Hadriel IC Contact

[solvethepuzzle]

"This is Near. I assume you know what to at this point."
Text | Voice | Video
(Good luck ever getting video from him. But if you want to . . .)

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[solvethepuzzle]

[He is not quite certain how to take that, and thus he files it away for later analysis. It's as openly as Mello has ever stated such a thing, and sounds like a logical key to his final act back home. That Mello feels strongly about him is something that has never been in question, but that particular angle is not one that Near has ever quite considered a legitimate possibility.]

I didn't have any such person. [Par for the course, for the other people he's been. Very few of them had anyone significant in their lives by the time of the Jaunt. And even if he had, so long as they'd been loyal to him . . . Indigo would have had no issue, loyalty being part of his domain, and such. Not that Near has ever bothered to mention that aspect.

[Hm. Well, that certainly explains why the demon had referred to him as "mage". He keeps winding his finder in his hair.] Acts that are separate from you. [In Near's mind, at least. Anyone else, he'd be more than willing to blame for the situation, but Mello is and always has been different.] And the demon is gone.

[torrefied]

[If it were anyone else who'd been affected like this by the demon's actions - anyone other than Near, L, and Sharon - Mello wouldn't have as many damns to give about this as he does. Other people have always been collateral damage in his schemes, other people have often suffered as a result of the mistakes he's made over the years; he thinks, briefly, about Rod and the rest of the Mafia, falling down screaming and then dead in that warehouse last November, and he thinks about Matt, who will be killed in helping him enact his final stratagem against Kira, unless Mello is able to alter that path for him. With the exception of Matt, Mello hasn't regretted their fates, because those other lives were an entirely acceptable cost to be paid toward reaching his goals.

But Near and L and Sharon are different. Mello does care if they're caught in the crossfire of his missteps. And he isn't willing to sacrifice any of them.]

We can sit here and debate ethics and responsibility all day, Near - it won't accomplish anything. That demon may be gone, but there's no guarantee it won't come back, and I think we've both been here long enough to know that we can expect something just as bad or worse to strike before too long. I'm not willing to create a situation where I'll end up endangering you again. You -

[Mello tips up his head again, brushes his hair out of his face, allows his gaze to fall on Near again. This brand of honesty is a bad idea and he knows it, but he's already come this far, hasn't he. This bell cannot be unrung, so he may as well ring it louder. His mouth presses into a thin line for a moment as he inhales a deep, fortifying breath in preparation for the truthbomb that falls out of his mouth in the next instant:]

You're too important.