I could go on for years and years about Knives in Trimax, but THIS makes me physically unwell. Knives was the one who was constantly worrying that humans weren't going to accept him or Vash, and he was the one who first raised the question of becoming friends with humans, not Vash. When he asks Conrad (the second human he's ever met) what he thinks of him and Vash, there is a genuine fear of being rejected and is so relieved by Conrad's answer he cries. Knives is the sensitive, emotional child who needs the support of Vash, Rem and other humans to feel like he has a place in the world.
Conrad says if they can love someone with their whole heart, they'll be able to work and live together, but then what happens immediately after?
Knives and Vash discover Tesla. She is the only other Independent like them, and humans treated her like a science specimen and experimented on her body fell apart and she died horribly. Knives is 1 year old, and he's having to process THIS, knowing he can no longer trust any adult around him. Knives - again, remember he's the sensitive one - faints and Vash says he wishes he had also been able to cut himself off from the agony of the realisation too.
I absolutely adore that bottom panel of Knives' hope that they can coexist being stripped away. The boy he was just is not compatible with the world he finds himself in and this is the foundation of his adult self we see throughout the rest of Trimax.
With Knives unconscious, the focus then shifts to Vash who has the chance to confront Rem. It's incredibly significant that Knives is not part of that conversation and never lets himself be emotionally vulnerable around Rem again to have a similar talk with her where he might have been able to process his feelings like Vash did.
Vash actually tries to stab himself with a knife (and there's metaphors in that for someone else to unpack) and Rem prevents him, injuring herself in the process. Vash then turns against Rem and tries to kill her, severely wounding her and saying he won't shed a single tear for her before suddenly becoming overwhelmed by remorse and rushing to save her. Vash, who had been refusing food, then finally starts to eat as Rem tells him he's got a blank ticket to the future and not to throw his life away because there are good people out there. Only after Rem and Vash have come to this truce / understanding does Knives wake up.
He has realised that Rem not only knew about Tesla, not only kept her a secret, but was also involved in her abuse. He goes from having a heart absolutely bursting with love and hope, to learning that even the person he loved was capable of unspeakable violence against his kind. His childhood, his dreams, his support is all taken from him, and when Vash seems to forgive and forget, he's also cut off from the one person who could fully understand him. He either genuinely forgets or (what I think is more likely) pretends to have no memory of the discovery. This is where Knives is separated from both Vash and humans, and this is the point where he starts on his path of no return.
KNIVES was the one who loved humans, who was deeply deeply upset at the thought of not being accepted by them. When he finds Tesla, he realises he and Vash can never be fully accepted or fully safe, and his actions are driven from this (justified) fear of what people will do to him if they find him. But he knows he is stronger and smarter than humans, he knows that he has the power and ability to protect himself, Vash and future Independents from suffering Tesla's fate. Knives was and is right about humans posing an existential threat to Plants, both dependent and independent, and his decision to crash the ships was not done out of malice but terror. Knives NEVER took the first shot. If Tesla hadn't been murdered, I really, really doubt he would have turned out the way he did.
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gonna get personal in the tags sorryyyyy
shit i ran out of tags to use GKBKGKDKKDBJDMBMN ok rest under a read more 😭
so okay basically my doctor said sure i'll write you the prescription and also wait should i add it to your regularly taken meds page (so i can request it with a click when i run out)? and i was like yeah that'd be nice and i tried to explain that i thought i would only need for a short period of time but i still need it after many months so... but like he didn't care about the why lol
and anyway now that this has happened i'm like. gonna try to Stop doing what i was doing. there is no good reason to be in pain all the time and make my life harder when taking that dose of my med was working okay and making things considerably better. i don't need to punish myself. this is like so so so hard for me to internalize. being disabled is not a fault. even if it might be my "fault", even if i lowkey feel like i might have contributed to the condition i am in with like, bad choices or whatever, it's still not right to punish myself for it. i'm already unwell, i'm already suffering, what's making it worse gonna do to help? why do i need to feel worse just so i can think i got what i deserve for being in pain in the first place?
so yeah. going back to the higher dose. i hope that makes me feel less pain. i hope i can work without hating every second of it again. i do still hope one day i can get better and not need this med anymore, it's not like i've given up on that bc tbh a lot's still unclear and i will try and see if i can find answers. but in the meantime, no more punishing myself. i need to be okay. i want to be okay.
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it’s nice to finally lose to emotional attachment to him. i don’t know him anymore. just a stranger with memories. but i’m FREE. I LOST AN EMOTIONAL ABUSER, i didn’t loose. i won myself.
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sorry , i've got … i've got a lot of work to do .
WHERE MOMENTS BEFORE HE WAS ALL FIRE, IT TAKES ONLY THOSE FEW WORDS TO TURN TRISTAN TO STONE. somehow, he manages to avoid flinching in the face of cassian’s practiced apathy. nothing creeps beneath his skin worse than being treated like just anyone by the one person who knows him best of all — especially because it means @k4ssa knows there’s no better way to make him feel small. tris casts his gaze around the disorganized workshop, the captain’s haven in the bowels of yavin iv, and for a moment, he sees the hours upon hours he’s spent here with him flash before his eyes. nothing and nobody else ever would have brought him to this planet. he’d never developed a taste for any of this, for the martyrdom, for the fight against one tyrant that he’s sure will immediately create another. he stays for one reason, for one person, because he needs cassian … and cass needs at least someone who places his wellbeing over some intangible ideal.
a thankless goddamned job, clearly. exhibit a: this fucking conversation.
“ you always do these days, don’t you, ” tristan answers in little more than a hiss, a sneer. standing, he kicks the chair he had been sitting in back against the table with a loud clang. there has always been so much love between them, enough to nearly suffocate him, but that love has many dimensions, comes with baggage that has built and built over the years until tris swears he can feel his back physically strain with the weight of it all. “ fine. you want me gone, I’m gone. just do me a favor, cass, and don’t fucking apologize to me when you’re not actually sorry. I can read it all over your face, even with this bullshit ice queen act of yours. ”
it’s a dance they’re used to doing by now. cassian pushes him aside for his rebellion again and again, utterly obtuse and willfully ignorant to tristan’s motivations, even though there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to read them, brilliant as he is. tristan lashes out, grasping him violently close with one hand while pushing him away with the other, seeking to wound, seeking to punish at times, to force cassian to feel some fraction of his own agony, his own sense of worthlessness. it is as if to remind him, you may hold more power over me than I do over you, but don’t forget I can still hurt you back. he can’t successfully pretend at this point in his miserable life that he simply doesn’t care about his lover, that he could walk away permanently without tearing away a vital part of himself — but he certainly has a storied history of being willing to harm himself deeply for lesser reasons and he’s more than willing to allow that silent threat to linger, to make cass wonder if he might actually follow through one day, despite the damage it would do to him, too. it’s his only defense.
“ don’t call, ” he snaps as he strides toward the exit. please call, echoes in the back of his mind, almost in a whimper, all the more pathetic and humiliating, all the more reason to push himself out the door before he can embarrass himself further. “ I know when I’m not wanted. trust me. plenty of experience. I’m sure all your rebels will throw a goddamned party when they realize I’m gone. a win for everyone, it seems. enjoy your work, captain. ” he braces himself as he pushes through the far door, jaw set and brow furrowed, all coiled and furious energy, each step more determined than the last, despite the way each one tears at his chest.
if only he weren’t already silently willing cassian to call him back.
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