[there is a lot to unpack there. 'like me' answers some questions as much as it raises many more. so it's genetic, in some way, not likely a magic or a gift. the fact they were persecuted it does not surprise him, even if it disgusts him. the world had a tendency to try and weed out anything it saw as 'other,' one way or another.
that the trench natives didn't turn on the sleepers still surprises him, in truth.
all of that though isn't what strikes him, what has a cold pit growing in his stomach is what chizuru is saying between the lines. that bit about 'marriage' before, when she walked him home so many weeks ago, it is suddenly so much more sinister than he could have imagined.
(and in this moment he has a rather important shift in his own way of thinking. because when he went back to singed he tried to see the reasoning behind his cruelty, tried in his desperation to save himself to understand and accept the need for unrelenting progress. he looked at rio in her vat and tried to weed out the childish, grieving emotions that came with it, because it was inefficient. because he didn't have the time.
but here, now, he can easily see it. the mutation must survive is just another it was important for our kind to live no matter what. it is too easy to see singed now, in chizuru's father, how he would have likely done the same. the price of progress being chizuru herself, as a person, as such a kind girl who sat with him as his lungs rebelled and made him medicine to try and help.
it snaps into place in his head relentlessly, this understanding that there were indeed prices too high for progress, prices he'd never pay. that when he told singed he understood now he was trying to to crush a part of himself he thought too sentimental, too halting.
something he'll think about later, settle into. for now, there is this.)
after a quiet beat he offers his hand out between them, unsure of it's welcome but too comforted himself by simple touch not to offer it.]
I am... very glad you got away then, to your friends back home. He is wrong, there is no 'no matter what.' You are a person, not a legacy.
no subject
that the trench natives didn't turn on the sleepers still surprises him, in truth.
all of that though isn't what strikes him, what has a cold pit growing in his stomach is what chizuru is saying between the lines. that bit about 'marriage' before, when she walked him home so many weeks ago, it is suddenly so much more sinister than he could have imagined.
(and in this moment he has a rather important shift in his own way of thinking. because when he went back to singed he tried to see the reasoning behind his cruelty, tried in his desperation to save himself to understand and accept the need for unrelenting progress. he looked at rio in her vat and tried to weed out the childish, grieving emotions that came with it, because it was inefficient. because he didn't have the time.
but here, now, he can easily see it. the mutation must survive is just another it was important for our kind to live no matter what. it is too easy to see singed now, in chizuru's father, how he would have likely done the same. the price of progress being chizuru herself, as a person, as such a kind girl who sat with him as his lungs rebelled and made him medicine to try and help.
it snaps into place in his head relentlessly, this understanding that there were indeed prices too high for progress, prices he'd never pay. that when he told singed he understood now he was trying to to crush a part of himself he thought too sentimental, too halting.
something he'll think about later, settle into. for now, there is this.)
after a quiet beat he offers his hand out between them, unsure of it's welcome but too comforted himself by simple touch not to offer it.]
I am... very glad you got away then, to your friends back home. He is wrong, there is no 'no matter what.' You are a person, not a legacy.