Pg-13? Might be some cursing.
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed.
Summary: Ace is tired of feeling like crap, and more over he's tired of watching Espio wallow in his own crap. So after learning where his room was through Namur and Thatch, he decided to go kidnap the chameleon and take him out like a good older brother should do.

Ace strolled through the halls of Gardens dorms heading to specific room. He knocked twice and waited, rocking back and forth on his heels for Espio to answer. He was tired of being mopey and tired of watching Espio mope too. Even though he and Toby had supposedly talked it really didn't seem to do much in lifting the pink ones spirits. Well Ace was going to change all that. Toby was Nakama and Ace hated seeing anyone; especially Nakama unhappy. So what better way to cheer someone up then kidnap them and force them to have fun!?

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"That depends, will you run away or come willingly if I set you down?" Ace asked as he headed out of the room and down the hall as if nothing at all was wrong with what he was doing.

"What do you think?!"

Basically, run away. Run far, far away!

"I think I'm carrying you till we get to the bar." He said with a laugh. Some people stared but most were probably used to Marco carrying him and paid no attention to it. "Why are you so against spending time with us huh?"

"Who said I was against it?! I was doing something!" Espio protested, despite the fact that he could sit and write alone in his room at any time.

"Besides," he muttered aside, "it's not like you actually want me around anyway."

"Wha...I've been trying to do something with you for a while now! I wanna get to know you better. You are important and it's time you started to realize that." Ace smiled as they headed into town. Thankfully no monsters appeared between Garden and town.

"Why?" Espio asked. As far as he could see, the only reason any one of those pirates had any reason to so much as talk to him was because of their now-Captain. They were talking to him because they had to - he was 'family.' That didn't mean they would choose to have his company under any other circumstance.

"Because you seem like an interesting person." Ace said honestly. "You seem smart and I want to get to know you better. Find out just how interesting you are. Get to know the real Espio." He continued as they found a bar. He walked inside and found a nice little table in the corner. He set Espio in a chair and then sat down across from him.

Espio sighed. At least he'd been seated now. He supposed he might as well just deal with it... "Well, whatever. You know you're buying, right? You got enough on your sponsorship allowance?"

"Yeah I know. Toby and I are in the same Sponsorship, did you know? It's kind of nice..being together with him and all like that. It's really nice having a family. I forget sometimes...that I don't have to prove myself to them. They love me because I'm me...and only for that reason. I think it might be the same for you ya know." Ace smiled, resting his head on his hand after ordering a bottle of rum and two glasses. He would do milkshakes later.

"Amethyst."

Espio had been sponsored by Amethyst himself, but saw no reason to say so.

"I don't know about that. It's pretty obvious that I'm just that one guy on the side who you lot only pay attention to because I'm Marco's family. Why else would you want to bother?"

'Guy on the si...ahaa haha hahaha hahaha!!!" Ace started laughing hysterically clutching his sides as he chuckled. It went on for a while before he managed to calm himself.

"Thanks Espio...man I haven't laughed in that in a long time. That was great. What makes you think you're the man on the side? What, just because you're Marco's family means I can't befriend you because I want too? Do you really think Marco could make ME do anything I didn't wanna do? Honestly?"

Espio frowned, and didn't even wait for the laughter to subside before he argued.

"Is that really true? Would you have even bothered looking at me twice if I weren't Marco's family? Dragged me out here like this?" Espio shook his head. "You know that's not the case. There could be a whole bunch of reasons why, but at the very root of any of them is your loyalty to your family. So yes. Marco. Just because you and Thatch say you don't do anything for his sake doesn't make it true."

Thatch especially. There was just something about him that continued to rub Espio the wrong way. Namur... well, Namur seemed to just get on with shit.

Edited 2013-08-26 01:51 (UTC)

"More then likely yes. I like meeting new people and you seem like an interesting person. I probably would have tried to befriend you on my own. But we'll never know will we, because Marco introduced us. The choice we have now is to become honest friends and Nakama...or only say that we are for Marco's sake.

That's not something I'm down with. I'm not family with anyone just because someone says I am. I'm family because I choose it. I choose Grell as my sister because she's fun to be around and she's great for Marco. I want to be able to say you're really my family which is why I'm spending time with you and explaining this, trying to get through your thick pink skull." Ace chuckled lightly.

"I will say this though, you're just as stubborn as 95% of the other Whitebeard Pirates I know. If you were from my world, there would be no doubt in my mind Pops would invite you to be one of his sons. But Espio...how can anyone prove to you they want to be your friend honestly...if you won't let them?"

"No, you probably wouldn't have," Espio said, but it was less adamant than before. "I'm cranky and unapproachable, and I have a very different mindset to most of the people in Garden - it seems to piss people off. Makes them think I'm naive and stupid, or on some moral high horse or whatever. I'm good at making bad impressions."

At the very least, though, Ace seemed to be more honest than someone he could mention.

"To answer... it's not really something that can be proven, I s'pose."

"That would only make me more determined to get to know you. I like challenges. Besides I'm used to cranky people. No way you could be worse then Marco on a bad day." Ace mused as he poured them both a glass of rum from the bottle placed on the table.

"Then that sounds like you would be alone for a very long time. And unhappy. You're not used to people giving a damn about you, are you?"

"I have friends. Just not in large quantities - never have done, even back home. Things are a bit harder on this planet."

He sat back a little, looking at the glass of rum, wondering whether or not to actually drink it. Maybe a sip.

"You sure about that? Even Marco takes issue with the fact I'm a hero by profession - I fight criminals, support the police and believe in justice."

"I have my own justice I follow too. But in all fairness, the world government where I come from...wanted me dead before I was even born. Where else was I supposed to go?" Ace mused. "The way I see it, if I wanted to be a free man...I didn't really have another choice." He wasn't quite sure why he was sharing all of this with Espio..but he thought it might help relate to the chameleon.

"It's not a bad thing. It's not something I would hate you for. People are different for a reason but that doesn't mean that we couldn't be friends."

Heh. If Ace was watching Espio's face, he might have caught the tiniest glimpse of a smile - it really was just a flash, however. "Well, at least one person sort of gets it, but sort of getting it and really understanding it aren't quite the same."

Well, Tobias sort of got it, too, but Espio wasn't counting him - only the pirates he'd somehow become entangled with.

"I'm not the person to ask about your world government's perspective. I'm not in a position to know - all I have gathered is that their justice is something far apart from my world's."

"What does justice mean to you, Espio?" Ace asked softly. He was genuinely curious as to what he was thinking. To him, it seemed as though the chameleon was simply making excuses for not wanting to befriend Ace. He took a deep drink of rum, waiting to see what Espio had to say.

"Ultimately, it comes down to protecting people. All people. Even the criminals themselves. It doesn't matter if I know them, and it doesn't matter if I do. As long as they are safe and allowed to live their lives. Crimes should be punished, and if that person is a proven danger - a threat to people - then yes, take their freedom... but they still have a life to live, and one day they may change and grow and do something amazing.

"I can count the number of truly irredeemable people I've met on one hand. Super Sonic. Shadow. Sidewinder comes close... but he might have been genuinely mentally ill and can't help it."

Again, Espio shook his head.

"I'm also not a big believer in sacrifices. It's one thing to put the lives of yourself and your team on the line, but to throw people into life threatening situations they don't need to be in without giving them the choice? Children especially. That's the part that pisses people off here - the fact I don't believe in making kids suffer under the pretence of making them stronger. Because they're in this school, being trained for combat, blahblahblah. Yeah, because they totally had the ability to make an informed choice on being here, right? And they've totally reached a point in their training they're able to make a significant contribution."

He sighed. "There are people who say they get it. That they understand where I'm coming from. But all of those people... ultimately decided that I was wrong, or naive, or stupid, or all of them. People claim they support things, but their actions say otherwise."

Ace listened acutely to Espio's reasoning and he found he actually agreed with it. In his mind that was how it should be as well. This is the reason Absolute Justice was flawed. It was true. Crimes should be punished. But that would have to mean that no one was above the law. Unfortunately, there were too many people in Ace's world who considered themselves above it.

Ace was a pirate because being a pirate meant freedom. A chance to choose his own destiny and not the one others wished to thrust upon him. He understood not punishing children for the crimes of their parents. He understood giving them a safe environment...teaching them to be good people. Mostly...mostly because he never had that at all.

"The man who sired me...was the King of the Pirates. The world Government considered him an abomination. A horrid excuse for a human being so they executed him. They caught wind there was a possibility he could have sired a child. So they started a massive man hunt...killing thousands of innocent children from women with any ties to him. My mother...my mother carried me inside of her for 20 months to protect me. But in the end it really didn't matter. They knew who I was....and that was the reason they tried to kill me too."

"That's stupid. What is killing a damn baby ever gonna achieve? Let alone a bunch of people guilty of nothing more than, I dunno, talking to some guy. Maybe not even that.

"No person can be defined by their bloodline."

"I agree, it is stupid. But to them...eradicating the blood line solves the problem? It's flawed logic. Children don't get to choose who brings them into the world. They don't ask to be born. I'm a pirate because I didn't have another choice to be free. Not because my sire was a pirate." Takes a long drink of rum.

"My world wasn't free of the concept... but it is free of the judgement for it. I have friends who followed in their family's footsteps, but that's because they wanted to."

He finally bothered to drink.

"Bloodlines aren't the only thing people get judged for, though. Here, in this world, you're judged and hated for being another species, from another world, or simply because you can do something strange and unusual. But... opinions of the people aside, we're still allowed to live. We have our opportunities cut down, but only nutjob vigilante-types decide we shouldn't live.

"Doesn't make people hating you feel better, though."

"I hear that. I was 10 years old and younger beating up grown men for saying horrid things about me." Ace gave a dry chuckle. "The funny thing is, none of them ever knew they were talking about me. You see I hate Roger. I hate him with every fiber of my being. But no one else is allowed to talk about him..because he doesn't mean anything personal to them. He's just a man who was a criminal."