maskormenacelogs | Got to time it right [Open]

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Got to time it right [Open]

WHO: Galo and YOU
WHERE: Pretty much all over: Specific starters inside!
WHEN: All through March
WHAT: Wrap-up to Galo's time as a Nobody, Post-Revival
WARNINGS: Death, feelings, violence

Take care of those you call your own // Heropa // CLOSED TO LIO // March 3

Heropa at night was something to be considered beautiful, almost calming. If you were close enough to the beach, the sound of the surf rolling in could settle even the most unruly heart. It's a pity Galo currently lacked one--it would certainly have helped his current state of agitation otherwise. Or maybe it was that lack of a heart that caused this in the first place.

Whether local residents took stock of the rash of minor blazes around Heropa and elsewhere couldn't be said. They hardly caused more than structural damage--even in this state, Galo's nature kept him from putting people in true danger. And part of him remembered what Mad Burnish had been about back home, their pride in avoiding harm to the innocent, to people unless there were no other options.

Still, if they did take notice, the flickering flames he was playing with on the beach so late at night would be cause for alarm for most anyone.

Set my alarm, turn on my charm // Heropa // Post-Revival // March 4 On

Guilt was a heavy thing on a newly restored heart. Galo may not know the extent of all he did as a Nobody--and he certainly doesn't know the harm was much less reduced than he believed. But he does know he set fires. Deliberately and without remorse at the time.

Seems like he's paying for that remorse in spades now.

Starting on the day of his revival, when he should likely be resting, and throughout the month of March Galo can be found throughout Heropa at various tasks. Initially, it's fire clean up--hauling out burnt remains and assisting with new builds on scarred foundations. After that work is done, or he's made to leave by actual work crews, his time will be spent in volunteer locations--soup kitchens and the like. Join him, question him, do what you will.

I never could foresee the future years // Jeopardy // Late March

Funny thing about dying, about recovery and coming back: It makes you wonder what it's all about. Something about Jeopardy, in all its weird glory, is that it also feels a little bit like home, being situated in the desert the way it is. It's no wonder that Galo's musings bring him out this way, even though it's far from any hope for a forest with clear skies and a clearer lake to take his musings to. It's familiar. Comforting.

With his days spent in Jeopardy, you might find him simply wandering the streets. Or he may be harassing that one pizza shop owner about adding a ridiculously sounding item to their menu. Or he may be seeking out some sidewalk psychic or another for some answers to this anxious feeling that's been building since he's landed back good as new in Heropa.

[NOTES: 1. Sorry for all the Queen lyric headers. 2. More starters may be added as events come and go. 3. Feel free to put your own starter in a thread below! 4. Hit me up for plotting if you need to via PM or @likeredgold]

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Lio had been watching him since everything went down. And Galo wasn't... right. Not that he knows Galo all that well, they butted heads and then flew a robot together, but he knows well enough this isn't like him. Lio follows him down to the beach to find him... playing with fire.

"Galo!" Something is almost strained in his voice; Lio hasn't fully grasped what exactly is wrong with him, but it's wrong. All of it.

When Galo turns toward him, it's with an eerie calm. The flame he had been playing with is settled in his hand--Lio's flame, a Promare flame. Somehow, that makes all of this worse. Or it would if Galo had the heart to feel the weight of it.

"Lio." Even the tone of his voice is wrong, wrong, wrong. It's flat, distant, no hint of the affection or exuberance he is usually so well known for. Whatever, or whoever, this is? It is not Galo Thymos.

Lio's eyes settle onto that flame, widening when he realizes that's his flame. The one Galo said his files called the 'Fotia Flame'. Something in him goes to steel between that and Galo's voice.

This is wrong.

"Galo- What are you doing out here?"

"Late night." And he does absolutely nothing to answer his question. This late, illuminated by little else but his flame and waxy moonlight, there's a spectral quality to his appearance.

He looks towards Lio, his gaze steady. "Ever wonder what drives people? Makes them heroes, or villains?" He turns his hands, letting the flame skitter across his knuckles and through his fingers before it settles in his palm again.

"What...lights a fire under them?"

Lio matches his gaze with no intention of breaking away. Especially not with the way Galo's playing with that fire of his. It's... unsettling. Galo showed he wasn't jumpy or scared of fire, but he always had a healthy concern for safety. He's almost treating the flame as if he was a Burnish himself.

"I used to. I wondered for a long time what drove Kray to do the things he did." He's quiet for a minute before chancing a couple steps closer.

"Galo, why are you out here?"

Galo eyes him as he steps closer, but it's clear that he doesn't see Lio as a threat yet. He barely even moves, simply watches and waits.

"Letting the flame breathe." Take that as you will, Lio. But he's definitely let that fire take a run around town and then some a few nights this week. Maybe you've caught word of those strange fires??

Yeah, he did notice. A part of him had hoped more Burnish had shown up, maybe even his guys. But now that he knows, he's regretful for hoping.

Lio stops about four feet from Galo, still trying to remain calm. Easy, nonthreatening. But he still isn't looking away.

"That isn't your flame to let breathe, you know."

"It seems to like the air all the same." And there's a challenging edge in his voice now, steely resolve in his eyes as he closes his fist around the flames. They flare up, color bright and feverish as hit sparks between his fingers.

"Does it make you angry? You can try and take it back."

Not that he's about to let that happen.

"I'm not going to. I sent it to you to protect you."

That hasn't changed. Even if Galo isn't being himself, he still made that choice in the moment to protect Galo and leave himself vulnerable.

"I'm more worried that you've let it cause destruction. Wasn't it you who told me only your soul should be burning? That burning people's homes is wrong?"

"What soul? What heart?" And there it was, the root of it all. This Galo, this shadow of the man that burned with everything he was, was empty. There was no reasoning with something like that--no logic, or sense, or memory could sway a being with no attachments.

When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.

"If I have nothing burning, why not see what spreading it does?"

Oh.

Oh.

Had Galo gotten hit with whatever that infliction was? That heartless thing? He'd glanced over the information on the network but didn't think it was relevant. Not entirely, not completely because Galo Thymos was in control of his own heart.

His hands clench and unclench loosely at his side, anxious and nervous. What should he do?

Burnish don't kill without reason.

"What happens is things burn. Things get destroyed."

"Some things need to be destroyed."

And everything about this screamed for the form of Galo to be that thing. It wasn't him, it wasn't him, it wasn't him.

"Things can grow out of fire." The ashes of his life, of what Galo was and could be again, would make an apt place for a burial and rebirth. The question was if Lio was going to be pushed to do it. To put an end to this non-life.

If that isn't a truth Lio holds in his own heart. Some things need to be destroyed so they can be rebuilt. To have the words retorted back to him with Galo's voice is a mockery. He can hear the voice in his soul wanting to burn, burn hotter, burn with this man. He can't let that happen.

"Maybe. But not like this. Come back with me."

And there it is, Lio choosing to offer his hand instead of a fight. Galo may frustrate him sometimes, but he's a good guy. And they were starting to work well together. He has to trust Galo to do right.

In any other circumstance, with any other situation, Galo would have taken that offer. It would have been accepted without question, without hesitation. But this fragile bond of theirs was up against the ropes and it was going to be tested to its breaking.

Galo took a step back, the flame in his hand flaring as he set on edge. "That's not happening. There is no going back."

And whatever memory he had of those flames, of what they could do, came with deadly recollection. These were no longer flames of mere protection, not when he was letting them burn. His soul, or whatever the Promare resonated with now, called for something else entirely. It called for him to stand and fight, or to go down at the end of it all.

He wasn't going to go quietly. The path the small spark wove as it solidified into a sharp weapon in his hand was enough to speak to that.

"No..."

Why is this happening. He watches his own flame bend to Galo's will, the shield he'd given to protect becoming a weapon. It's enough he can feel a short wave of heat from it before it solidifies, and Lio is left staring at it.

Not even that long ago, Galo was in awe that Lio created a flame Matoi for him.

"I'm not fighting you, Galo."

"Well, that's a little sad." A murmur, a threat. One made all the more real with the slow steps he took toward Lio, twirling the weapon in his hand experimentally as he tested the weight. Flames made a well-balanced weapon, or so it seemed.

"Fight." He entreated, taking a swing. "Or get taken out."

It takes only a second for Lio to draw out a Burnish sword, similar to the one he fought Galo with the first time. But in this case, it's only being used for defense. He holds it to guard, not even bothering to suit up in his armor.

"I have no intention of fighting you."

Galo grins his teeth, the expression almost feral as he takes another shot at cutting Lio down. It's almost a pity that the barest spark of something akin to passion is when he's trying to kill someone he cared about.

"Then we know how this is going to end if you don't start fighting back." The last of it is almost a growl and came accompanied by a particularly targeted thrust of his sword. A blatant attempt at trying to catch him off guard.

The thing about Lio is he's fought for his life for a long time since becoming a Burnish. So while the thrust is sudden and unexpected, he pivots his weight to one foot so he can shift and spin, using the flat of his blade to knock Galo's askew.

"Or you could stop this and come with me."

His fire is screaming to fight. It wants to burn, burn hotter, burn more, it's been too long since he's had a fight.

"It's not going to happen." That argument didn't work before, and it wasn't going to work now.

"And you want to fight." It's goading, tempting--said with a grin that's both a hint of the cocksure Galo and part stranger.

"Your fire always wants to burn, right?"

Lio has to gasp for a breath; he's hot, he's already fighting that urge to burn this whole area to the ground. Thankfully it's the beach and there isn't much to burn to begin with.

"Yes," he breathes out, heavy, raspy. "It wants to burn you to ashes. I won't."

IT'S TIME FOR A MURDER

MURDER MURDER

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Jeopardy

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