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canemnecredite · 6 years

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fight me.

date: 24 january 2018, approx. 10:30 am location: lina’s room, fourth cohort barracks parties: adriana caninii & kolina valla

synopsis: After the release of the exodus orders, the Fourth Cohort Centurions get protective, and one of them is itching for a fight.

Adriana stormed down the Fourth Cohort corridor with all the grim ferocity of a soldier's march. The click of the sword at her hip with each step was deafening to her own ears, a filter of red lingering at the edges of her vision. She burst into Lina's room with no regard for the door, the handle of which dented the adjacent wall with the sheer force of the centurion's entrance. "We're not letting them get away with this." Walking straight up to her partner, Adriana reached out to place her hands on the sides of Lina's arms, squeezing but not to any degree of harm. She stared down into the woman's eyes to search for whatever emotion might be lurking there. Hers were an unstable mess of rage and fear -- fear for the fate of their kids -- that shifted as readily as the gold and juniper shades in which they burned. "They won't take our kids. Not without going through me."

Kolina was sat at her desk, her left hand rolling a crystal through it. She was staring off when Adri came into the room, unable to decide what to do. She had told Percy she would leave with them, yet it was her time to go through with that promise and she hadn't moved yet. There had to be people in New Rome who were willing to fight against this. "We have to let the Greeks get out, they can't be here if it gets messy, it'll just turn into a bloodbath for them." She met Adriana's eyes, her dark brown looking into hers with a cold fury bubbling underneath the look. "We don't send the kids to their posts. We aren't involving them in this. They'll never forgive themselves for helping with this."

The cold rage in Lina's gaze was an odd sort of balm. Knowing that her anger was mutual allowed its outward expression, and in slight amount the anger itself, to fade into a stoic composure. Adriana released the arms of her co-centurion and stepped back. Her hands ran through her hair with a frustrated grunt before she turned and sat herself on the side lip of the desk. "I know-- I know it might be safer for them out there than it is in here, but we can't guarantee that. This isn't just a couple of people that they're exiling. A whole population of Greek demigods crossing the border isn't going to be discrete. It's probably going to attract monsters, which means people are going to get hurt, and something tells me the Senate wouldn't stall the exodus even if that were the case." Adri's hands curled around the edge of the wood, her nails leaving marks where they pressed. "Of course we're not sending them to their posts, but I also can't sit by and watch as the rest of them are sent away. They've already been banned from the Legion and now they're going to strip them of their sanctuary? It's not just unfair; it's repulsive!" After she had blinked away the start of an angry blur, the daughter of Mars shifted her body to angle toward Lina. "I've trained some of those kids for six years, Lina. Kaleb, Paulina, Blossom... We can't give up on them now. Especially, not now."

Kolina couldn't explain how she was so calm in this moment, but perhaps it was because she knew that it was because they would likely be doing something horribly dumb later. She sighed heavily, her lips pressing together hard, "It will be safer for them out there. Out there they can fight back. Here even walking down the street would be enough for lethal force. Staying here would be a death sentence for them." Lina's chest felt so heavy she was surprised she was breathing correctly. "The monsters give them a better chance of survival. They have a good amount of strong demigods with them... Hopefully casualties are minimal." She hated speaking like this, but she knew she was right. Their best chance was outside of New Rome, here they would die. "We aren't giving up on them Adriana, but we have other kids who are being forced into helping arrest their friends."

Adriana had to close her eyes to process Lina's response. Her very bones were itching for a fight. Ever since Blossom's Greek Pride event had been shut down with a raid, she had been suppressing an anger that, with each successive event, had grown progressively darker. A creeping voice in the back of her mind was calling for blood, and once again, she had to force it down. A cold breath blew through her lips as her gaze returned to her co-centurion. "Okay... there is that. These days the Senate might as well be worse than a horde of monsters." Adriana could hear the heaviness in Lina's tone as plain as day. Pushing off the desk, she moved over to where Lina sat and leaned down to place a hand on the other's cheek, thinking that perhaps the touch would settle the both of them if only for a moment. "You're right. We do. Maybe we can't stop the exodus, but we can save who's left from having anything to do with it. It's about time we made a proper public stand, don't you think?" There was an almost devilish hint to Adri's grin as she retracted her hand and began to pace the room, that fiery warrior spirit surfacing in a mad eagerness to strategize. "We'll have to tell them, get them into a position where if this goes sideways for any reason, they'll be in a safe spot with an easy access to get out. Should we bar the windows? I don't think it would come to that, but who knows what force they're going to apply these days." The daughter of Mars had stopped at the window, staring out across the camp with a calculating narrow of her eyes. "How much time is left until they have to assist?"

Kolina considered Adriana's words carefully, her body and mind running on some sort of calm before the biggest storm of her life. She didn't answer for some time, just let her words and her touch wash over her. Lina had the unfortunate feeling that this would be the last time she and Adri would be having any type of soft physical contact. What they were doing was dangerous and someone had to be there for their kids in the end if things went badly. Adriana was seen as more stable than Lina was, which lead Lina to make the decision to take the blame if they were caught. "If this goes sideways, the kids have to act like they didn't want to do this. We forced this on them, so that they won't get in trouble. They aren't taking the blame for any of this." Adriana wasn't taking the blame for this.

"Then we take the blame for it, or we fight it through," she turned on Lina, a fire settling around the dark of her eyes. "I can't sit here and let our people get stepped on again and again. I won't! If we need to leave the kids out of it, fine. But what if they're tired of standing around too?" Upon her return to Lina's desk, the flats of Adri's hands practically slapped down onto the wood. She wasn't upset at Lina by any means; she was struggling to walk the line between logic and emotion -- against flaring instinct. "Most of them aren't actually children. I think they have a right to choose. At least the eldest few."

Kolina shook her head, "We are not going to fight them. We will lose if we do and if they're already willing to use lethal force on the Greeks. What will they do to traitors?" There was no way they could fight anyone without someone dying and she didn't want blood on her hands. "If they don't go help at their positions, the other Cohorts will have to fill their spots and the Legion will be weaker. We aren't sitting around doing nothing, we're just being smart about how we're going about committing treason. Which is what we're doing, Adriana." She set her jaw, “Only those over eighteen may decide. The rest were not willing go along with this. I am not going to allow them to throw children into jail."

"So we play defense. That'll look good, won't it? To see a few of the Legion's leaders standing up against this, even if we can't bar the exodus itself? It only takes a few people to start something." Glaring down into the wood, Adriana shook her head. "I know what this is, Lina. But nothing is going to change if we don't challenge these laws." Her eyes flickered a dark green as they rose, the Invidian lust for vengeance peeking through -- for justice. "That's what I meant. The younger ones don't need to get involved, but the more willing guards we have, the better. We should lock the doors to protect those left inside. Like you said, they need to look unwilling."

"Adriana, it's better if this starts out as privately as it can. The longer it takes for them to realize we aren't there, the longer a hole in the Senate's plan is there. While I understand the need to do something publicly, I don't think this is the best time to do it. The legionnaires will just end up getting arrested or worse." Lina wasn't exactly following what Adriana's plan was, the woman was far more animated than usual. "Woah, I didn't mean we'd have guards. That puts them in unnecessary danger. I don't think anyone is going to be coming for kids who seem like they're just following orders. And those who do want to follow Senate orders, we allow them to go. It's not our decision to make for them."

Adriana blew a long breath through her nose and straightened, only to spin away from the desk once again with a hand dragging down her face and settling over her mouth. She didn't stop pacing. Her steps fell upon the floor in no particular pattern -- not unlike her frantic grappling for a plan. Strategy was usually one of her strong suits, but with her heart ready to fight and her head screaming to see sense, forging a coherent tactic had become a frustrating task. "So what do we do, Lina?" Her plea for a solid decision came with a hint of desperation. "I hate this! I hate what they're doing to us, to them," she threw her arm back towards the door and the legionnaires' rooms farther down. "I feel so--" The word that hung on her tongue was useless, a feeling garnered by her lack of retaliation thus far. She had sat back and done what she could to support their kids, knowing that pressing the Senate would only make things worse, hoping that in time the situation would ease up and some proper justice would be dealt. Instead, it only got worse, and now Adriana felt like a tyrant by Roman affiliation alone. Surely the Greeks would see them no differently. Her hands pressed against her forehead and long sigh pushed out from her chest. "Alright. No kids, then. Just us." A definitive tug at the belt that held Greyclaw’s scabbard and the subsequent placement of Adriana’s hand on its hilt signaled her readiness to head out, but also helped to steady her, as Lina would know.

"We allow those who want to go to go, though I don't see many of them leaving. Those who want to stay will be in the barracks. We will be outside, just in case someone comes, then we have a chance to make it seem like it was just our idea." Lina sighed, this isn't what she had wanted to do. None of any of these last few months were what she wanted to do. "We can't let the kids get involved. It would be--" Lina cut herself off when she heard the door open, and in walked Cat. In a panic, Lina sent a sleeping spell towards Adriana and watched her partner fall to the ground as her body became too relaxed to hold her up. Lina grimaced as she watched Adriana's head hit the floor. She wasn't letting her take the blame for this one, even if it meant having to cast on her.

#[ docs. ]#lina.#[ civ. ]#fight me.#f&gwriting #[ exodus. ]

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