"Don't pull the trigger."
( meme : accepting )
there is no tell, so to speak. though … why would there be? his reality is not a game of poker, no matter how often it seemed otherwise. though he was a STRATEGIST — he was also the stoic GAMBLER who played with nothing more to lose & everything to win. or so he thought. for everything he gave, there always seemed to be one step further, one step that crumbled into a skeletal staircase beneath his feet & directed him to f a l l. one step further, & it never takes him by surprise. there is very little that would surprise him at present, he thought —- his method would continue unhindered; & so would his thought. but absent shock would manifest itself in the tightening of marble muscle, the clenching of his jaw, the unbidden tremor of his body that would take him later, when he was away from public eye. he holds the gun steady, steady against the brow of his colleague — even when the voice of another ( another sentenced to die by his hand on this day ) interrupted. there were some things that made the task perceivably more difficult than it could have been, should have been. [ must they make it personal? ] QUIET — the purposed mind allows idle thought to muse what they might assume of the EASE with which he employs his actions. it’s a shame that it was more easy than they’d likely assume. lady necessity did command him. breathe in . . . his finger relaxes on the trigger —- he notices the way confusion writes itself upon hange’s expression as the gun eases from her brow — blue stone irises flicker up to meet the bladed gaze of the witnessing official — NO TELL : this stone grip tightens on the metal of the pistol before he directs a heavy blow to the side of the speaker’s, levi’s, head. ❝ quiet, prisoner. ❞ the official seemed satisfied — erwin turned sharply, & the barrel of the gun once more met hange’s brow. a dull echo of formalities, legal proceedings, fell from his lips before the dominating crack of the pistol echoed. THERE WAS NO H E S I T A T I O N. . . . breathe out. he lowered the gun, turned with the same crisp motion as before, & began again ———- the metal’s light pressure against levi’s brow, the drone of those legal proceedings that denied erwin the freedom to recognize their humanity. a second shot shattered the afternoon air.
