❛ the world isn’t made up of heroes and monsters. just broken people balancing between the two. ❜ / five ( @atomsofstars )
❛ I THINK YOU’RE OVERSIMPLIFYING, even at that. ❜ she pauses, glances away. five is likely one of the few who would understand this point of view, the nuances. her argument and why this might cut so close to the bone. short breath in, shorter breath out, and she walks to the coffee table, feels under the edge until she finds the handle of a small paring knife. something easy to miss if you don’t know to look for it. ❛ when you put it like that, it implies that we all start on similar playing fields... we both know better than most that isn’t the case. ❜
she rolls the blade into her gloved palm, lets it rest flat across, and looks to five. ❛ in an ideal world, we would all begin like this. easily balanced between the two, entirely neutral until we make a choice. ❜ she tips her hand left, just enough to let it wobble, then the other direction, never enough to let it tip entirely. she passes it to the right hand, no tricks this time as she removes the glove on her left, before balancing the knife again. this time the hilt resting a big more precariously on her knuckles. still stable, but requiring more concentration to stop it from tipping. ❛ this is more accurate. biased, clearly in one direction, but still manageable. dangerous regardless. and then, there’s people like us---------- ❜
when she says us, does she mean their siblings, or just the two of them ? it’s impossible to tell so simply. so calm and collected, and it turns out that diego isn’t the only one with knife tricks as she rolls it off her knuckles, palming it, before using her opposite hand to balance the end of the hilt on the tip of her middle finger. far less stable, but it’s more upright than most would be able to manage. it is only through sheer force of will and years of dedication that she can keep it so near to still, her eyes are locked on the blade. she has enough injuries in her hands without adding to it for the sake of making a point. ❛ we’re never perfectly in balance, that would make things too easy. we can’t let down our guards for even a second, or there’s no telling where we’ll fall.... the more accurate depiction would mean trying to balance it on the tip, but i keep my blades too sharp for that. i won’t draw blood to make a point, i’m not... ❜ mr. hargreeves ? father thomas ? diego ? quiet inhale, quiet exhale. ❛ ...it stands on its own. the dichotomy of heroes and monsters isn’t accurate regardless. have you ever seen a hero who wasn’t slightly monstrous ? or a monster completely barren of heroics ? good and evil... they’re what people sort the world into to make it easier to digest because they haven’t experienced enough to disprove the ideas all together. ❜
