concoursec | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Character(s): Tobias, Espio, and Marco.
Location: A105.
Rating: G for GRAHAM CRACKERS.
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed.
Summary: A little bit of a surprise.

Espio may not have been in the same dorm as him very long at all, but Tobias had already become comfortable with the chameleon's presence nearby. It was nice, actually being around someone who seemed to care for him, especially considering he couldn't stay near Marco or Grell.

So Tobias did what he tended to do to show appreciation: draw. He took careful time to draw a picture of Espio himself, then placed it carefully on the lizard's bed before retreating back to his own room, door open.

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"...Okay. But you promised."

The boy gave Marco a final hug, before heading out the door... still just in his pants, shirt and shoes forgotten.

Despite having seen many pirates wear less -- Ace included -- Marco arched an eyebrow. "You planning to walk all the way there like that?"

"...is that bad?"

He blinked a little at Marco confusedly. Even here, he was still not entirely used to having more of... well, everything than he could use at once.

"Not exactly. But you should probably at least wear sandals or something in the hallway." Marco shrugged, "People get huffy about it here, eh. They get annoyed that I don't even like to button my shirt and at least I'm wearing one."

"As you probably guessed, I don't have that problem," interrupted the mostly-naked lizard. "And I don't see why clothing is such a big deal, but..." he looked to Tobias, "he's right. Get something on your feet, before you step on something and rip them open."

Yes, everything was a bit 'serious business' to him. One day, he may develop a sense of humour.

"Anyway, I don't think you need two people going with you. Besides, if I want to sleep tonight, I need to clear my bed - I'll be here when you get back."

"Okay."

The boy quickly dashed back into his room, something falling over with a light thud after a moment and a surprised yelp. He came out mostly unharmed, however, now wearing the boots from his uniform and rubbing his head sorely.

"Ow...."

"You okay?" Espio asked, a little concerned despite Tobias seeming to be fine. "Something fall on you?"

"What happened?" Marco arched an eyebrow, not sure whether to be amused that Toby was that accident prone, or worried. Probably some mixture of both.

"A book fell on my head."

Go with amused, Marco. He's making the same face as a little kid who's storybook fell on them, complete with hands over his head protectively and everything.

Espio made a small noise that may have been a laugh, but also shook his head. "You should make sure those things are firmly in place!" he said, trying to be firm but failing miserably - he was clearly trying to hold back his amusement.

Fortunately, Marco was a master of keeping his face deadpan, even when extremely amused. "I see," he nodded seriously, "Well you can have the nurses check that out too."

"Okay. Remember, five minutes!"

Giving Marco and Espio a last bright smile, Tobias headed out the door this time, running off to the nurses'.

Espio watched the kid leave, before he hopped up off the bed, and was about to speak before he suddenly seemed to remember something and fished in the miniature mountain of books and paper. As he did that, he asked: "doesn't it bother you?"

Marco paused, somehow expecting something a little more. "Does what bother me?"

"Someone taking such a ridiculously sudden interest in the kid," Espio elaborated. "You said earlier that you were looking out for him. You can afford to be more suspicious."

He finally found what he was looking for and held it out to Marco. "Your notes, by the way - since I never gave them back.

"Why should I be suspicious of you?" Marco asked uncertainly and repressing his own amusement. "I was, when I thought you were hurting him. But with the way you go on about justice, I somehow doubt that's your intention." He took his notes back. "Thanks, eh."

"You don't know that. What if I agree with him?" Espio said, looking at Marco directly even as he shuffled with some of the remaining papers. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips - challenging someone like this was Espio's idea of fun. "He thinks he deserves everything he gets! What if I said I knew why, and think it was right and just to mislead and torment the kid?"

Marco's eyes instantly hardened, "No one deserves that, eh." His tone hardened along with the expression. "He's just a kid who's so damn gentle he doesn't even stand up for himself! If you're trying to test me, don't. I got him to take the Self Defense classes, but it's not like either of us can just change his mind over one night. I don't get his world, but if they treat him like that I don't want to."

Espio didn't quite agree. He could understand why some of the people of Tobias' world treated him the way they did - the kid was a threat, and one that wasn't understood at that. People were scared of him. He didn't doubt there was far more to it, but even what he knew at least partially justified people's apparent impression of the kid, and explained that negative viewpoint Tobias had.

However, he was not prepared to tell Marco what he knew. Sure, Tobias didn't seem to care who knew about it... but that information was personal. Instead, he remained unmoving. "Do you think they treated him that way without a reason? Besides, he can defend himself if you push the right buttons. If I got him to argue with me, he's not as spineless as you might think... even if he is completely wrong. The reasons he thinks the way he does are so solid and justified it's going to take a very long time to convince him he doesn't deserve it."

Then, a sigh, and he glanced to the side, expression softening somewhat as he recalled exactly what he was arguing about. He was stubborn, but not as good at hiding his feelings as he liked to think. "Put it this way: I'm sticking with him because I know something that you don't. He deserves a way different kind of 'justice' than the kind I normally deal with."

"Anyone can be a killer." Marco let blue flames coast down his arms. "Anyone can have unknown powers, or be a sorceress in disguise, or learn some secret strength others can't instantly use. You don't know something I don't, you just think that it makes it allowable. I'm not going to pretend to understand how your world works either, but in mine, it's pretty common to treat people like monsters just for their size, or parents, or something as inane as a devil fruit. But if people were really so scared, then they should back off, not back the so-called monsters into a corner. It's not deserved. Even if he was capable of destroying the world like people supposed feared, it doesn't give them the right to treat him less than human. He's still just a kid. Having any amount of infinite power doesn't mean jack unless you use it."

He shook his head, angry eyes softening to a blue flamed simmer as they usually did when he started talking about his family. "My Pops was capable of destroying the world on a whim. He could have held any island he wanted to hostage. He could, but never did. It's called control, eh. He had to learn a lot of physics about the ocean, sky, currents, everything. He had to know politics, almost all the pirates who'd want to kill him to be stronger, but he did it, eh. The more Toby insists he deserves whatever punishment they give him, the more likely he is to get scared himself and snap and kill someone, starting all over again. How very healthy. It's not about what you can do. It's about what you do with it anyway."

Perhaps the most ridiculous thing was that Marco appeared to have almost the exact same viewpoint as he did, and the chameleon knew it. The problem was... Espio could never resist an argument. "No. I do know something you don't," Espio said, not in the slightest bit intimidated by the flames. "Which is why I can say I understand. You only know what you've guessed, not what you saw firs-" and there, he cut himself off, scales suddenly brightening and him wavering, quickly averting his view. No, that information was off-limits! Temper was no reason to spill what he'd promised not to!

"A-at any rate!" he quickly corrected himself, trying to make it clear that was something he didn't want to speak of. "Jumping to conclusions gets you nowhere. You didn't even ask the kind of 'justice' I was talking about! Didn't I say it was a different kind to what I usually do?"

"No," Marco's eyes narrowed, "I do know what he's capable of, he showed me when he first got here. And I, for one, am not scared of him. Just for him."

Marco shrugged and turned his back, as though following his mental timer to catch up with Toby. "Whatever. Justice isn't something I care too much about. Do whatever you feel you should. And if it crosses my lines," he glanced back, every bit as menacing a pirate as he could be, "You know what will happen."

Espio bit back a remark of 'coward', feeling that Marco had given up. Still... "whoever said you were scared?" he wondered, clinging on to the argument like a terrier or something. "I don't care if you're not. I'm not. But that doesn't mean the fears of hundreds or thousands of others are invalid!"

He huffed, figuring that he wasn't going to get much else out of the guy and shoving a handful of textbooks into the shelf. "At least I know it won't cross your 'lines'," he added. "Given that your take on how to handle it is exactly the same as mine." And, he added mentally, I still know more about this than you do. The only reason he didn't reiterate was the fear of breaking his promise.

"They are invalid," Marco didn't even turn around, "They're fears based on something unknown that they don't understand. Is there a single person in the whole universe who really understands everything about it? And do you think that knowledge would really make them less scared?" He waved a hand and continued ambling along, leaving Espio to think or grumble about it unless he chose to come along to keep the argument going. So far as Marco was concerned, the smartest people were scared often, just more of the things they could see happening and couldn't stop, rather than a vague threat of what could be. Maybe it involved trusting people, and maybe Marco still trusted people too much, but he'd be disappointing his Pops if he just stopped trusting anyone over something like Blackbeard's betrayal. Pops hadn't stopped, neither would Marco.

Espio frankly felt that Marco had missed the point. It wasn't about showing them to understand. It was to give Tobias the confidence and self-control he desperately needed to avoid panicking and doing damage he clearly never wanted to cause... as well as give the lonely kid the friends he needed just as much.

And besides, Marco's attempt at a 'last word' only reinforced Espio's impression that Marco didn't know that Tobias had killed, or the damage he had caused on that island - it wasn't a "threat," but a real occurence. People had seen it! Of course they were going to be scared! Hell, people were scared of Chaotix, and Espio wouldn't even accuse their fears of being invalid. People were people, and just because they had different feelings to him didn't mean they were worthless: it just meant he had something to argue with.

Still, he was able to resist the urge to follow and continue arguing for one reason alone: "This does not get a public airing, Marco! I'm not bringing it into the corridor!" Not that he expected Marco to turn back. He had to meet with Tobias, after all.