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DMITRI "RAVEN" RAVINOFF
Aug. 25th, 2012 09:33 am» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Sharo
Current AGE: 26
Personal JOURNAL: http://jasharo.dreamwidth.org/
IM & SERVICE: AIM | lokilovekissface
Player PLURK: n/a
Current CHARACTERS: n/a
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Dmitri “Raven” Ravinoff
Canon & MEDIUM: Snow Crash - novel
Canon PULL-POINT: Raven was stalking through the LAX airfield, looking for Uncle Enzo so he could assassinate the Mafia leader. He has just finished slitting the throat of the last man on Uncle Enzo's security team and is padding noiselessly through the grounded planes in search of the man.
Character AGE: 33-ish.
Character ABILITIES: Raven is extremely skilled at fashioning bladed weapons from bamboo, wood, and plate glass. He actually chips his long glass knives until the cutting edge is sharp enough to cut effortlessly through bulletproof material and most light armors- his knives are rumored, in the novel, to be at a molecule's thickness on the sharp edge. Raven's father was his tribe's chief harpooner for a time, and he taught Raven to make a living for most of his teens and adult years harpooning in the northernmost waters of the Pacific Ocean. In addition to operating harpoons, he is adept at using his home-made spears (against marine life as well as humans) and is a reasonably talented knife-thrower. He is also a skilled kayaker, able to easily outmaneuver and outrun motorized boats several times his kayak's size. He is an efficient, unschooled marauder on the battlefield, partially because he moves extremely quickly and silently, and partially because his size lends him a natural strength that enables him to force the blades of his knives deep inside or even straight through his victims' bodies.
Character HISTORY: Raven's childhood was marred by his father's bitterness. The senior Ravinoff had been an Aleutian-American POW in WW2, and had been held in a Japanese camp with other POWs relatively nearby a town, for about a year in 1944. He was an incredibly resourceful man- he was put to work in the kitchens of the camp, and after a year he staged a daring escape, another young POW at his side. They only made it so far before they stopped to argue about their next move- the other POW wanted to try to hide in the mountains, while the elder Ravinoff wanted to build a kayak and make an escape to friendly territory. While they were arguing, an aging general who had been at the camp caught up with them. The last thing Ravinoff remembered seeing- the last thing he ever saw- was the other POW, kneeling in the dirt with his hands tied behind his back and a katana being raised over his head, and then a sudden flash of white light from the direction of the town.
The town was Nagasaki, and Ravinoff's eyesight never recovered. The other POW had his back to the detonation, and he regained the use of his eyes after a few stunned moments. That POW managed to kill their captors and drag the now-blind Ravinoff to safety, until they were rescued by American forces a few weeks later.
Nearly thirty years later, Ravinoff- who was no longer young or agile enough to be a successful harpooner, despite having presumably adapted to his blindness- was skimming through the waters near the island of Amchitka when a sudden impact that shook the air itself nearly toppled him and his kayak and left his ears ringing. It was November 6th, 1971, and it was the second time Ravinoff witnessed the detonation of a nuclear weapon by the United States government. Dmitri Ravinoff was born a few months later.
Not much is known about Dmitri Ravinoff's childhood. His parents died when he was still a teenager, old enough to remember every detail of his father's stories and every skill his father had to teach him, and young enough to be psychologically scarred by the loss of his family and to direct his fury at the unfairness of his life at everyone and everything in the world. He swiftly became an alcoholic and found work harpooning near small coastal villages in Russia, Alaska, and Canada. It was during this time- undoubtedly while staying in an English-speaking franchise encampment- that he committed the crimes that led to his arrest and punishment, which consisted of a tattoo in block letters across his forehead : POOR IMPULSE CONTROL.
One night, in a drunken pique, Raven drifted out to sea in his kayak, forgotten (or, most likely, abandoned) by his colleagues. He spent days trying to reach land, of any sort, and was suffering from withdrawal by the time he found a village. This was an epiphany, for Raven- he gave up drinking completely, discovered religion and eschewed Western values and lifestyles. He also decided to end his cycle of self-loathing and self-harm by focusing all of his hatred and loathing on the United States of America, which by this point in history was already fractured into hundreds or even thousands of small, franchise-run city-states.
It helps that the first people Raven happened to run into on land was a franchise church owned and operated by L. Bob Rife, an industrialist who was studying ancient languages and the human brain with the sole purpose of reverting all of humanity back to a pre-Tower of Babel state, speaking one simple language and relinquishing all capability for independent thought. It's a power-hungry scheme worthy of any cinema super-villain, and one that Raven thinks is completely American in nature, but he can get behind a guy who understands how to wield power at its most basic form. It's not a crackpot scheme, either- the neurolinguistic virus Rife developed (discovered?) works, and is spreading across the continent like herpes, traveling by blood and used drug paraphernalia and entering directly into the nervous systems of its victims. So it's not really a question of if Rife's plan is going to work, but when.
And the answer to that question is now, thanks to Raven. After participating in something that can honestly and accurately be described as a bloodbath, Raven got his hands on a nuclear missile from an ex-Soviet sub and transports it wherever he goes, in the sidecar of his massive Harley. He also had a trigger for the missile implanted in his brain and set to go off the moment Raven dies, which- conveniently enough- has given him what amounts to an actual license to kill, since most police and militia forces would rather not have to deal with a nuclear detonation in the middle of heavily populated areas.
Raven's been sober eight years now. He plans on using his literal nuke and his connections to Rife to destroy what's left of the America that he feels wronged him, and then plans on coasting through the rest of his life. He's been growing his thick black hair since before he gave up the drink, and he's been growing a wispy Fu Manchu mustache for a little over a year. Before recently, he hadn't been with a woman since the last time he drank, but in the last few hours he has actually managed to have sex with a woman who works as a skateboard courier. He thinks they've made a genuine connection- they're both mentally immune to the brainwashing cult of Rife, they both like surfing, and the last time he saw her, she orchestrated her own rescue from a hostage situation by summoning twenty-five hundred other couriers and then actually managed to cripple Rife's helicopter in mid-air with a steel cable. Then again, she's a fifteen year old girl who's ideologically opposed to everything Raven's been working for, has been helping the Mafia combat Rife's plans, drugged Raven into unconsciousness post-coitus, and flipped Raven the bird. So that's a relationship that might need some working-on.
The last thing to happen to Raven, in his timeline, is this : after witnessing Rife's helicopter plummet, he was summoned, by Rife, to clear the Mafia forces out of LAX so that Rife can flee in his jet. Raven has already killed most of the sentries, and is stalking his final prey- current head of the Mafia and CEO of the CosaNostra Pizza Company, Uncle Enzo.
(As far as I can make out, Snow Crash takes place in a version of the year 2005 or so. I want to venture a guess that the timeline split around 1995 with the catastrophic collapse of the US economy.)
Character PERSONALITY: I understand the depth of your feelings,” Hiro said, “but don't you think you've had enough revenge?”
“There is no such thing as enough,” Raven said.
Raven is a crude, rough-mannered giant of a man, a great white shark given human form. He knows his reputation for unfettered, deadly violence precedes him, and he uses it to his advantage. He doesn't need to explode into silent, furious retribution every time he's jostled, because people who spend any amount of time around him will go far and beyond out of their ways to make sure he's given a wide berth. He does, however, explode into silent, furious retribution, because killing other people is good for the soul, and because he really does like his space.
By and large, there is actually very little about other people that Raven respects or cares for. He doesn't tend to murder children, although that really has more to do with the fact that most children fear and avoid him, anyway. He doesn't have any compunctions about murdering or maiming teenagers or anyone who looks like an adult, though they do have to do something to incite his wild and fatal temper. Raven's disgust for humanity in general runs deep- he does not kill people because he wants or needs to, he doesn't have any urge to kill or, in fact, interact with people at all. However, being around people tends to bring out the worst in Raven- they're always doing something, saying something, working against him, or working ineptly for him. There's always something.
Raven discovered religion in the form of a blend of Russian Orthodox and Pentecostal Christianity. It's hard to say how much of it is actually affecting him. He does espouse a “clean” lifestyle- clean compared to his old life, anyway. He doesn't drink, he doesn't engage in premarital sex (often), he stays away from drugs and he doesn't go out and pick fights without specific consequences in mind. He has some rough idea of right and wrong based in Christian morality, but in his mind, the drive to accomplish the ultimate act of revenge supersedes all other concepts. There are no innocent bystanders- virtually anyone standing and breathing on the North American continent, or in Raven's line of vision, is just one more potential tally-mark for Raven's long and bloody one-man war to get some justice for his father.
Raven does not take well to being controlled. The nice thing, though, about having such a pure, unadulterated ambition as Raven's, is that it's not something that can be manipulated by outside forces. L. Bob Rife thinks he's controlling Raven in this scheme, and Raven knows that the instant Rife's goals are accomplished, he'll slice Rife open stem to stern and take off on his Harley in search of the next pack of idiots waiting to be dismembered. Or maybe he won't- with Rife in power, Raven stands a fairly good chance to get a little of that power, too. Maybe this scheme will cripple what's left of America just enough that maybe- just maybe- Raven will be free to go back to harpooning animals instead of people and can just never have to deal with another human again. Or if he does have to deal with other people, it'll be that girl YT that he's currently infatuated with.
Being physically and temporally removed from the time and place of his driving thirst for vengeance doesn't remove the driving thirst for vengeance from Raven. He's still angry, all the time. He's still disgusted by 98% of the population, no matter who or what they are. The only things that garner Raven's respect are the capacity for violence and an iron-willed inability to be a part of the herd. When he's still trying to figure out how to get out of here- not necessarily home, maybe just some nice island where he can build a shack and a kayak- Raven is going to be slightly- just slightly- less abrasive, and curb his murderous rampages just enough to figure out who he needs to work for or with to get what he wants. He's not entirely convinced all this is real- who knows, maybe Rife or Hiro or Mr. Lee managed to figure out a way to jack the Metaverse directly into people's heads, and this is all some kind of weird simulation designed to keep him from murdering the hell out of every one of those assholes.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: Harpoon. Raven doesn't care what kind of harpoon, as long as it's functioning and serviceable. He's had to make do with whatever he's had on hand, in the past, and besides, he can (and will) make his own weapons as he needs them. He trusts the weapons he crafts himself infinitely more than those that are handed to him. Out of sentimentality (and a sly sense of humor) Raven is already calling his new harpoon “Blondie.” His distrust for the weapon will probably mean he uses it very little, at least at first, but it's always nice to have someone to talk to.
Chosen SKILLSET:Fighter. Raven is definitely a fighter.
» SAMPLES
First PERSON:
[There are a few minutes of casual inspection, callused fingers nimbly dancing across his netbook with a look of utter disdain on Raven's tattooed face. He doesn't have anyone in particular to broadcast his message to, and he saves it to his netbook just... in case.]
“Well, this is a piece of shit. No Metaverse, just Flatland, huh?” [A soft, sneering sigh.]
“Hiro, if you're out there, hit me up. No hard feelings.” [A pause. He does genuinely respect Hiro, even if he does know that he'll kill the man the next time they meet.]
“Same with you, Y.T.” [Not that he expects her to take him up on it.]
“And, uh... yeah.” [He scrubs his hand over his chin, glancing off into the distance.]“Yeah, fuck it-” [The video cuts short.]
Third PERSON:
Things got slow, after Raven killed Lagos at the concert and then those Crips and cops at the hops field. There was one thing that made Raven sit up and pay attention, for a little while- that black guy with the katana, who has the impressive distinction of being possibly the only person to have ever survived having one of Raven's spears thrown directly at his chest. He survived because he dodged it, and anybody with enough awareness to do that might be an actual challenge. Maybe even an actual person, an equal.
Of course, as soon as things slowed down for Raven and he finally had a chance to take a few days to himself, he met YT. He found himself opening up to her, mainly because, out of all the poor souls Rife's people have kidnapped and captured and dragged on board the creaking monstrosity known as the Raft, she didn't let the brainwashing stick. She looked at him and was impressed- not unafraid, like the mindless Falabalas, and not terrified, like the peons around Raven. She saw him for who he was and that intrigued the hell out of Raven. He doesn't care that she knocked him out after their date, frankly. He can see himself marrying that girl.
Raven spared a brief moment, after releasing Rife's virus at that convention of hackers, to consider meeting Hiro on the field of battle, not in the Metaverse, but in Reality. Or maybe not on the field of battle. Maybe after everything's over, and Hiro and YT have nothing to fight for and nothing to fight over with Raven, and maybe Raven can actually hold conversations with people who have something to say.
Yeah, no. The moment ended and Raven climbed out of the helicopter, tossing the goggles and laptop with his Metaverse connection onto the seat. They're worth a lot of money, but they're utterly worthless to Raven- if he gets his way, the Metaverse will be a ghost world by this time next week.
Right now, Raven had a Mafioso to catch and kill. He drew his long knife, chipped painstakingly out of plate glass this morning, and crept up behind a security guard who really shouldn't be listening to his radio when there are psychopathic murderers stalking around behind him. There was a soft sigh, the barely audible sound of flesh opening up, and the man slumped to the ground, his throat a gaping smile.
Another guard turned a corner, and Raven threw a shorter knife- also glass- into his throat, the force of his throw propelling through the man's windpipe and an inch into his spinal column.
A third guard. Raven covered the man's mouth with one massive hand and gutted him from crotch to breastbone, the glass blade tearing through his body armor like wet tissue paper. The man fell with a wet splatter onto the concrete, drawing the next guard's attention. Raven slipped behind a baggage loader, watched the man rush to his fallen companion's side, cry out, “Al! My god, Al is dead!”
As if that's news. As if this isn't a war. As if these people didn't come here to kill or be killed.
Pathetic.
No one answered his cries. They're either all dead (highly likely) or Uncle Enzo (process of elimination) and Raven doesn't mind letting this last guy see him, or letting him try to scream. The scream dies off into a moist gasp as the air in his lungs rushes out through the wet hole created by the smooth curve of Raven's knife.
One left- the man Raven came for. Raven turned, balancing the lightweight blade across one hand, and began the search for Enzo himself.
» ADDITIONAL NOTES
Up to you guys whether Raven's nuke came with him.
Player NAME: Sharo
Current AGE: 26
Personal JOURNAL: http://jasharo.dreamwidth.org/
IM & SERVICE: AIM | lokilovekissface
Player PLURK: n/a
Current CHARACTERS: n/a
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Dmitri “Raven” Ravinoff
Canon & MEDIUM: Snow Crash - novel
Canon PULL-POINT: Raven was stalking through the LAX airfield, looking for Uncle Enzo so he could assassinate the Mafia leader. He has just finished slitting the throat of the last man on Uncle Enzo's security team and is padding noiselessly through the grounded planes in search of the man.
Character AGE: 33-ish.
Character ABILITIES: Raven is extremely skilled at fashioning bladed weapons from bamboo, wood, and plate glass. He actually chips his long glass knives until the cutting edge is sharp enough to cut effortlessly through bulletproof material and most light armors- his knives are rumored, in the novel, to be at a molecule's thickness on the sharp edge. Raven's father was his tribe's chief harpooner for a time, and he taught Raven to make a living for most of his teens and adult years harpooning in the northernmost waters of the Pacific Ocean. In addition to operating harpoons, he is adept at using his home-made spears (against marine life as well as humans) and is a reasonably talented knife-thrower. He is also a skilled kayaker, able to easily outmaneuver and outrun motorized boats several times his kayak's size. He is an efficient, unschooled marauder on the battlefield, partially because he moves extremely quickly and silently, and partially because his size lends him a natural strength that enables him to force the blades of his knives deep inside or even straight through his victims' bodies.
Character HISTORY: Raven's childhood was marred by his father's bitterness. The senior Ravinoff had been an Aleutian-American POW in WW2, and had been held in a Japanese camp with other POWs relatively nearby a town, for about a year in 1944. He was an incredibly resourceful man- he was put to work in the kitchens of the camp, and after a year he staged a daring escape, another young POW at his side. They only made it so far before they stopped to argue about their next move- the other POW wanted to try to hide in the mountains, while the elder Ravinoff wanted to build a kayak and make an escape to friendly territory. While they were arguing, an aging general who had been at the camp caught up with them. The last thing Ravinoff remembered seeing- the last thing he ever saw- was the other POW, kneeling in the dirt with his hands tied behind his back and a katana being raised over his head, and then a sudden flash of white light from the direction of the town.
The town was Nagasaki, and Ravinoff's eyesight never recovered. The other POW had his back to the detonation, and he regained the use of his eyes after a few stunned moments. That POW managed to kill their captors and drag the now-blind Ravinoff to safety, until they were rescued by American forces a few weeks later.
Nearly thirty years later, Ravinoff- who was no longer young or agile enough to be a successful harpooner, despite having presumably adapted to his blindness- was skimming through the waters near the island of Amchitka when a sudden impact that shook the air itself nearly toppled him and his kayak and left his ears ringing. It was November 6th, 1971, and it was the second time Ravinoff witnessed the detonation of a nuclear weapon by the United States government. Dmitri Ravinoff was born a few months later.
Not much is known about Dmitri Ravinoff's childhood. His parents died when he was still a teenager, old enough to remember every detail of his father's stories and every skill his father had to teach him, and young enough to be psychologically scarred by the loss of his family and to direct his fury at the unfairness of his life at everyone and everything in the world. He swiftly became an alcoholic and found work harpooning near small coastal villages in Russia, Alaska, and Canada. It was during this time- undoubtedly while staying in an English-speaking franchise encampment- that he committed the crimes that led to his arrest and punishment, which consisted of a tattoo in block letters across his forehead : POOR IMPULSE CONTROL.
One night, in a drunken pique, Raven drifted out to sea in his kayak, forgotten (or, most likely, abandoned) by his colleagues. He spent days trying to reach land, of any sort, and was suffering from withdrawal by the time he found a village. This was an epiphany, for Raven- he gave up drinking completely, discovered religion and eschewed Western values and lifestyles. He also decided to end his cycle of self-loathing and self-harm by focusing all of his hatred and loathing on the United States of America, which by this point in history was already fractured into hundreds or even thousands of small, franchise-run city-states.
It helps that the first people Raven happened to run into on land was a franchise church owned and operated by L. Bob Rife, an industrialist who was studying ancient languages and the human brain with the sole purpose of reverting all of humanity back to a pre-Tower of Babel state, speaking one simple language and relinquishing all capability for independent thought. It's a power-hungry scheme worthy of any cinema super-villain, and one that Raven thinks is completely American in nature, but he can get behind a guy who understands how to wield power at its most basic form. It's not a crackpot scheme, either- the neurolinguistic virus Rife developed (discovered?) works, and is spreading across the continent like herpes, traveling by blood and used drug paraphernalia and entering directly into the nervous systems of its victims. So it's not really a question of if Rife's plan is going to work, but when.
And the answer to that question is now, thanks to Raven. After participating in something that can honestly and accurately be described as a bloodbath, Raven got his hands on a nuclear missile from an ex-Soviet sub and transports it wherever he goes, in the sidecar of his massive Harley. He also had a trigger for the missile implanted in his brain and set to go off the moment Raven dies, which- conveniently enough- has given him what amounts to an actual license to kill, since most police and militia forces would rather not have to deal with a nuclear detonation in the middle of heavily populated areas.
Raven's been sober eight years now. He plans on using his literal nuke and his connections to Rife to destroy what's left of the America that he feels wronged him, and then plans on coasting through the rest of his life. He's been growing his thick black hair since before he gave up the drink, and he's been growing a wispy Fu Manchu mustache for a little over a year. Before recently, he hadn't been with a woman since the last time he drank, but in the last few hours he has actually managed to have sex with a woman who works as a skateboard courier. He thinks they've made a genuine connection- they're both mentally immune to the brainwashing cult of Rife, they both like surfing, and the last time he saw her, she orchestrated her own rescue from a hostage situation by summoning twenty-five hundred other couriers and then actually managed to cripple Rife's helicopter in mid-air with a steel cable. Then again, she's a fifteen year old girl who's ideologically opposed to everything Raven's been working for, has been helping the Mafia combat Rife's plans, drugged Raven into unconsciousness post-coitus, and flipped Raven the bird. So that's a relationship that might need some working-on.
The last thing to happen to Raven, in his timeline, is this : after witnessing Rife's helicopter plummet, he was summoned, by Rife, to clear the Mafia forces out of LAX so that Rife can flee in his jet. Raven has already killed most of the sentries, and is stalking his final prey- current head of the Mafia and CEO of the CosaNostra Pizza Company, Uncle Enzo.
(As far as I can make out, Snow Crash takes place in a version of the year 2005 or so. I want to venture a guess that the timeline split around 1995 with the catastrophic collapse of the US economy.)
Character PERSONALITY: I understand the depth of your feelings,” Hiro said, “but don't you think you've had enough revenge?”
“There is no such thing as enough,” Raven said.
Raven is a crude, rough-mannered giant of a man, a great white shark given human form. He knows his reputation for unfettered, deadly violence precedes him, and he uses it to his advantage. He doesn't need to explode into silent, furious retribution every time he's jostled, because people who spend any amount of time around him will go far and beyond out of their ways to make sure he's given a wide berth. He does, however, explode into silent, furious retribution, because killing other people is good for the soul, and because he really does like his space.
By and large, there is actually very little about other people that Raven respects or cares for. He doesn't tend to murder children, although that really has more to do with the fact that most children fear and avoid him, anyway. He doesn't have any compunctions about murdering or maiming teenagers or anyone who looks like an adult, though they do have to do something to incite his wild and fatal temper. Raven's disgust for humanity in general runs deep- he does not kill people because he wants or needs to, he doesn't have any urge to kill or, in fact, interact with people at all. However, being around people tends to bring out the worst in Raven- they're always doing something, saying something, working against him, or working ineptly for him. There's always something.
Raven discovered religion in the form of a blend of Russian Orthodox and Pentecostal Christianity. It's hard to say how much of it is actually affecting him. He does espouse a “clean” lifestyle- clean compared to his old life, anyway. He doesn't drink, he doesn't engage in premarital sex (often), he stays away from drugs and he doesn't go out and pick fights without specific consequences in mind. He has some rough idea of right and wrong based in Christian morality, but in his mind, the drive to accomplish the ultimate act of revenge supersedes all other concepts. There are no innocent bystanders- virtually anyone standing and breathing on the North American continent, or in Raven's line of vision, is just one more potential tally-mark for Raven's long and bloody one-man war to get some justice for his father.
Raven does not take well to being controlled. The nice thing, though, about having such a pure, unadulterated ambition as Raven's, is that it's not something that can be manipulated by outside forces. L. Bob Rife thinks he's controlling Raven in this scheme, and Raven knows that the instant Rife's goals are accomplished, he'll slice Rife open stem to stern and take off on his Harley in search of the next pack of idiots waiting to be dismembered. Or maybe he won't- with Rife in power, Raven stands a fairly good chance to get a little of that power, too. Maybe this scheme will cripple what's left of America just enough that maybe- just maybe- Raven will be free to go back to harpooning animals instead of people and can just never have to deal with another human again. Or if he does have to deal with other people, it'll be that girl YT that he's currently infatuated with.
Being physically and temporally removed from the time and place of his driving thirst for vengeance doesn't remove the driving thirst for vengeance from Raven. He's still angry, all the time. He's still disgusted by 98% of the population, no matter who or what they are. The only things that garner Raven's respect are the capacity for violence and an iron-willed inability to be a part of the herd. When he's still trying to figure out how to get out of here- not necessarily home, maybe just some nice island where he can build a shack and a kayak- Raven is going to be slightly- just slightly- less abrasive, and curb his murderous rampages just enough to figure out who he needs to work for or with to get what he wants. He's not entirely convinced all this is real- who knows, maybe Rife or Hiro or Mr. Lee managed to figure out a way to jack the Metaverse directly into people's heads, and this is all some kind of weird simulation designed to keep him from murdering the hell out of every one of those assholes.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: Harpoon. Raven doesn't care what kind of harpoon, as long as it's functioning and serviceable. He's had to make do with whatever he's had on hand, in the past, and besides, he can (and will) make his own weapons as he needs them. He trusts the weapons he crafts himself infinitely more than those that are handed to him. Out of sentimentality (and a sly sense of humor) Raven is already calling his new harpoon “Blondie.” His distrust for the weapon will probably mean he uses it very little, at least at first, but it's always nice to have someone to talk to.
Chosen SKILLSET:Fighter. Raven is definitely a fighter.
» SAMPLES
First PERSON:
[There are a few minutes of casual inspection, callused fingers nimbly dancing across his netbook with a look of utter disdain on Raven's tattooed face. He doesn't have anyone in particular to broadcast his message to, and he saves it to his netbook just... in case.]
“Well, this is a piece of shit. No Metaverse, just Flatland, huh?” [A soft, sneering sigh.]
“Hiro, if you're out there, hit me up. No hard feelings.” [A pause. He does genuinely respect Hiro, even if he does know that he'll kill the man the next time they meet.]
“Same with you, Y.T.” [Not that he expects her to take him up on it.]
“And, uh... yeah.” [He scrubs his hand over his chin, glancing off into the distance.]“Yeah, fuck it-” [The video cuts short.]
Third PERSON:
Things got slow, after Raven killed Lagos at the concert and then those Crips and cops at the hops field. There was one thing that made Raven sit up and pay attention, for a little while- that black guy with the katana, who has the impressive distinction of being possibly the only person to have ever survived having one of Raven's spears thrown directly at his chest. He survived because he dodged it, and anybody with enough awareness to do that might be an actual challenge. Maybe even an actual person, an equal.
Of course, as soon as things slowed down for Raven and he finally had a chance to take a few days to himself, he met YT. He found himself opening up to her, mainly because, out of all the poor souls Rife's people have kidnapped and captured and dragged on board the creaking monstrosity known as the Raft, she didn't let the brainwashing stick. She looked at him and was impressed- not unafraid, like the mindless Falabalas, and not terrified, like the peons around Raven. She saw him for who he was and that intrigued the hell out of Raven. He doesn't care that she knocked him out after their date, frankly. He can see himself marrying that girl.
Raven spared a brief moment, after releasing Rife's virus at that convention of hackers, to consider meeting Hiro on the field of battle, not in the Metaverse, but in Reality. Or maybe not on the field of battle. Maybe after everything's over, and Hiro and YT have nothing to fight for and nothing to fight over with Raven, and maybe Raven can actually hold conversations with people who have something to say.
Yeah, no. The moment ended and Raven climbed out of the helicopter, tossing the goggles and laptop with his Metaverse connection onto the seat. They're worth a lot of money, but they're utterly worthless to Raven- if he gets his way, the Metaverse will be a ghost world by this time next week.
Right now, Raven had a Mafioso to catch and kill. He drew his long knife, chipped painstakingly out of plate glass this morning, and crept up behind a security guard who really shouldn't be listening to his radio when there are psychopathic murderers stalking around behind him. There was a soft sigh, the barely audible sound of flesh opening up, and the man slumped to the ground, his throat a gaping smile.
Another guard turned a corner, and Raven threw a shorter knife- also glass- into his throat, the force of his throw propelling through the man's windpipe and an inch into his spinal column.
A third guard. Raven covered the man's mouth with one massive hand and gutted him from crotch to breastbone, the glass blade tearing through his body armor like wet tissue paper. The man fell with a wet splatter onto the concrete, drawing the next guard's attention. Raven slipped behind a baggage loader, watched the man rush to his fallen companion's side, cry out, “Al! My god, Al is dead!”
As if that's news. As if this isn't a war. As if these people didn't come here to kill or be killed.
Pathetic.
No one answered his cries. They're either all dead (highly likely) or Uncle Enzo (process of elimination) and Raven doesn't mind letting this last guy see him, or letting him try to scream. The scream dies off into a moist gasp as the air in his lungs rushes out through the wet hole created by the smooth curve of Raven's knife.
One left- the man Raven came for. Raven turned, balancing the lightweight blade across one hand, and began the search for Enzo himself.
» ADDITIONAL NOTES
Up to you guys whether Raven's nuke came with him.
