Bitter It Beat At Waking [FIN]

[Dark]

What really bothered Aiolos about kids these days was their collective attitude--they all acted like their individual, minuscule woes were the end of the world, and there was an entire subcultural supporting the idiotic notion. Vishne was a...proud?...member of it. And what was ridiculous about the entire thing was that they had no idea what they were talking about. It was insulting and irritating and made Aiolos want to kill something. Mainly Vishne.

He stopped walking, fingering his knife as he considered whether to say something or not. It wasn't really his place, and he honestly didn't care what Vishne did with his life as long as Aiolos was not a part of it after this unfortunate, unavoidable instance. It was just all so...bothersome.

"How do you define misery, Vishne?"

It really would be interesting to see what made life so horrible to live; because Aiolos could guarantee the brat didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

[Bee]

This was an interesting question, and one that could be answered in a number of ways. Vishne thought about it for quite some time, in fact. He felt miserable pretty much all of the time, actually, but it was hard to define.

"Loneliness, I guess. Waking up knowing that no one cares that you're there and going to sleep knowing that none of them care if you ever wake up again." His tone of voice was deeply self-pitying, but quite surprisingly free of whine. His eyes had dried completely--he wasn't even crying. He wondered what was wrong with him. "Everyone else is so exceptional...They all stand out, and everyone notices them. Helena and Se and Ira are batshit nuts, Iphis is such a flouncing fucking fairy princess, Eir is so mean, and Venka is so everything, so perfect. I'm just...empty space."

[Dark]

Aiolos blinked--there was actually some sort of depth to Vishne. Huh.--completely taken back by his response. Aiolos understood that kind of pain, those his had been more primal--dark, cold, hungry, infinity--before realization--alone, despised, fear. Not that he would ever admit it, not to this child and not to anyone; those thoughts were his and Minh's alone.

"I think we need to get you into some writing classes." It was the closest he could get to 'I understand. I..almost...care.'

Vishne might not be as shallow as Aiolos had initially thought, but his pain was still superficial--born of low self-esteem and too long acting the shadow of more brilliant siblings. He didn't have to feel that way, though, and that choice is what would define him.

Not that Aiolos cared particularly, one way or another, "Let's get you home, brat."

[Bee]

This was not the response Vishne had expected; he had expected to get yelled at or maybe beaten up or at least called seventy different versions of stupid fucking idiot, which is what typically happened in these kinds of situations.

Aiolos was right about the writing class; what he composed was entirely wretched. He knew it; everyone who listened to it knew it; as a group of terrible poets, they had all reached the collective agreement that they were decent, because the group could not be wrong, but they all knew. He wondered what would actually happen if someone got on the stage of the Abyss and said something meaningful. Heads would explode, likely. The thought was exceedingly depressing, but it was a different kind of depressing than what he usually felt.

He nodded slowly at Aiolos's words. "Okay," he said. Then, as a hesitant addition: "I'm sorry."

[Dark]

The entire situation had taken a rather alarming turn toward sentimentality, and Aiolos scrambled to maintain his footing. In the end, doing so involved cuffing Vishne about the head and growling, "You damn well should be."

They walked home in silence; not comfortable by any means, but there weren't anymore death threats made, so that at least was an improvement. From some respects, anyway. And it looked like maybe something he'd said was soaking into Vishne's thick skull, which would be flattering to anyone else besides Aiolos. He was mostly just glad because Vishne being wrapped up his own thoughts meant peace and quiet for him.

Aiolos was definitely thankful when he finally slammed open the door to their apartment, abandoning Vishne admittedly to the mercy of his siblings while he searched out Minh and some compensation.

He was glad it was over. Deep and meaningful conversations were for pansies, anyway.

[Kiki]

Bee and Dark receive 1 token each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe. This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe. Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!