ellipsanet | 01; un: GRTEXPLSNMRDRGDDYNMT

[ She clenches her jaw against every bit of her that wants to start wailing, beg him to just give up. ]

So you don't get it. You still think you can make rules here, and everyone will follow them. [ Absolutely not. She's not going to kill him, no matter what he does or doesn't admit. ]

I'm not a villain, but can you imagine if I was? And I'm not the most powerful person here, I promise you that.

It doesn't.. matter. I don't.. fuck....

[His sentence falters, as well as his arm which instead grips at the cloth of his Hero Costume, right over his chest. It hurt in more ways than one, not just the physical pain that was inflicted upon it but the emotional turmoil that he was currently going through was making his heart ache.

He knew he wasn't the strongest in the world, he never claimed that he was. This was a lesson he had learned before, time and time again and he couldn't stand how many times he had to keep learning it.]

I'm a.. Hero. Heroes don't... give up. I don't care if you're a Villain.. or if you're not. I'll get stronger.. and even stronger... and I'll beat you..!

[Was that last blast the last effort he had? That's not entirely so. He's fought and fought until he physically could not any longer, and he had one last trick up his sleeve.

He had fire breath, thanks to his newfound abilities given to him from this place. And even though he felt like he was only just gaining his breath back, he uses all his strength to draw in one big, burning inhale...

...just to puff out a little bit of smoke.]

[ She lets out a slow exhale and then pulls her sword away from his throat to sheathe it with a ringing sound. ]

Good. Don't get yourself killed underestimating those around you before you can beat me.

I know you want to do the right thing. I know it stings like hell to not be able to win. There are plenty of those here who will be with you when it comes to protecting people. I'm one of them. Making allies is as important to defeating villains as how strong you are.

[ She stoops down, looking him over. ] I'd appreciate it if you'd let me help you back.

[Katsuki lets out a sigh of his own when she puts her sword back in it's sheathe, and he allows himself to close his eyes for a moment of reprieve. He listens to her words as his breath rasps, and he hears her. He gets it. He's already learned that he needed to cooperate with other Heroes if he wanted to be the best he can be. That wasn't ever a question.]

You're... just.. looking down at me.

[He opens his eyes again, vision blurred with tears that he wipes away as he forces himself to sit up.]

I'm not just some.. some stupid kid who's naive enough to think that I can.. that I can beat every person I fight. I'm not... the kind of person that I used to.. to be.

[Slowly, he pulls himself together and to his wobbly feet.]

I'm more than willing to accept help... I have to be! But I can't trust just anybody! That will get me killed sooner than if I held everyone at arm's length!

I'm not looking down on you. Not at all. I know you can do what I can't -- that's not being patronizing, it's just the truth. I'm a -- a monster. I can't be a hero. [ Hearing it now, the pain in her voice, maybe he'll believe her better than he did over text. ]

But I can help people like you. To atone for what I did, that's the best I can do. I wish I could do better, believe me. I wish that more than anything.

[ She stands when he does, mentally prepared to catch him even if she doesn't make any move to try. ]

Trusting people you don't know is a risk. I know it is. It's messy to figure out, but if there's some better way then I'm all ears.

[Hearing the tone in her voice does help paint a better picture. A more genuine picture than what he heard over text.. though he was more inclined to believe her from the start, despite all his arguing. It helped that she had someone to stick up for her, that alone told him that she probably wasn't all bad.

The words he hears from her, though, just piss him off. She says she isn't looking down at him, but isn't that all she's been doing from the start?

They started arguing in the first place because he didn't trust her intentions. He expressed his mistrust with Villains due to past experience and she told him that immediately distrusting things that sound wrong to him was too simple. But then she used that argument against him when it was convenient for her, by telling him from HER experience that the worst Villains were the ones who were sweet and used your trust against you. More or less spitting his own words back at him.

She thought he was naive for "underestimating" Villains, when he from the start was being cautious by not immediately believing it when he was told that she didn't remember her crime. She made her own assumptions about him as a person, that he didn't cooperate with or trust anyone else and that he thought he was powerful enough on his own and felt the need to teach him a lesson he already had learned. That he spent months learning. That he broke his body learning.

And it still ended back at the same place they started. All about her and this.. past that she can't get over.]

Ha.. I see. I hit a sore spot.... and now that you took it out on me you want to use me to fulfill some selfish want to "atone" for whatever bullshit you did before.

[Katsuki turns around, stumbling as he puts one leg in front of the other so he can start the walk back to his apartment. He went along with this fight because he thought he'd kick her ass at the best or learn something interesting from it at the very least, but now that she's made her intentions clear he just feels like this was a waste of his time.]

I'm not interested. I have plenty of people who can-- and WILL help me when I need it.

[ goddamn this stubborn kid. But like it or not she's going to follow him, it's not like he can stop her. ]

Knock it off. You don't get to be pissed at me for wanting to make up for my past. Meeting you wasn't about that. You think beating someone up on someone weaker than me is helping me one bit? Do I sound like I feel good about this?

I did it so you'd use the head on your shoulders. If you don't want to trust me because you're too busy being a pissy brat, that's fine. But wanting to protect people to make up for my past isn't any worse of a reason than doing it because I want to be some hero.

Oh, fuck off!

[Katsuki snaps right back, and he tries to speed his pace a bit to get distance but that's.. not going to do much obviously.]

Stop acting like you know a damn thing about me or the head I have on my shoulders! I'm protecting people because I feel like they deserve to be protected! It's not just being "some hero", it's risking my life to save the lives of people who can't help themselves!

[He stops after saying that, doubling over a little to clench at his shirt with the pain in his chest burning with every word.]

Just.. leave me alone!

I'll fuck off when I'm good and ready. If you can stop me, feel free.

[ He can't, obviously. ]

You think I'm looking down on you? You've looked down on me since the second you heard I did something bad in the past. I said I want to protect people and I've proven I'm strong enough to do it, but that's not good enough for you.

You know what I did with my life after that bad thing I did? My twin sister was hurting and killing humans, and she was doing that because a human held us captive and tortured us for decades. At least fifty years. I hunted her down and killed her. In the process I lost my father, my brother, and the man I loved for two centuries, then I eradicated my entire species. For the sake of a race that treated me as a plaything. [ By halfway through this little rant, she's crying. Damn it. ]

I didn't do that for my own benefit, or to atone. I did it because it was the right thing to do, and it cost me everything I ever loved.

[Katsuki listens, but any sympathy he feels is blocked by just how.. frustrated he was. How tired he was. How much pain he was in. She's still going on about her past, and he frankly doesn't even remember her name enough for him to consider taking all of this baggage onto his shoulders.]

What do you want from me? Do you want me to thank you for being sooo strong and willing to protect me, when I never asked? Do you want me to tell you that you're a Hero just like me and that you're absolved of everything you've ever done?

I'm not a priest! I'm not someone for you to confess your sins to! I just asked three goddamn questions on the internet!

[ Oh yeah hearing about her shitty life must be real hard for ya there pal ]

Apparently I'm telling you this not so you'll see I'm sincere, I'm dumping it on you because I want your forgiveness? [ Yeesh, he absolutely is reaching to find the worst possible explanation for everything she says and does. ]

Okay -- look. I was honest with you. I'm not looking down on you. I'm not asking for your absolution or whatever. [ She sounds absolutely flat and deflated. ] You don't trust me, you don't believe me, you don't like my reasons, it is what it is. If you want to train to get stronger, I can offer that and my intentions don't really matter for it. If you've got so many training partners as strong as I am that you can't use another one, then that's your call.

[ That's it. She turns around. ]

[Well, if she wanted him to train with her she's definitely not going about it the right way. Especially not by ending her speech by acting all high and mighty about her power, like she was God on Earth. Of course she was strong, obviously he understood that but he's seen people just as powerful as her in his own universe. He wasn't that impressed.

It makes him scoff, and he doesn't bother to stop her. He just says one thing:]

I know someone stronger than you, and he's the only person I need.

[ It's not a want to subject herself to this horseshit regularly, it's an offer to take or leave because she does want to help. Seems like he picked the latter. That's fine. ]

[ She hopes he gets the message eventually, that he needs to think before he challenges people because it could end very badly. He keeps saying he knows he needs help and this and that, yet he didn't get any help before meeting her. She could have killed him 100 different times during that fight and he was without this strong friend that could have maybe beaten her if they'd been together. (Although, could they have? This kid has super warped views of a lot of things, and she held back a lot of her strength. She hopes they could have beaten her.) ]

All right.

[ No more following, she takes off in the other direction. Her body might be perfectly unharmed, but her heart hurts. ]

01; un: GRTEXPLSNMRDRGDDYNMT

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject