-{ from @equilibrixm }-
❛ does Yasuo know who you really are ? Do you ? ❜
ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ʜᴇ ʜᴀᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ merely to ignore the eye of twilight’s presence, words pierce through carefully made defenses, causing him to halt entirely. head turns, swung to allow for carmine stare to fixate on Shen. for almost a moment, by the way he tenses, it seems his impulse is to lunge — but he only freezes.
❝ no. ❞ voice is cold, absent of emotion, and though flashes of irritation and genuine distress pass over his expression , it all happens too quickly before he’s impassive again. ❝ he does not know, nor do i. not anymore. is that what you wish to hear? ❞ he knew who he used to be, in bits and pieces, and yet that man had long since escaped him. he would never dare to imply he was anything like the man who had died that night, and surely yasuo knew this too, despite his willingness to rekindle. it was something neither addressed, not yet — but surely, in time, the topic would rear its head. or, perhaps, he would be dead again by then.
his chin lifts, a rigid movement && despite his best efforts to steel his nerve , there was a distinct pain that lingered in carmine stare, unspoken despair that would remain silent. ❝ you may loathe me as you please, eye of twilight. but make no mistake, there is no one who’s safety i value more than my brother’s. do not bring him up to me. ❞
-/ Yone was not hard to find. Not for the Eye of Twilight, not with the trail of demonic energy he left like a flowing ribbon of red along the spirit realm’s ever changing landscape. However, where many expected the protector of the balance to strike; Shen was not here to draw blades.
‘ He is as much a victim as those the demons hunt ‘
His master had told him that- and that much he’d grown to believe. Through eyes aflame with spiritual light he could see them, the bleeding colors like paint in the rain. Pain, regret, flowing ribbons extending into the sky and beyond to their tether. Their source. Arms rested calmly behind his back- indigo eyes lost their glow as azure shone through, a gentle saunter being his only movement as he walked up to be parallel with the other weather he desired it or not.
“ .. . When my father died, his mantle came to me at a time of great turmoil. Shen- the student.. had just lost his father, his home.. people he had grown up with his whole life and then some. There was rage there, and grief.. he wanted nothing more than to find the man he knew was behind it, to grab hold of him- to demand answers. To scream until his voice was raw and his body ran dry of tears to shed. To know ‘why’ ... but- The Eye of Twilight; deemed he stand stalwart, calm as the easiest of winds that he wave away the blood still fresh on those temple grounds to focus on the future. To pass on the RAGE and GUILT as it was no longer his place to hold them. The Kinkou needed a leader now, not a wallowing son. The Balance needed its protector. “
He paused for a moment, letting the other look him over, knowing very well how his spectral eye would see his own ties in turn. Ribbons that stretched to the skies and others down to the ground itself like falling water.
“ That conflict of personality, of goal and mission. It was like an ocean that swallowed every flame of passion and hope my heart had held, to a point I feared it would consume me as well. It was only with the help of The Tempest that I saw a truth. An Equilibrium. As much as we change, are forced to change; we never truly loose who we were in those years past. Even you, I have seen the bond you hold for your brother in your heart. A stream of love and guilt, a care that no ‘monster’ would hold. You think your past self as his own man, but he lives in you just as my own lives within me.. Distant as they may feel... The choice comes down to weather you can learn to accept that he, and this new man you have become are one in the same, that your choices are his choices, and your faults.. his faults- are one in the same... . or continue to see such an idea as folly. I cannot make that choice for you, nor do I expect you to do so quickly... only hope you come to find your answer before your river runs dry... “ /-
