ic inbox;

[madhatted]

[The voice that of the message is probably not the one you expect. And if you're Gilbert, probably causes traumatic flashbacks. It's certainly Break's voice, but a bit high pitched and more comical...]

Hello, this is Emily! You're obviously an idiot who can't even come see someone in person if it's important, but I'll take pity on you anyways. Leave a message and I'll tell the wonderful and charming Mr. Break about it if it's worth it!

[are you sure you even want to leave a message now]

Comments

[weirdatlast]

She did what she thought was best. [ Cecil responds a little petulantly because, uh, that's his not-girlfriend you're talking about, okay. ]

It was not a smart thing to do. Not saying those things on the network, not taking the information in the way she did from someone like me. But whether it was smart or not, whether she knew it... I'm not sure her mind would have been changed.

She is very brave. Even as I was told to kill him, she was telling us both, "We can beat them. We should not give up."

[madhatted]

[ Break notes that petulant tone and is honestly a bit surprised by it, but he just shakes his head. ]

You're mistaking bravery for recklessness. It's not brave to go about things as she does. [ He sighs, then figures this is as good of a time as any to bring it up, ] For an example not related to this, somehow, she came across the knowledge that I work for Yao, which is curious considering only you and my closest of friends know. It is reckless for her to approach one of them thinking that she was warning them, because of course, this information got back to me.

[ Pointedly, ] Had things proceeded differently, I would have had to eliminate her, Cecil. So it's reckless for her to throw around her weight, so to speak, then be ignorant or oblivious to its consequences. The well included. It is no longer bravery to speak nice words when it is your own fault to have been there in the first place.

[weirdatlast]

Sometimes bravery and recklessness are the same thing.

We are not brave men, you and I. We know what is a reckless act before it happens, and we never do it. Because it is reckless. Because we would be caught. Because we know what being caught means.

Yuuki was reckless. She did not know what that meant, but she knew it meant something. And when she was faced with punishment, she tried still to do what was reckless.

I stopped her. I had her Zero stop her, because I am not a brave man, and neither is he. Because we are not reckless men. But Yuuki? Yuuki fought. Even powerless. Even knowing the consequences. She tried. She tried, and she tried to help us also, knowing what we are.

Yuuki is nothing less than brave.

[madhatted]

I disagree.

[ He disagrees in a way that he would never express willingly, because his past is something that Break keeps well guarded. But recklessness in the face of consequences you knew would only be terrible, it would never be brave to him. When he was a younger man, he had been reckless in this way, refused anything to the contrary, because he had to try. That was the way Kevin Regnard had felt.

And 116 innocent people had died for it. He had killed them purposefully, one by one, because even in the face of the impossible, if he only fought and tried, then something would come of it, surely. And Break had forgotten the lesson he had learned from this, and here he was again.

Recklessness was not brave. It was selfish, ultimately, and detestable. But he keeps the extent of how much he hates it to himself, because he would never explain why of his own volition. But in comparison to the serious, cold way he spoke a moment ago, his voice is suddenly light and cheery. ]

Bu~t at the same time, who knows~! Perhaps she's the noble heroine that will save us all from out plight, hm~? We can disagree about what's brave or not, but being effective doesn't necessarily require bravery! Perhaps just as much recklessness as you can muster.

[weirdatlast]

[ Cecil notices the shift, and it's hard not to, knowing Break as he does, in the context he does. And he's reminded vaguely of when Break had laughed that one time, after Sharon was laying between them dead.

It was a lie, though, what Cecil had said before. He and Break are brave men. They are not brave like Yuuki, but they are. In their own ways. ]

We'll see.