(closed) december catchall

[entreats]

Who: Ange (entreats), Chizuru (tealeafs), Daniel (miyagimagic) and various others.
What: December shenanigans.
When: During all of December.
Where: Locations vary.

Content Warnings: Bullying, (mild) violence, will edit to add more later.

( starters in the comments! if you want to plot anything with me, feel free to either pm the journal or contact me at queeningsquare, i'm always open to new ideas and threads! )

Comments

[miyagimagic]

It hurts a little to see Mob cry, but.. at least Daniel realises it's not a bad kind of crying. It just seems like he's probably overwhelmed by all this - and who could blame the kid, considering Daniel has seen what he's been through? And for all he knows, it could only be a fraction of the things Mob has endured back home, and Daniel knows from experience that this place isn't really more kind than that either.

What matters is that he just imparts this lesson to Mob. A lesson that feels more important than any other, one that has dragged Daniel through his own darkest times.

"No one ever is," Daniel says, giving Mob's shoulder a reassuring squeeze even after the other has turned to look at the memory in front of them. He doesn't let his grip on the other slip yet, not while Mob is still crying, not while Daniel still wants to reassure the young boy. "Sure, it may feel like it sometimes."

Boy, does Daniel sure know all about that. Even here in the fight with Chozen, or dealing with Johnny back during the school year before - there were plenty of times where it felt like it, and then it got even worse during the entire thing with Terry and Mike afterwards. But mister Miyagi had always been there with him. His mom had cared, Ali had, Kumiko had, Jessica had, and even after mister Miyagi died, he had his family.

He watches as the younger Daniel seems to get the message. That everyone is behind him - and what he has to do here. Using the drum technique on Chozen.

"But you never are alone. I wasn't-- and you aren't either, Shigeo."

Chozen seems mostly downed in the meantime, the younger Daniel grabbing the back of the other boy's head, raising it to look at him, his other hand raised in an attack position.

"Live or die, man?" The younger Daniel asks, the tension hanging in the air in the arena.

[centile]

The tears slow to a crawl as Mob watches, powers just barely beginning to settle in a fading wisps of color. The words reinforce themselves though, a lingering fear beginning to truly ease.

Because the truth was this world was rough, maybe even cruel, but unlike Mogami's world when he reached out people reached back. The pressure of Daniel's hand on his shoulder proves that as much as the words do. As long as people were there he could be stronger than he would have been alone.

When the younger Daniel asks that he breathes out. Not concern or a gasp, just... this ended well, Daniel said. And the Daniel beside him understood it all, so when Chozen answers 'Die' so stubbornly Mob doesn't blink to hear Daniel's answering 'Wrong.'

He just glances to Daniel with a small smile on his face, eyes red rimmed and face a little blotchy but undeniably eased. "That was a pretty cool line, sensei."

[miyagimagic]

Daniel ducks his head a little at those words coming from the teen - looking perhaps a touch embarrassed.

"Well, I wasn't really trying to be cool.."

(Though it's a little nice to hear all the same. It's not something he got to hear all that often when he was that age, after all. Mostly because Daniel always has been kind of a dork.)

"I just--" He pauses for a moment, no longer watching Mob. Instead his gaze lingers a little on the scene, on the younger Daniel who stumbles over to embrace the girl who had been threatened earlier, on the way that younger Daniel's gaze crosses his teacher's.

.. he stares at mister Miyagi for another moment, as long as he's still got time before this memory is over. Daniel knows it won't be long.

"I just wanted to show him that there was another way. That forgiveness exists."

It makes him think of something that does make him look at Mob though. "And-- you know, he actually got the message. When I met him again, decades later.. he changed."

Because of what happened here today, Daniel would say if he was the type to adhere any importance to his own actions.

"Sometimes even people who only seem to want to hurt others can change." The world doesn't always have to be so cruel after all, in the end.

[centile]

"That's probably why it was cool," Mob decides with a little nod. Daniel was just naturally cool, obviously. Admittedly karate pretty much already ensured Mob would think that but still.

His hair floats back down completely, the last of the power crackle easing. The fallout of this fight is far nicer than the fight, a little breath leaving him when younger Daniel hugs the girl and they're both safe. That the attacker is safe too-

That apparently he learned something. When he looks back to Daniel it's with an obvious ease to hear that outcome, to have that reinforced. People can do terrible things but they can always change. He wished it didn't have to happen so violently so often but it still meant something, to overcome yourself.

"Are you friends now?" he asks, then, "The blond boy, he's my friend now. He's trying to change and has. He helps me a lot." A glance down. "I admire him for that. Changing isn't easy, is it?"

[miyagimagic]

Don't mind it if Daniel helps smooth your hair back down a little bit there, Mob. He's just glad that power didn't do anything bad to mob - other than showing them some memories, but that's basically the same thing this place is doing to them in the first place. So there's just a few gentle motions of Daniel's hands to make sure Mob's hair looking okay again after falling down like that.

It's a quick gesture, though, leaving Daniel with some time to think in the face of that question. First about how glad he is to know that Mob wasn't chased by awful people all his life, that he does have enemies turned friends who help him - and how sweet the boy is for admiring them.

.. but also how he sees a mirror in it, and a question, even to himself.

"It isn't. I admire Chozen for that too." That much is easy to say, something Daniel can determine just with his own heart. Especially in the face of his rocky relationship with Johnny, it's admirable just how much Chozen turned himself around entirely.

It's the other part of the question though that leaves him quiet, glancing back at the arena before looking over at Mob.

"And I-- I like to hope we're friends," Daniel settles on.

It's not the sort of thing he'd want to claim without the other guy being here to confirm whether they truly are friends or not. But Daniel-- he'd like to be. It feels like they are.

He huffs, before adding a touch more jokingly: "At the very least we're basically karate cousins, so there's that."

[centile]

Oh, that has Mob blink but it also cements something in Mob's head about Daniel. Mostly the fact that he was a really good guy, something he first realized about Reigen when his master put a hand on his shoulder, or freaked out when hot tea almost spilled on him. He realized as much about Daniel pretty early on but it still clicks in place in a different way.

This is someone who knows a lot, who Mob should listen to. That having a sensei is pretty nice. That he is very, very lucky.

"Karate cousins," Mob muses, a glance over to where the same boy is wallowing in his defeat. It's a little easier to feel a bit bad for him now, he was clearly going through a lot and lashing out. Obviously he wished Daniel didn't have to deal with that but he's intimately, exhaustively familiar with how little there is to be done about it. He and Daniel attracting people who were at their worst, unfortunately.

"I think anyone would be lucky to be your friend, sensei," he decides after a beat, looking back over. "So I hope he is too."

[miyagimagic]

".. thanks, Shigeo."

Is Daniel so sure about whether that compliment is true? Not really. He's never even really had many friends back home in the first place, and then there's the fact he's got plenty of doubts about himself. But there's no way Daniel is going to be cruel enough to dismiss a compliment born out of a student's kindness. So even though it's with a shy yet faint ducking of his head, Daniel accepts it, smiling a bit.

The memory starts to grow dark around the edges, like it's fading. Daniel notices too, which is why he's quick to turn his head back to the boy. Even though there are some things he'd love to cling to in this memory - mister Miyagi's face, more than anything - it would feel bad to not at least get this final thing out before the memory might pop like a soap bubble.

"You're very kind." More than anything, this is the thing Daniel wants to make sure Mob knows. And if there's anything that must have carried the other through such similar difficult moments as Daniel himself has endured, then it's that. "It's your strength. Never forget that."