skyward_eyes | Who Needs Clubs to Fight?

Who Needs Clubs to Fight?

There are always reasons to fight. You fight to live. Fight to protect someone. Fight to get emotions out of your system. And fight to prove something. This is the latter type of fight. Honestly, Nida is pretty shocked he managed to convince Omega to meet him here today, to even entertain the idea of fighting with a 'kid.' But somehow he's managed it, and Nida stretches on the padded floor of the gym floor (took a decent bribe to get the front desk guy of the gym to look the other way, and a promise that Nida would clean up after), frowning across at Omega.

"So, we going for a fist fight? Because that's not what I'm hoping to teach Theta. I can only do basic martial arts. You know, normal self defense stuff. I'm going to teach him that too, but the goal is something a bit more... useful in a bad situation."

That brings his gaze to the padded leather case in the corner. Walking here with that had been hard, though finding a bo-staff online had been surprisingly easy. Not that he'd use that for this. No, tambo would be better for Theta, but staff would come later. Easy to improvise a pole after all.

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"Are you done making excuses for yourself?" Nida asks, hardly impressed. "You claim all these difficulties and pass them off on your other brother. Face it, you both failed. "Complain all you want about the other people who affect his life, that doesn't make what you did any less bad. Shouting at him, blaming him for things he can't control, sheltering him from these assholes so he can't grow up strong enough to face them with a bored look because they are just another close-minded asshole. He's thirteen, Omega. He shouldn't be cowering, and you and your brother did that."

He's an eighteen year old man, not a boy, and he knows quite a bit about suffering. About different children getting treated worse, or people getting ignored. He's had friends die, he's killed, and he has seen true fear in people's eyes. And Theta? Theta is a bad case.

"You call him a manipulative little twit, but you're a sanctimonious, superior asshole who should know better than to discard me just because of my age, because you know what people put in a bad position can do, even young. He's a kid that has never lied to me, except about the things he's clearly been told to lie about. And it's only because you can't begin to comprehend my training that you think I'd fall for a child pumping out lies."

He shrugs, but he doesn't close the distance between him. "I don't know what shit you grew up around, Omega. I can only begin to imagine and it's not a good image, even when compared with how fucked up your world and mine both are. But if you think he doesn't get that it's hard, that things are bad, then you're more blind than he is deaf. Children see problems. They know tension. He doesn't want to be the center of the universe, he wants to feel safe. And when the man who is supposed to protect him breaks down into violence regularly, then of course he won't tell you the truth. Not all of it. He can't learn while you're coddling him. Not to be strong. But he can learn fear. He can learn that he's going to be sheltered so he doesn't have to be brave or strong. He can learn to depend on someone, not to be dependable."

He lowers his staff and rolls his shoulders before he turns and heads for his staff case. This fight is as pointless with words as it is with blows. Omega won't take him seriously either way.

"You're more pathetic than him, because you're hiding from your own role in all of this. So I guess the question is whether you want him to be dependent on you forever or if you're willing to let him grow into his own life. Heard you weren't big on it with your other brother Sigma. So I guess you have a trend going on. Congratulations on sucking."

Oh good. He's putting away his stick. That means Omega isn't going to be hit with it again, which means he's winning.

And it doesn't matter what names Nida calls him. Tex thinks he's doing a good job, and Florida thinks he's a good man, and that's almost enough. And anything with Theta is between him and Theta, Nida need not intervene.

But that doesn't mean Omega is going to let him walk away. "And what would you have done differently, oh master of all knowledge?" It's easy to talk theoretical. It's considerably harder when it's real life, messy and on a deadline. "When he came home bruised and bleeding, would you have sent him away? When someone threatened to kill him, to mail him to us piece by piece, would you leave him with a man who can't even defend himself or a woman who couldn't be touched? And don't drag Sigma into this, don't let him tell you we didn't have legitimate concerns about him dying of scurvy."

Omega's done his best, and no it's not good enough, but he doesn't need some kid who's never been responsible for anyone else tell him what to do. Keeping them alive is one thing. When has Nida done the day in, day out work? Where there's no glory and no easy answers and something that seems so harmless becomes a disaster weeks later.

"What's it going to take for you to admit you have no idea what you're talking about. Because you really, really don't."

Winning isn't at all what Omega is doing. Nida is just exercising a lesson in 'there is no talking to a wall.'

"I'd have taught him to fight and stand up for himself sooner. He didn't end up like that until I taught him how to defend himself, and he will get better. If someone threatened him, I'd hunt them down and leave him with people he trusts in a secure location. Give him the familiar and the secure. I would be honest to a degree, because he needs it, but I wouldn't shout at him. I wouldn't hurt his brother. And by Hyne, kids are stronger than you think. You let them understand. You try and protect them without ignoring what they need. And he needs a brother who doesn't blame him for being a kid."

With that he shoulders the sealed case and picks up the tambo. "Turns out you're a scared kid too. Except someone thrust responsibility on you before you were capable of handling it. I'm sorry they did that to you, Omega. I'm sorry that whoever hurt you did that. But I have no intention of letting Theta stay like this. I'm going to teach him, and I'm going to do my best to try and help him find the things that you either couldn't or wouldn't give him. Because he's a thirteen year old child who had never heard of an orphanage, Omega, because you work too hard to keep quiet and pretend it's okay when kids can get that it's not."

At last he twists to look at the other man. "You're a kind of coward that I don't know how to help. Maybe there is no helping. Your family has suffered. I don't know how. I just know it's true. And I don't care if you think it's wrong for me to try and catch some of what has fallen through the cracks. I'm going to do it anyway."

Finally, something Omega can work with. "Clearly, you've never tried to get a kid to do anything," he snarls. "Because Theta's a person, not a robot. There's no magic way to make him do any goddamn thing he doesn't feel like doing. And you're going to learn real fast the only way to force someone is to smack them around, hold that over their head -and that's something I refuse to do."

He doesn't listen to anything beyond Nida's laughably naive idea that anyone under the age of twenty-five can be reasoned with. The prefrontal cortex doesn't fully develop until mid-twenties, and sometimes Omega has to step in to keep someone from getting hurt, simply because one brother's brain or another's can't physically make the connection that he's being an idiot

"And you assume a lot there, that we didn't teach him. That we don't care about him. Is that what it is? You think my baby brother got lost in the shuffle, fell through the cracks, and all you have to do is show up and wave your magic wand and fix everything for him? Guess what. That's not going to happen. You're not a wizard."

Omega doesn't yell, keeps his voice low. "You sure you really care about him? Or just your own ego? Because otherwise you're going to be in for a real rude awakening when you realize he ain't a doll you can pose however you like."

"You did lose him in the shuffle, and there is no magic to fix that. But I'm going to see if I can't do what you obviously couldn't."

With that Nida heads out. There is no reason to listen to this guy.

Game, set, match. Omega wins by default which, honestly, is the only way he'll ever win. "I'm not saying he's a liar," Omega says, even though he is. "I'm just saying you only have Theta's side of the story."

And apparently Omega needs to have a conversation with the grape soda.

"You're a pathetic coward who is going to take this as a win," Nida says before his pushes through the door of the workout room. "Remember it's not a win when you didn't land more than a single blow on me. And you haven't won this fight, no matter what you think."

Omega follows him, because he's not letting Nida deny his victory. Also he's sore as shit and the medicine cabniet is this way. "You walk away, I'm still standing, that's a win, tiger. I make different choices than you, I ain't a coward. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'm not going to say it's because you don't have kids of your own, but you seem unwilling to think it all the way through."

Omega's still angry, still seething, but quietly. Coldly. "You need me and Delta to be pathetic. You need us to have failed. Because you need Theta to be broken, so you can fix him. What are you going to do when you realize the kind of broken we are, there's no fixng?"

Because fuck this kid, showing up and assuming Omega and Delta hadn't done their best. Assuming they didn't care. Where was he when the twins showed up on their doorstep and someone had to stay home with them? Where was he when Gamma's math teacher came looking for their parents? He didn't see the nights Omega stayed up with Theta, the days Delta carried him home. He didn't know what he was talking about.

Because they tried, they tried so hard, they did everything they could and they still failed. They still fucked Theta up. And maybe it made other people feel better to think that they had control over him, that they weren't powerless.

But some things get broken and they can't be fixed.

Still standing? Really? He thinks that makes him a winner? Nida twirls quickly, the Tambo sliding into his hands. With these he can be fast, really fast. Blows to both shoulders, a twist as he goes down to sweep his legs with a kick, the cases staff on his back spinning with him at gut level. Even then he whacks at where the knees will be if the man jumps, blows that would strike ribs if Omega falls. Then he'd back on his feet, stepping back and dipping into a ready stance.

"You are going to stay on the floor or I am going to break your job."

Omega goes down like a ton of bricks, totally unprepared and off-guard. But he climbs back up to his feet, grinning. "Hit me as much as you want, it won't change the fact. You don't care about Theta nearly as much as your own ego."

Okay, broken jaw it is. Again Nida's forward, whirling the case of his staff off of his back as he moves. While the thing doesn't come out of the case, he does manage to easily crack the staff right across Omega's jaw.

Omega takes the hit and wow, that's a lot more painful than he was expecting. But it did get Nida close enough, and hopefully distracted enough, for Omega to aim a shovel hook to Nida's solar plexus.

And then he falls back on the balls of his feet, arms up in guard position, smiling with blood on his teeth.

Seriously? Nida stumbles back half a step, his breath barely gone. Apparently he didn't hit hard enough because he was trying NOT to knock the man out. Or break his neck. Dammit.

Dammit. The staff gets tossed aside and with the tambo still in hand he advances back. They're as long as his forearm each, and it doesn't give him quite the same range as the staff, but it's there. He looses his grip on one Tambo, letting it slide down his arm for blocking and uses the other to last out, slamming for Omega's shoulder again. With that fake coming he steps in and jabs at Omega's chest with the reinforced weight of the tambo behind his punch.

Omega's been hit enough by Nida to know he starts with a fakeout. So he turns into the shoulder blow to avoid whatever Nida's planning with his other hand, uses the momentum to throw a one-two combo at Nida's head. Now that the staff is out of play, Omega can use the height difference to what advantage he can get.

And Zell is far faster than that. AS the fists come for his head Nida is ducking under and stepping even further forward, until Omega's space. Again the tambo jabs forward, this time not a fake. This time it's a full on, hard strike right into the middle of Omega's knee. The second and third blows come immediately, a whack at the opposite hit, and the other rod tucked behind the injured leg and hauling forward hard to pull the man off of his feet.

"You're shit at this."

Omega is, he really is. As he goes down, the best he can do is try to fall into Nida, take the boy down with him.

"And you're shit at helping Theta," he throws out. Hey, there's an idea. Make Nida mad enough to throw the sticks at Omega and then Omega can kick them into the corner. That's a great plan.

"See, if you really cared about him, you'd be asking what we did before. What works, what doesn't, what's already been tried. Not hitting me to prove a fact that was never in doubt. You don't care about Theta. You just want me to think you're better than me."

Hard to fall into someone who is pulling your legs out from under you. It takes nothing at all to pin the man down, weapons pressed together against his throat, not quite enough pressure to cut off all breathing, but making the man struggle for air will be a delight.

"What works for you as a shit parent won't be the same as what works for a friend. But I do intend to ask Delta, and Sigma. Not someone who scares Theta. Not someone who gets what he wants with violence, threatened or not. And I am done playing with you, old man. You have four years too little training to keep up with me in a fight. Must hurt that pride, but I couldn't give a fuck for that."

Points clearly fly over the head of the older man, why bother talking.

Still...

"You should consider joining those UNSC people here. Sounds like your level of incompetence would fit right in."

One stick comes from omega's neck and he delivers a single, careful blow to the side of the head. If he is lucky the man will pass out. If he's not then he will at least leave the man dizzy enough so that he can easily get to his feet and grab his stuff again. And as he walks away he scoffs a little to himself.

"I'll call a cab for you and cover it."

Whether omega hears it or not does not concern him.

This is going to be really hard to explain to Delta. "I hope you don't intend to hit him too," Omega calls after him. "Seeing as he's the only one to hit his brother ever."

Okay, Omega is not getting up. Ever. He's just going to spend the rest of his life on the floor because there is no way he is explaining what happened to anyone. "Man, to be a fly on the wall when Theta finds out what you did."

Because whatever Nida thinks, whatever Theta's been saying, he knows Theta's not afraid of him. It's very simple. Theta doesn't want Omega to leave him, doesn't want Omega out of their room or out of the house. Only when Omega asks him to do something he doesn't want to do.

And. Yeah. Floor good. No more hitting.

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Who Needs Clubs to Fight?

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Omega is a marvelous asshole, capable of great feats of mental gymnastivs and cognitive dissonance

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Omege got his ass beat and he's going to be ruminating on what Nida said for a damn long time.

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DID NOT THINK THIS PLAN ALL THE WAY THROUGH

Re: DID NOT THINK THIS PLAN ALL THE WAY THROUGH

I look like an idiot shadowboxing in my living room.

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