[The confession is a braid of barbed wire pulled taut and tight the longer he continues, the more emboldened he becomes.
Rumi - fiery, strong Rumi with pain removed, an ideal world created. Akechi resists the temptation to point out she had no place for him in it.
Accidental. Unintentional. It doesn't matter. No regrets. Decisions made over and over-
and over and over and over.
'I can only change what I do going forward.' and-
Meaningless. Actions have consequences.
Begging an unknown power for help had its price. Moving forward is irrelevant when the wrong decision was made when it mattered most.
A life lost in a bright, blooming day instead of rot and smoke is still dead.
By all accounts, Rumi is dead. Maruki killed her and what's in her place is nothing more than a carbon copy with her face. Her name. A false reality consuming her mind and soul by the man who supposedly loved her most of all.
Akechi says nothing, shows nothing, in voice or expression. The information is absorbed with clinical ease - freedom pulled back with leashes and chains around a heart. A life altered by a man who claims to love.
It's not so different from freedom allowed, leashes and chains of the heart shattered. A life altered by a man who hates most of all.
The ambient noise around them grows in intensity the longer no one speaks. It's not silent - far from it, despite the lack of conversation.
'Not until I get to Vaeros and use it to rip his own reality to shreds right before his eyes' - A promise. An echo. A resounding declaration that overcomes the shitty ass chirping of unknown bugs, breeze hitting leaves, stone and rock jostling out of place.
Akechi doesn't speak - not yet. Face neutral and nothing to glean from it. He's a performer first, and Akechi Goro second. Loki and Robin Hood both smolder and blaze in tandem, pressed in the back of his chest. No battle to be fought on a muddy, dingy ass trail, but
In a castle, someday.
A hand presses against Maruki's shoulder - not gentle, not kind and
he
pushes
him
Forward. To walk. To keep moving.
They don't stop.
People like them won't stop.
They'll never stop.
A hand forces Maruki forward if he ever moves to stop, speak, or falters in his pace.
And Akechi says nothing. Not for awhile - not until an area with a declaration made, a promise confirmed, the world given a warning for its inevitable end vanishes into a dark speck behind them.
Only then, does he speak. Voice twisted with a bitter bemusement, an acidic tinge. Nothing kind. Nothing malicious. Only Akechi Goro. ]
Quite frankly, given your description of her, should she return to her senses someday the least of your worries will be myself and Shido's pathetic henchman.
[But-]
To remove someone's agency in such a way - it doesn't matter that it was an accident. There's no going back. There are no 'what ifs.' You don't have the choice to redo or renege and you never will.
[It's hilarious - Fitting. No boundaries. A bleeding heart. Altruism and kindness. A liar and manipulator. A man who spends his life healing wounds given an easy out. A lie.
Maruki is a liar.]
A power to remove pain that can't occur on the user - perhaps that's your punishment for forming such an ability. You will never be free of your own - a curse that only makes it worse, I imagine, for someone who gives a shit. The temptation to use it constantly - my, that must consume you.
[Maruki is-
Rotten.
Maruki is-
Cruel.
Maruki is-
Something else.
A force of nature that gets up after hands cinch his throat, gets up when glass pieces eye, rock collapses throat, gets up at the petty slights this world digs at him and gets up with dark shadows under eyes from a restless sleep, from conversations had under the safety of dusk.
Maruki is not Joker. Maruki is not Akechi Goro. Maruki is not a counselor. Maruki is-]
Maruki Takuto - you never cease to amaze me. I wonder what new abilities will show themselves when we're able to crush this goddamn world, piece by fucking piece.
cw: graphic violence, brainwashing
Rumi - fiery, strong Rumi with pain removed, an ideal world created. Akechi resists the temptation to point out she had no place for him in it.
Accidental. Unintentional. It doesn't matter. No regrets. Decisions made over and over-
and over and over and over.
'I can only change what I do going forward.' and-Meaningless. Actions have consequences.
By all accounts, Rumi is dead. Maruki killed her and what's in her place is nothing more than a carbon copy with her face. Her name. A false reality consuming her mind and soul by the man who supposedly loved her most of all.Begging an unknown power for help had its price. Moving forward is irrelevant when the wrong decision was made when it mattered most.
A life lost in a bright, blooming day instead of rot and smoke is still dead.
Akechi says nothing, shows nothing, in voice or expression. The information is absorbed with clinical ease - freedom pulled back with leashes and chains around a heart. A life altered by a man who claims to love.
It's not so different from freedom allowed, leashes and chains of the heart shattered. A life altered by a man who hates most of all.
The ambient noise around them grows in intensity the longer no one speaks. It's not silent - far from it, despite the lack of conversation.
'Not until I get to Vaeros and use it to rip his own reality to shreds right before his eyes' - A promise. An echo. A resounding declaration that overcomes the shitty ass chirping of unknown bugs, breeze hitting leaves, stone and rock jostling out of place.
Akechi doesn't speak - not yet. Face neutral and nothing to glean from it. He's a performer first, and Akechi Goro second. Loki and Robin Hood both smolder and blaze in tandem, pressed in the back of his chest. No battle to be fought on a muddy, dingy ass trail, but
In a castle, someday.
A hand presses against Maruki's shoulder - not gentle, not kind andhe
pushes
him
Forward. To walk. To keep moving.They don't stop.
People like them won't stop.
They'll never stop.
A hand forces Maruki forward if he ever moves to stop, speak, or falters in his pace.And Akechi says nothing. Not for awhile - not until an area with a declaration made, a promise confirmed, the world given a warning for its inevitable end vanishes into a dark speck behind them.
Only then, does he speak. Voice twisted with a bitter bemusement, an acidic tinge. Nothing kind. Nothing malicious. Only Akechi Goro. ]
Quite frankly, given your description of her, should she return to her senses someday the least of your worries will be myself and Shido's pathetic henchman.
[But-]
To remove someone's agency in such a way - it doesn't matter that it was an accident. There's no going back. There are no 'what ifs.' You don't have the choice to redo or renege and you never will.
[It's hilarious - Fitting. No boundaries. A bleeding heart. Altruism and kindness. A liar and manipulator. A man who spends his life healing wounds given an easy out. A lie.
Maruki is a liar.]
A power to remove pain that can't occur on the user - perhaps that's your punishment for forming such an ability. You will never be free of your own - a curse that only makes it worse, I imagine, for someone who gives a shit. The temptation to use it constantly - my, that must consume you.
[Maruki is-
Rotten.
Maruki is-Cruel.
Maruki is-Something else.
A force of nature that gets up after hands cinch his throat, gets up when glass pieces eye, rock collapses throat, gets up at the petty slights this world digs at him and gets up with dark shadows under eyes from a restless sleep, from conversations had under the safety of dusk.Maruki is not Joker. Maruki is not Akechi Goro. Maruki is not a counselor. Maruki is-]
Maruki Takuto - you never cease to amaze me. I wonder what new abilities will show themselves when we're able to crush this goddamn world, piece by fucking piece.