(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

[terriblepurpose]

This world, like Paul's own, demands violence. If this world is the past of his, or cousin to that past, then so it follows. Humanity is scattered to the stars and makes war from the ground up, as it ever has. If there's a difference, it's of degree, not kind.

Yet Daniel wants peace. Still believes in it, still strives for it, and he can't help but think of Midoriya again. How well he fits underneath Daniel's roof as another boy who fights because the world won't let him say no, not because he wants to. Paul bows his head, examining the rough earth underneath their feet.

"I don't know if I like fighting," Paul says, contained and matter-of-fact, "I'm good at it. I've always been good at it."

There's a joy in doing what one excels at. Paul has found it in fighting, at the best of times, when combat is a test or a game. Sometimes, in the darkness of the woods, he's found himself caught in heady exhilaration after a clash with a Beast. He is more than good at it.

But there are the other kinds of fights. The ones he can't say no to, or the ones he should say no to.

"That's what I did to Robby, isn't it." Paul leaves his inflection flat and unquestioning as he lifts his head again. The judgment is pronounced like a sentence. It may as well be.

[miyagimagic]

Daniel takes the boy's first statement mostly with a hum. There is a lot he could say to it, exploring the nuances between being good at something and liking something - because mister Miyagi was the best, and he didn't like it either.

But it doesn't feel as important in the light of the more surprising statement that follows. One that actually manages to tear Daniel's gaze away from the younger Daniel ahead of them as they still walk, instead glancing over at Paul with his eyes slightly widened. Surprise that this is being brought up, perhaps, or maybe just surprise that Paul is thinking this way at all.

"No," Daniel is quick to say though once he gets over the initial bump of surprise in the road. The answer is a little hasty, but doesn't sound any less firm for it, accompanied by a tiny shake of his head. The circumstances were so different, after all. Robby asked for the fight, for one, and even though Paul was the one escalating it, Robby didn't try to de-escalate it either, might even have wanted it, if not due to the mess that inherently exists between Paul and Robby due to Johnny's bond with either of them. It was something born out of mutual hurt, rather than one-sided hurt being taken out on someone else.

"You apologized to him, right?" The 'right?' isn't entirely necessary. Daniel knows he must have, after asking him for his permission. "Apologizing, feeling regret, learning from your mistakes.. That's what sets that apart from this."

He moves a hand to gesture at the small figure still trudging along in front of them, an apartment building slowly coming into view as the boy drags his bike closer and closer to that destination.