raisetheearth | [Video]

Entry tags:

[Video]

[Here's a familiar face, to those who have been Numbered for awhile and perhaps even those who haven't.]

Why hello. I've missed your lovely faces.

A lot of you know me already, but I'm Lazarus Lawliet. The real one. That's me.

I'm looking to compile a useful database of relevant information on all of us, something that we can share freely and without outmoded hangups or hesitation. Let's be progressive about it.

If you send me your name, a photograph or other still image from the front and the side, your age, your profession, and your credit card information, I'll repay you by writing you a personalized piece of short fiction, starring you, in the wildly popular theme of dinosaur erotica. You pick the dinosaur, and I'll make the magic happen without shame or fear.

Your dark desires are very interesting to me. Especially yours, C.S. You know who you are.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think you'll still find what I have in mind enjoyable.

[A moment later, Ryuzaki will receive a phone number in text form.]

That number is secure. It will only work once though, so make sure you're certain of the location you pick.

[At precisely the same moment, two calls from different phone numbers come in. They're both sent to voicemail. One of them is as follows: an address, stated crisply and clearly, as well as instructions to knock a certain way when he does arrive. Cursory investigation will reveal that it is indeed a room in one of Gateway City's seedier motels.]

[At precisely the same moment, two calls from different phone numbers come in. They're both sent to voicemail. Instead of an address, this one's an appeal to emotion and reason alike.]

Your Number is new to me, but I never forget one. If you're indeed contacting my copy for something other than a sex act, I'm invested and responsible enough for the damage he leaves in his wake to affect me. I need to warn you about him, and about me, as well, if you choose to disregard what I've said.

[Several minutes tick by, as if the speaker on the other end isn't in any particular rush to answer this one. When an answer does come, it's in that same garbled, unrecognizable voice.]

I'm not interested in your responsibility or investment and your concern is unnecessary. I know precisely what I'm doing.

[Lazarus's warning about himself will just go completely unacknowledged.]

If you know what you're doing, then we have deeper problems.

It's obvious you're not going to give me your name, but what do I call you? I'd rather not write your Number every time I refer to you, but I'm absolutely pedantic enough to do that if you give me no other option.

You can call me whatever you like. I don't expect we'll be communicating very often.

As for whether or not there's a problem... that depends entirely on your actions.

If you're hiring my doppelganger for anything but a grab and go, we have a problem.

You'll have to forgive me if I'm not particularly concerned.

Some of the most resounding victories in history have come about because one side underestimated the other.

That's true enough, but I'm quite familiar with what you and your group is capable of. Most of the world is, for that matter.

You, on the other hand, have no idea what I am capable of doing.

This thing is all ongoing. At any point, any one of us could undergo a change that alters a significant portion of our lives and abilities. For better or worse, the difference between us is not as black and white as you're positing.

I've never been afraid to take a risk, not when the potential rewards make it worthwhile.

Can you say the same? Are you willing to gamble the lives of your fellows on the stakes you just mentioned?

No, I'm not. But I'm willing to stake my life to safeguard theirs, and that's why they trust me.

I'm guessing trust isn't something you can rely on to achieve the ends you're talking about.

Trust?

That's much more sentimental than I would have expected from somebody like you.

I take that to mean that you can't. That's typical, of a leader who puts himself above others as well as at their head.

If that's what you choose to believe.

At any rate, it doesn't seem like we'll be convincing one another any time soon. So, I'll leave you with this.

Stay out of my way: If you don't, then whatever comes down on you and the people you "lead" will be your own doing.

I know what I'm doing. Precisely, even. We have at least that much in common.

Edited 2015-10-03 03:11 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Video]

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private

[Voice] : Private