thinking about how every time that carl has been ready to sacrifice himself to save donut or save the others or whenever a plan goes wrong and he's going to die, the others all refuse to give up on him and let him.
thinking about the grull fight in book 3, about donut being about to charge in without a plan to save carl, and then katia gives her a plan. how katia and elle and donut and imani and li na and li jun and zhang all come to save carl.
thinking about the end of the butcher's masquerade when carl thinks their only way is for him to sacrifice himself and the others are trying to talk him out of it in chat and imani and katia go running to him to try and stop him.
thinking about every time that someone who loves carl has stopped him from making a martyr of himself or has walked through fire to get to him or refused to give up on him. because as much as carl loves his family, they all love him back just as much. how they gave him the companionship and connection that he'd always desperately craved but never had, gave him community and a continued reminder of what he's fighting for. how carl gave them hope that it's possible to make it out alive, that they are more than the people they were before the dungeon, that there is still good in this world and people worth fighting for. how he saved them and they save him and that cycle will continue.
