Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

[strikefirster]

Who: Johnny, Daniel, Ortus, Gideon Nav's Exquisite Corpse, Paul, Kaworu, Deku, Harrow, Maybe more?
What: Kidnapping, Forced Adoption, Getting these kids away from the Emperor
When: Shortly after boatgate
Where: The Bone House and Cobra Kai

Content Warnings: Probably references to Murder, Manipulation, Johnny Lawrence.

Prompts and Mingle will be in the comments.

Comments

[noniad]

[Ortus does not expect to have bags tossed at him, which may be why, to what would be his startlement under any circumstance less dire, he catches them. It takes him that span of disorientation, too, to realize that Johnny is speaking to him as another man. An adult, fit to weigh in on the shepherding of children.

In continued surreality, Ortus turns to toss the bags onto the truck, and watches them land where he intended them to. (He is aware of himself as a body. He is aware of himself as one who may act in it. He had not thought to remember himself as small.)]

The Emperor has a talent for evoking loyalty.

[The words might be praise, if not coated in ice, and followed by:]

Particularly in those rendered vulnerable by isolation.

[strikefirster]

[Johnny has more than enough on his plate that he doesn't quite realize the crisis of identity or blooming adulthood that Ortus is going through at the moment. He's on a mission and is rather single minded of it. But they guy was good at lugging luggage and so Johnny was going to focus on that with him at the moment.

Until he hears how Ortus describes Black Eyes and he feels an icy chill run through his veins. Apparently he had pegged this guy right and he hated being around all the more for it.]

Yeah...

I knew a guy like that once.

[And he had honestly hoped he had thrown him out of his life once and for all. But according to LaRusso and Tory that wasn't the case.]

All the more reason to get out of here. The sooner he's out of their lives the sooner they can kick the brain washing.

[noniad]

[So the aim was always to depart with the children, it seems. It might have been assumed, given the size of the vehicle he arrived in and his immediate agreement to Ortus' request, but the vehemence of experience in Johnny's voice is a thing Ortus makes note of.]

I, too, knew a man like this, once.

[He says it quietly, pushing some already loaded baggage further back in the truck bed to make room for more to be added. Thoughts of his father had already been too close to him, of late, as had the unquiet shade of the man himself. His knuckles still itch in their healing.]

I had hoped he was not fashioned in God's image.

[He had known how dangerous the Emperor was. Gideon had taken him into her trust, enlisted him in a shared mission as cavaliers-in-arms, and he had done - not close to enough. Anger coils futilely in his gut. He shoves at a wooden crate and lightly rocks the truck's bed.]

They should not have to suffer under this House an instant longer.

[strikefirster]

[It's the moment after Ortus implies he's been in the same boat that Johnny stops and takes a minute to actually size him up.

He didn't have a whole lot of respect for Old Black Eyes but this guy seemed alright. If he was looking for Gideon and Paul's best interests than that's all that really mattered to him.]

Oh yeah? Well maybe once we're cleared up here we can grab a drink. Share some stories.

[It was actually the least he could do considering what Ortus was helping him with.]

Would have gotten them out sooner if I had of known the man of the house was a psychopath. But sometimes you have to figure that shit out.

[noniad]

[The offer is one Ortus dwells on but for a moment. He recalls the peculiar numbing tingle of his last bout with intoxication, his first day in the city. He has not touched the stuff since.]

I should like a drink.

[He declares, quietly, returning to pick up some of the last of the cargo. Such a strikingly small pile, the sum of the life built inside these walls on such tenuous foundations.]

I had thought there to be time. [Leaden resolve ekes into his voice:] I shall not make such an error again.