#one of them surviving is cruel | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

alexiethymia · 1 year

Text

If I could gif, I would probably gif three scenes. The ‘what rope’ scene where Vash calls Meryl and Roberto his friends so that the townspeople of Jeonora Rock don’t lynch them, and then the scene where Vash says Meryl and Roberto aren’t his friends to Wolfwood when they separate on the Sand Steamer and Wolfwood calls him cold, and finally the scene where Luida definitively calls Meryl, Roberto, and Wolfwood his friends when he first wakes up.

It’s such a nice progression of his bonds in such a few number of episodes. For all that Vash is a nice guy, and has people he helps, and even family in the form of the people in Home, it’s possible Meryl, Roberto, and Wolfwood are his first friends. It’s only when the three stick by him even after Monev and finding out that he’s a Plant, that it really dawns on him that huh in his hundred years alive, he may have finally found his first friends.

Vash isn’t naive. He knows the capacity of people to betray his trust. He’s resigned to it in a way. But he still extends that trust to people. The plan to stop the Sand Steamer wouldn’t have worked without Meryl. But Vash still leaves the task to her without any assurance that she would do her part. At the same time, I get the feeling that he wouldn’t have blamed her if she did decide to run away, same as Roberto was telling her. And it’s such a wonderful thing that through the friendships he formed with Meryl, Wolfwood, and Roberto, the trust that he freely gives is finally reciprocated. (And of course he would always have faith, what with his experiences with Rem, Luida, Brad and the people in Home).

In the same way, Vash saves what was precious to Wolfwood which was the orphanage, Wolfwood eventually gets to return the favor in saving Meryl. Even though it was out of order, you can also look at it as Meryl saving Vash, who saved Wolfwood at the Sand Steamer, who eventually ends up saving Meryl. Even Roberto, cynical as he is, does end up advising Vash on occasion.

People get hurt. People die. It’s a dangerous world they live in. But it’s nice that Vash who always asks if people ‘need a hand’ eventually meets ordinary people who also ask him if he ‘needs a hand’ sometimes too.

#trigun #trigun stampede #taggin #vashmeryl #because fave always #but really it’s the friendship that gets me #vash eventually comes to trust the three of them #not because of their words but because of their actions #and I guess that’s why I like vashmeryl so much #because of the friendship and trust #I really loved the dynamic of the four of them #rip roberto gone too soon #I really liked the touches of ordinary heroism #like how rosa was trying to help meryl even though the bombs were attaching themselves to her too #or that one julai soldier who made sure he was far away from the others when he was about to blow up #like nebraska jr. too #or how heartbroken that one julai soldier who shot vash was because of his friend #which makes it heartbreaking when they turn away from vash because these are good and decent folk #but survival forces them to be cruel #nicholas wolfwood #roberto de niro

1K notes · View notes

uncanny-tranny · 6 months

Text

If I'm honest, the whole "love in every stitch" saying for fiber artists does not apply to me, like. I'm trying to get this fucking hook into stubborn yarn and I'll be stabbing it like it owed me money. Is that love because I hope not 😭💀

#art #crochet #honestly the closest thing i feel to love when crocheting is this feeling that this is bigger than me if that makes sense...#...i think it'sthe feeling of knowing how old the craft itself is and knowing that millions of people have done the same as you...#...millions of people have stabbed their crochet hook into the yarn because it's stubborn but so are you...#...millions of people in the past have sat and devoted their time and effort into all of this...#...millions of people have passed on this knowledge and kept this thing alive...#...and it's the feeling of knowing that humans across millenia aren't THAT different #to our core we are more or less similar - across the ages across the colours across everything. that really comforts and humbles me #have you looked up ancient textiles? because that also sparks these emotions in me #it makes me think about the tupes of people to make the textile but also about who wore it #and so many of them are still beautiful and colourful and it shows you SO MUCH about the people who made them #even the ones that are tattered and faded and stripped of colour still feel beautiful...#...because it has SURVIVED. it is evidence of a people who made it and a people who had technical skills #and THIS is why i HATE HATE HATE the idea that ancient people were just 'dumb' and 'uneducated'#that is so unfair to them and cruel and just. wrong. (and often it reeks of white supremacy)#i'm sorry i rant and rave about this so much but i canNOT be normal about this. i can't be normal about humanity #i am learning to love humanity and learn about us and learn everything and it'll never be enough - i will never know enough #i will never know everything about everybody and it will be the death of me #okay the only thing i liked about the greatest showman movie was Never Enough because that is me thinking about all this

300 notes · View notes

laniidae-passerine · 5 months

Text

I made my post about Dean Highbottom and then as I was writing my tags realised that his Hunger Games counterpart is Haymitch. and now my head is in my hands and I don’t think I’ll ever recover

#IM GOING TO CRY. I am part of the system I never wanted anything to do with it #I killed so many people without laying a hand on them. I never ever asked for this. I tried to say no. my hands are still bloody.#both turned to drugs to cope. both had a mentee who reminded them of someone they hated so much #(snow reminded the dean of his old friend. katniss reminded haymitch of himself)#both knew exactly how the games worked and all of its consequences because one made it and the other lived it #both lived in the shadows of the past and never really got out from it #but in the end one of them chose to be cruel to the children who they were asked to mentor #and the other loved even when it was killing him #god. twenty three years and they never managed to drown the fire out of him. his heart broke again and again #but he held onto those shards even as they made his hands bleed. and then one day two children appeared and pieced it back together #and some of it was missing and always would be. you can’t undo twenty three years of alcoholism and pain and grief and self loathing #but a lot of it was still there. far more than he ever even believed could have survived #Haymitch I love youuuuuuuuu I will always love you #and Dean Highbottom you were kinda cringe and lame. guynobody ass bitch. do better #haymitch abernathy #dean highbottom #thg #the hunger games #a ballad of songbirds and snakes #abosas

151 notes · View notes

sailing-ever-west · 4 months

Text

it's not really what happens in canon as far as I can tell but I'm rotating the idea that when Chopper joins the crew and starts desperately people-pleasing and allowing himself to suffer thinking that's what it takes to be accepted and loved, something in Sanji goes "O h ." and he starts making an effort to show Chopper very clearly that the love from this crew is not conditional. and maybe a little bit (a lot), he's saying it all to make himself believe it, too.

#two tragic backstories duo #chopper's could maybe count as one but like geez. he was ostracized by his herd and then ate a devil fruit and got shot at by humans #and then started anew with a mad scientist dad #but then that guy in the end treated him like crap too #AND exploded right in front of him #like GOSH #anyway just thinking about sanji understanding chopper by seeing his younger self in him #trying to be tough and strong but really being soft inside #accustomed to being a dog that either bites or fawns because that was the only way to survive #feeling like some kind of creature that shouldn't exist #willing to sacrifice everything for that one person who was kind to them for a time #just. being born a kind heart in an unusually cruel world.#and the result is something that could be called a monster #one piece #black leg sanji #tony tony chopper #one piece meta #one piece headcanons

33 notes · View notes

monards · 1 month

Text

i know hoyo is setting up rhine to have good intent and whatever in her trying to 'save' khaneri'ah or whatever; but i REALLY hope they stay with the cruel persona thats been built up for her. because it would be so wonderful to see a character who had good intent in the beginning just get absolutely corrupted; with the inability to ever go back to that prior state purely because of what had happened. also because there is NO way in her turning back after all that shit

#sorry. i dont think theres any good and plausible explanation for rhine to still be a kind or gentle person in general #she can (and SHOULD) have her moments. but it'd make so much more sense (and be much more impactful) for her to be inherently cruel #because look at all the stuff thats happened #i love the indomitable human spirit trope. dont get me wrong.#but rhine has that in the way she WONT stop her research till shes either dead or murdered. she is not gonna be gentle kind and optimistic #she watched all her kids (that she was SHOWN to care for) get very brutally murdered.#had to then go and kill her next creations that she didn't consider perfect (which most certainly fucks a women up. no matter what you say)#made the 'perfect creation' and the way she treated him was obviously a HUGE contrast to how she was before (being gentle and nuturing)#and left him (albeit with what we can guess was good intent) with NO goodbye just #a recommendation letter. a text. and his final mission #she could have good intent #and still care for others #dont get me wrong!!!!!!!#but shes. human???#humans can be (as much as i hate to say it) a tad selfish when it comes to survival #and being antagonized demonized AND shunned by teyvat and even her own people. having to survive multiple gods wrath #isn't. gonna be good for the human psych #and it isn't gonna be something fixable #look at how furina progressively faltered over a hundered years WHILE being adored #she already started waning in her ethics and morals (as someone immortalized as a human WOULD)#with exposing lyney and all of that when it was VERY clearly the morally wrong thing to do (which her as a human would know)#and being relatively pessimistic and clearly spiralling #(no hate. i love furina with all my heart.)#if thats how FURINA started going #imagine rhine who has nobody (save maybe alice. but i doubt she'd be constant given her spontaneous nature and refusal to sit still)#shit man. even I'D go crazy and be horrible.#its okay and natural to be bitter #and its not as if anybody was there to help #hexenzirkel has a ton of women who survived their own nations falling yes #but not ONE of them (from what we know) has had circumstances any where near rhine's

9 notes · View notes

thatgirlonstage · 1 year

Text

Deep breath. Steeples fingers. It’s the way Arthur never needed to know Merlin was part of his destiny to be on his side over and OVER again

#merlin #they’re a true have your cake and eat it too ship #on the one side merlin who feels the full weight and pull of a destiny he can’t escape #that he chooses to run towards with open arms #on the other side Arthur #who has NO obligation to merlin except the one he feels and creates for himself #opens the forbidden ‘what if merlin….was good’ book #do you think about how often kilgarrah talks about them as EQUALS #two sides of the same coin. two souls meant to be one.#but merlin always ALWAYS ALWAYS casts himself as lesser #he sees their joint destiny as one where he is subservient to Arthur #less important #he is constantly willing to die for Arthur’s sake and he TRULY THINKS IT DOESN’T MATTER #merlin is constantly of the view that if he dies so Arthur can live that is *fulfilling their destiny*#what a cruel trick the end of their story is #but that’s my point kinda: merlin never actually understood their destiny #that’s why he fails the test and mordred survives #because he tells Arthur magic can never be allowed in Camelot bc he is too busy trying to save Arthur to save himself #and as a result he gets it wrong #if you look at the whole show but s5 especially as a tragedy the arc is absolutely classical #meanwhile Arthur never knows about FUCKING ANY OF THIS #and yet and yet and yet #call it destiny or love he still finds his partner in merlin. the other half of his soul.#he never needed to know what they were supposed to be to see what they could be

79 notes · View notes

grillbyz · 3 months

Text

thinks again about how asgore breaks the mercy button bc he doesnt want mercy, thinks ab how he could theoretically kill you in one shot thinks about "If a monster doesn't want to fight, its defenses will weaken" and thinks about how asgore's defense weakens and thinks about how his hands don't hurt you and thinks about how, if you spare him and flowey's dead, he kills himself and thinks about "I like Santa Clause. He's a nice old man that never changes. No matter how cruel everything gets, he laughs calmly… and comforts the people of the world...I was never an excellent leader. But i think i might be a nice Santa Claus." Thinks about---

10 notes · View notes

robinsteve · 2 years

Text

“lucas, i’m scared. i’m so scared. i’m so scared. i don't wanna die. i’m not ready. i don't wanna go! i’m not ready.” if the duffers kill max in s5 after that we will be having words.

#not only would it destroy the message of hope and perseverance in the face of personal struggles- the message that’s been a consistent #thread through all four seasons- it would make max’s first “death” scene incredibly pointless when it could have been #so impactful had it been real #obviously i very much want max alive and healthy and happy but there’s something so cinematic and so awe-inspiring about that #shot of max in lucas’ arms with el by her side and the blue light bouncing off their blood-and-tear-soaked faces #before the camera draws back and begins to spin over them... anyway. my point is:#i will be very angry if they end up killing max via coma when they had OPTIONS. well. one option. but it was a really extraordinary option.#her death in s5 despite /everything/ would cheapen the final season immensely and would come off as almost laughably #desperate- but above all so so CRUEL to max and her friends #if she can't live and she can't just die in the attic don't prolong her and her friends' suffering for a far less impactful departure #and furthermore if she can’t live don’t purposefully degrade the meaning and remove the consequences #of a visually and emotionally stunning moment to string along viewers who want to know if max is going to be okay either!!!!#they're already on thin ice from the whole 'el revives max' thing (which i will expand upon in another post) but i've made my peace with it #because it kept max alive and it would actually tear me in two if she died for real but even so. thin fucking ice. to drag max over to #another season after all of that fragile ice walking- only to pass on resolving her arc in a careful way- would be devastating.#in terms of emotional and visual impact we have ‘max actually dying in the creel attic’ up /here/#(imagine my hand hovering slightly above my hairline)#‘max pulling through the coma and learning to survive and thrive’ right /here/ (hand at eyeline)#and ‘max dying at the hospital’ allllll the way down /here/ (hand at stomach)#which would really fucking SUCK #to be clear i think she’s going to pull through the coma (thank god) because a) the duffers are cowarddddds and b) narrative reasons that #i don’t have enough time energy or tag space to elaborate on #but i also have trust issues from this season so i can envision a scenario in which they metaphorically pull the rug out from under #us and we all riot at dawn together <3 #max mayfield #stranger things #s4 spoilers #**#millie talks #st 4

165 notes · View notes

quirinah · 6 months

Text

SLAY THE PRINCESS (chewing on drywall)

#oh my god the way this game has been festering in my brain since i watched rts playthrough of it ITS SO OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#I LOVE COSMIC HORROR AND SELF AWARE TIMELOOPS AND THE ENDLESS FUTALITY OF THE NARRATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#I LOVE BIRD MEN AND GIANT MONSTER WOMEN AND NARRATORS WITH PERSONALITY!!!#sorry im normal.#quirinahscreams #no but i also love the voices of the main character and how the choices you make determine which one of them shows up (saying nonsense) BUT #ALSO HOW THEY EACH HAVE THEIR OWN SKILLS? IF THAT MAKES SENSE #like the stubborn and the hunted's affinity for combat/survival in the beast route or paranoids autonomic nervous system thing #she heart on my lungs till i liver nerves #I WISH IC OULD SAY MORE BUT SPOILERS BUT ALSO RAGHHH. they werent lying it really is a love story (gripping table so tightly it splinters)#THE WAY THE FIRST CABIN RUNTHRU IS LIKE UR DEFAULT SLATE AND THEN THE CHOICES YOU MAKE SLASH HOW YOU PERCEIVE THE PRINCESS IN THAT ROUTE #AFFECT WHAT SHE APPEARS AS TO YOU LATER #EVEN DOWN TO TAKING THE KNIFE #how shes docile and initially innocent if you dont take it but calculating and dangerous if you do #or depending on how you die she reappears as vengeful or simply cruel or resigned etc and then different voices show up to compliment that #i always feel so lame giving faceless characters visual appearances though its part of the mystique intrigue or whatever #but my boring hc for the mc is that hes like a harpy. a la howl movingcastle type beat but i also love birdman mc #its just that i wasnt paying attention earlier and imagined him as like a generic fairytale prince/knight and then realized oh he has TALON #I NEED TO SHUT UP OH MY GOD BUT ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I WANT TO DRAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15 notes · View notes

eorzeashan · 10 months

Text

I've been debating whether to make this idea canon for his backstory or not, but it's heavily suggested that Eight was the main executioner for a large portion of the previous iteration of ImpIntel before Keeper takes office as...well, Keeper. He was the youngest of his predecessors, but that made him what they viewed as the only person to carry on their future work when they'd all lived out past their primes as agents; their careers had matured into retirement territory and they were already far too dangerous to not be under permanent suspicion, but Eight was fresh. He was new. He was non-existent, even if he was set to directly replace an old Cipher designation, which granted him both entry into the old guard and a strange status as a fledgling agent that put him apart from other green officers.

As such, they entrusted him with the rest of their work and their legacies. The role of Cipher Eight is to be the last resort, the reserve, the one who carries out the final act. He personally took the mission to kill them when it was time. Even still, most asked him to. There was such a degree of trust between the old Ciphers and his supposed role that they could leave this world satisfied that whatever forbidden intel they left behind and any loose ends they couldn't take care of while alive would be taken care of by him, because he was one of them. In this, they found more peace than an end at the hands of their masters. He was their hope for the future, the culmination of everything they chose to safeguard, and the carrier of their last wills; their secrets died with them and in him.

Once gone, the Sith would change faces and hands and Intelligence would be dramatically overturned and redone, as it always did with every new cycle. Not once would they look at the last remnant of it and think the traitors' plans still survived, because to kill so many of his own fellows surely meant Eight had no part in their work. No Sith suspected him, and no agent trusted him for the betrayal of his own people, but this was the legacy he had wrought.

No one knows the truth, save for Keeper, that wily old man who found an empty office waiting for him after an up-and-coming young agent had cleared his predecessors out, and Lokin, the other old man who seems to have made it his personal duty to regale such deaths to the successor, Nine.

In some way, Eight secretly hoped he would be the one to eliminate Nine when the order from the Council came.

Fate had other plans, and so it was never to be.

#swtor #oc: orradiz #nine's succession as the future of intelligence and the newbie who was taught new ideals #versus eight's start as a part of the no longer existent past and carrier of the old to pass them on to the future #nine's adoration by officers as a symbol of their own rising to the top and the eventual fall #versus eight's ostracization and shrouded past in order to protect them unknowingly #the minister/keeper teaching and choosing nine to succeed them personally #versus eight clearing the way for the minister to take office #nine as a new beginning and eight as the end #and in a cruel twist of irony nine who does not survive their stint in intelligence and is unable to remain #and eight who still does as always to bear witness to the fall #this is also why eight is unafraid to get close to others #he's the one who isn't trusted inherently bc of how his deeds look #so to be accepted at all is rare #nine who is seen as the best of ciphers #and eight who is seen as the worst.#how does it feel to be the only one left? how does it feel to slay the only people who could've understood and as a result set you apart #from the rest who will now never understand your responsibility?

7 notes · View notes

delcakoo · 10 months

Text

i just finished reading demon slayer so if i am even more dead and slow to replying for the next few days than usual just know i am mentally recovering ☺️

#delcakoo #not once in my life #have i cried over READIng anything hell i dont even read #but this story #the way absolutely every character including the demons have the most unique and cruel backstories ive ever seen #and its so !!!!!! unfair !!!!!#why did those who fight just as hard as others have to die while others survived !!!!! I HATE IT I HA #what do u mean gyutaro was considered so ugly ppl threw rocks and were scared to go near him #wdym obanai was born into a clan of insane women who kept him in a cell and only fed him to be sacrificed to a snake demon #wdym genya and sanemis mother turned into a demon and slaughtered the rest of their family in front of them so they had 2 kill their own mom #wdym ryomei protected the surviving orphans only for one the kids to blame his as the murderer even tho it was CLEARLY A DEMON #and those are only a few that i described terribly #goodnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i will only be thinking about demon slayer)

9 notes · View notes

villainsandvictimsalliance · 10 months

Text

(NO BETA) EXCERPT FROM MY SHIGADABI FANTASY AU, UP ON THE CLIFF:

“... Kurogiri told me earlier that you slept through most of the passage to the cliff. Should I trust you found it a peaceful ride?”

Still encased in nighttime dimness, Touya tried to decipher the tone floating down at him from the head of the table. He couldn't see its owner past the glow of the candles, the darkness that rained down on them from the vaults in the high ceiling. To compensate his lack of visual confirmation, he sketched the man there with his mind, faithful to the memory of how his host, the Count up on the cliff, had looked under the morning sunlight.

Touya remembered it all too well, how they had sat there distracted with their food or the noises of their companions. The Count's hair would flow down and sparkle against the raw terrain of his skin, making it all the more hard to not stare at his eyes of red turmoils and secrecy. The Count was fresh snow on an open wound and Touya thought the color was more common the closer he was to the passage, but not by much. On his journey to the valley, he had met barely a few of human refugees with a similar red in his eyes. Yet the Count's matched his cape and its collar, lined in white fur —it matched his hair.

That thought would've made him frown if spoken aloud. After all, he cared nothing if the Count had had the coat over his shoulders made to match him, if his scars made his all the more raw, if his was the name he hasn't known yet. Curious but trivial things did not matter and they shouldn't. Touya was only interested in the sensation of his mind already wandering, getting uncoordinated. It was the same case as before, when any thought of the Count would lead him into slippery slopes and Touya, or anyone else on that matter, would soonly forget why they were thinking about him at all.

“...”

Once more, Touya looked up to face the Count's silence, allowing the company to chitchat as they pleased. The times they talked were enough to be counted with the fingers of a single hand and, rare as they were, they would startle Touya, raising his attention of the ones sitting or resting beside him. The Count had the soft-spoken cadence of a man home taught by the best tutors money could buy, but his words lacked any politeness or fondness and instead came enveloped in direct orders or demands, cryptical than most, that the habitants of the castle would follow to the letter. Touya did call him a petulant child in the past, if he recall the accident shortly after his arrival. It had been easier back then, to insult him, to blame the anger and frustration he felt on the man that demanded his sacrifice. Touya hadn't known him yet and he did not know him still, which left him with the only other option available: to know himself better, his place in that monster town, his role in that castle. He could only decipher his own heart to set apart any alien feeling, any influence, any invasion.

As for now, it was as if they were not there. Touya had disappear alongside the Count to the world.

He risked a glace at Toga and the gecko boy, each by his left, but they were busy reacting to some kind of joke Jin was telling. Mr. Atsuhiro, by his right side, was not even looking at the table or his dessert, too busy gesturing at their butler as if explaining his excitement about what they had had for dinner that night. No one reacted to the conversation he was having with the Count. No one even looked his way o tried to pressure him to answer, not even the butler confirmed what the Count had said. Could it be...

Could it be that the Count was reading his mind?

Touya made to grab his glass, emptying his mind so violently he felt a snap in the back of his head. However, as soon as he extended his left hand the room started spinning, the smiles of the pictures framed by the walls getting more loopsided by the minute, the food balancing left and right over the tablecloth, a waltz of dresses and coats and hats and spiders—

“Calm down.”

Touya tried to blink it away. There was a solid grip on his chest, tugging to get the nod on his lungs undone. He allowed the unknown pulse to had him as he concentrated on keeping his face clean of panic; not thinking, not allowing anyone else to know how altered he wasat the moment. It took him a lifetime, the type that is condensated in a minute, before the room settled and he was able to hear.

“ —ust like that. Good,” Touya blinked again and again towards the direction of the voice, one, two seats past Mr. Atsuhiro, noticing what he thought was a faint smile hovering on the air and a pair of watchful red eyes on him.

Touya heard it again, this time realizing the Count was not moving his lips, not even vacillating on his strange and curious expression:

“Did I spook you, Dabi?” when he only narrowed his eyes in response, he was allowed to appreciate how the Count huffed with amusement, looking down at his plate, “A-ah. Don't be angry. It's not my intention to read your mind, nor am I doing it at the moment.”

Confusion accumulated on his brow, driving him closer to the table as if he could figure out what the Count was talking about by sheer proximity. He was not talking, was he? Touya could see how he lifted a cup to drink of the wine, responding to whatever Spinner had asked him a second ago.

“I am projecting the words to your mind, that is. I asure you it's a one-way road. Unless...”

For the first time since his arrival, Touya saw the mouth of the Count tilt at the corners with what could only be mischief. It was hard to admit, even harder to explain, what the motion did to him and how it activated his competitive instinct. From his time training with his dad, Touya could recognize a challenge with eyes close, hands bind, deaf to any sound. It was in the air, in the gentle swept of the candlelight, the smooth inclination of the host shoulders until his elbows were resting fully on the table, hands intertwined ao he could rest his chin.

He reminded himself of the original question, the one that started this whole conversation. He had slept, sure, but it jad been due the strange magic that had surrounded him that evening. Memories of his family had seized him as their car climbed downhill, images of his childhood on the Himura state, of Sekoto Peak, of his siblings and cousins running in the distance as he chased butterflies in the hidden fields past the family greenhouse. He doesn't know when he transitioned from merely reminiscing to fully dreaming. The distant howls woke him near the butler's tavern, some hours past midnight, maybe.

When Touya glanced at the Count, he was almost bored, playing with the rim of his cup while gecko boy showed him something on his hand. It could have been a spider, but Touya didn't care. He had an hypothesis to prove, a host to impress, a dare to win.

He pictured himself opening his mouth, forming the syllables with his lips, tasted the sounds of every vowel and sent them crashing to his host pretty ears.

Touya thought, “unless I talk back?” and stared satisfied at the Count as his eyes left the gecko's hands to look at him, red so bright he thought the world had caught fire. The Count waited, moving his fingers against his cheeks as if telling Touya that now he had his attention. “I slept on the ride here influenced by your butler's dark magic, but you knew that. You asked him to use his magic and put me to slumber. Your question, it was not politeness nor politics.”

The Count lifted his cup, drinking the last of his wine as Touya organized his thoughts.

“You wanted me to talk to you this way.”

It was the longest conversation he had had with the man since he arrived at that wasteland. The fact dented Touya's pride. That he had allowed the Count to treat him like a prisoner for so long, that he had allowed the Count to ignore him, his existence, if not for his presence every morning during breakfast and more recently on dinners, where he would not address him at all and leave as soon as the meal was over. He did not ached for his company or validation. He didn't want him to treat him like the rest, with similar silence that always ended on a well though inquiry, maybe a few words of encouragement, disguised by his position as the count so they wouldn't sound very vulnerable. The Count had talked to him before, but always through others, or just a phrase, just a nod. He had sent him a trained dog to guide him through the town, so he wouldn't get lost. He had offered to took him back to his village, ordering a car to wait for him every evening by the gates of the castle. He had gave him the key of his room, accepted him as Dabi and only referred to him as that, despite knowing the truth. Had had Dabi's meals made specially for him as to not upset his stomach, gave him a room specially acclimated to accommodate his wronging sickness.

Everything he knew about the Count, he knew it for his actions and never his words. And it had been enough for him for an entire month now. He had found it comfortable enough to walk and talk and act among them without much fuss. Touya only demanded answers or respect when it was either about his mission to unlock the mystery behind the demon sickness that afflicted him or when it was about his freedom to roam around doing whatever the fuck he wanted. He didn't care about the games the Count wanted to play with the rest of them.

He almost missed the moment the Count stood up, the legs of his chair scratching so subtly the wood of the floor. It was their signal. The meal was officially over.

He thanked the gecko boy —Iguchi— for showing him the cards of a new game he was crafting and nodded once, a gesture meant to acknowledge everyone in the room in a brief goodbye, before he walked out the room and left behind only the trail of his coat disappearing around the corner.

Touya followed the rest, his dessert intact on the plate as they took the dishes to the kitchen to be magically cleaned by the staff. Jin invited them to play cards, an offer he denied without explanation and that Iguchi and Toga immediately latched to. Mr. Atsuhiro had only crossed his arms and let out a single sigh, deciding he could play piano to make them company or supervise the progression of the game, in case it got... Complicated.

Dabi sent them to the game room with a shake of shoulders. They could do as they wanted too.

He didn't want to know.

On the hallway up to his room, he stopped along the way once, in front of the window walls. The moon had partially came out, clouds rolling low over the forest and mixing with the fog. The air was chilling, cold kisses on his bandaged wounds. He extended his pointer finger to touch a pale ray of moonlight, admiring the absence of heat and the silver stiches that differentiate it so much from its daylight equivalent. Beneath it, the edges of his burns became a deep purple, his skin taking and unnatural blue glow. Back at home, they had told him several times that his eyes would get the more scary at night, when they would shine even brighter than the moon or any fireplace made by human hands. He would laugh and smile, big, big enough to show all his teeth, and the kids would run and call for help and their mothers would call him a monster, a zombie, a walking grave.

Then came that sensation to his chest and Touya squished it, set it aflame, reduced it to ashes. He stepped back and turned around, not stopping until the door of his room was locked and his body was resting on his bed, curtains close, his clothes changed and wounds freshly bandaged.

He had felt red eyes on him. That sensation. The tug, the weight, his finger touching the glass of the window. Touya didn't want to know. He didn't want to know if what he had said was right or if it was wrong, if the Count left becuase he left or if he left because of him. He didn't want to know if the others were having fun, sitting on the carpet, fingers touching one another as they laid their cards down.

The night had inflicted irreparable damage on him. He shouldn't had allowed the Count to talk to him like that, through his thoughts, direcly to his mind. Touya shouldn't had fallen so easily for the Count's twisted games, craving the excitement of a new discovery, a challenger to beat, a rival to show off to. Something had been taken and given in return that night. The full moon was whispering of trades and Touya sat by the fireplace, burning piece of paper after piece of paper, until his rage had subdued.

« you want me to talk to you like this. »

Touya threw an entire book to the fire.

He didn't want to know.

#for the ones that don't get it: Tomura is the count up on the cliff and Touya was asked to him in sacrifice in order to allow (1)#the clan todoroki to live as refugees in the valley after they flew the cities due the demon plague (2)#Touya's sick with the demon plague and when Kurogiri told him it was all a test and he could return to his village if he wanted (3)#Touya decided to march on reach the castle and found out everything he could about the plague so he could beat it (4)#the demon plague will either kill you or turn you into a monster if completed —most people on the Count's town is a monster btw #Toga Twice Spinner Kurogiri Mr. Compress... they were all victims of the plague that survived because they met Tomura #Tomura is a sort of witch here and he has the power to help them transition. the only problem is that most human villages would hunt them #Touya here is frustrated 'cause being among the Count and his people proved to be very distracting #aka they keep trying to make him feel at home #Tomura here is softer than in the bnha canon 'cause AFO was not as cruel (yet) but he's way more awkward since he's #you know #very old #he slept most of his years okay? mentally and physically he is like 21 years old but chronologically he's a couple hundred of years #anyway he wants Touya to want to talk to him and he got sad because he realized he was kinda forcing Touya to talk to him lol #hope you enjoyed it!#up on the cliff au #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #shigadabi #shigadabi au #dabishiga au #dabishiga #up on the hill au

3 notes · View notes