Who: Luther (Narrative) What: Beginning to question. Where: A playground on the other end of the city When: Immediately after this Warnings: N/A
Each person had their limit. Luther thought that recently, he'd expanded his. He tolerated living in a building with criminals who had free reign once a month, attacking the closest thing he had to a friend, and the level of insanity that existed in Bellum - something no person should have to deal with. He wasn't one to complain out loud and he'd dealt with it. Worked with it to keep his goals alive.
Having said goals pointed out as flawed was past his. His hands shook at the keyboard, barely able to tell the lie before slamming the lid of his laptop down. He was out, keys in pocket, gun tucked away in no time - out of HQ and to the streets. With his head faced forward and strides distanced, no one bothered him or tried to stop him. It fueled his irritation slightly, driving him to walk more briskly until he came to the playground several blocks away. He paused on one side of the chain-link fence, looking in.
Ten or twenty children were playing - a group of mothers to the side, watching as they chatted. His eyes left them and moved to the kids running around, before he slipped inside the grounds. Lips pressed together in a firm line as he made his way towards a bench away from the mothers - where he could watch the children, but not be in the way. It wasn't meant to disturb anyone after all. It was one of the last things he wanted to do - what he wanted was to simply calm down and think.
His mind went to the forum post of the irritating Romani girl (Not really, his mind did supply. It was only her fable after all.) The fact that she was infuriating didn't surprise him; if anything he'd have been more annoyed if she hadn't. Eponine and Nina had already fooled him, causing confusion between himself and Javert - Joanie caused a similar enough problem, as did the girl on the twelfth floor. But that wasn't the problem. Not truly. The joining in after he pointed the illegality of the action was what infuriated him.
Luther knew he was, at best, obsessed with keeping the law. Some even said he went overboard in his pursuits. He knew better - Javert knew better - Katya, even had before she left. (His mouth curved into something more bitter at that, something he couldn't help even after a few weeks had past.) He did what he did for the good; it made lives better. The fact that people constantly opposed him or what he stood for made them criminals. It was a simple fact that was backed by the laws he so dearly loved.
But even Joanie had joined in, calling him stupid for it. Luther's arms crossed in front of him, as a sudden shriek from one of the children filled the air. He watched a girl tumble down a slide, as the group of mothers ran towards her. A shake of the head and his eyes fell on his shoes once more. He was distracting himself and he knew it. It had only made things worse that she made sense - unlike the others with the triteness and made to infuriate tones. He knew Joanie well enough by now to know when she was teasing and when she was serious - even if it was the written word.
"She has to be wrong," he said under his breath. Arms tightened about him as he shook his head. "They all are." They had to be.
The Law was good. It righted things. It saved lives. He believed in it for a reason and stood for them because of it. They didn't understand it - and for that, Luther could almost pity them. They weren't patriotic, nor did they care for the very rules that kept them alive. Instead the incited chaos in the building, revelling in the fact that law had abandoned it. Something worse than anarchy had been created.
His fists tigthened from where they were clenched across his chest. The litle girl on the slide was picked up and pulled away from the others - kisses and band-aids pressed to her bruises. Something crossed his face for a moment, as he watched the innocent, before he let his head fall once more. Hands moved to his head as he dug the tips of his fingers into his hair.
"I'm doing what I can," he whispered. "And I will continue to do so, no matter what they say or do." There was no God, otherwise it'd be a promise to him. It was a promise to himself if nothing else - Luther didn't lie to himself, after all. He could face the facts and truth. "I swear it."