BERTOLT

[bloodread]

Comments

[bloodread]

Right. [ same but cats > physics. they can do this it's probably just awkward as fuck but stubbornness wins the day. ]

Same rules as before? [ Minus the handholding. ]

[perspire]

Yeah.

[ nods and well.

time to fight!!

while holding hands!!! ]

[bloodread]

[ This is fine?

Well maybe less fine for Akira since look at that nat 20. At least he puts up about as good as a fight as he possibly can with their arrangement. Guess he's flopped on the floor is he dragging Bertolt down with him because hands???

Either way- ]

Rematch. Tomorrow.

[perspire]

You're on.

[ letting himself be dragged down after the fight. he's starting off flopped next to akira, but then after a moment he's going to turn onto his side to look at him ]

This... was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

[bloodread]

Why'd you think it'd be easy? [ Akira half shifts so he's not completely eating dirt, but he needs a minute cause that was a lot. ]

[perspire]

I didn't.

Just, not as hard as it was.

[bloodread]

Practice or whatever, right? [ That's kinda a weird, happy, stupid thing to say given how they've ended up. Nagako hops over helpfully, no longer a mamushi, and kicks a little dirt at Akira. ]

[perspire]

We'll find time for it. [ but he lets out a laugh at what nagako did ]

[bloodread]

[ Bertolt and Nagako get a look but they both know it means nothing. ]

...yeah? [ He is not an optimistic person. With her job done, Nagako flops at Bertolt's side, getting comfy. ]

[perspire]

I'm trying to think more positively.

[ it's hard. but with his free hand he is reaching out to pet her ]

[bloodread]

[ Pets! Nagako leans into them readily, licking Bertolt's hand a bit. Meanwhile Akira is doing his best not to die. Over the past weeks the amount of other daemons she's interacted with is tiny, so touch like this is entirely new. ]

Mn, that's cheating.

[perspire]

[ if only akira noticed when nagako curled around idi's snout. but bertolt will keep on petting nagako as much as she wants. ]

Hm, but if Idi was still here?

[bloodread]

Then I could make it even. [ Nagako lives here now. ]

[perspire]

I wish I could've seen it then. [ a sad smile as he pictures it, still petting nagako ]

[bloodread]

Who the hell knows what's happening with that either.

[ It is hard to brood when his daemon is being pampered, so this may be a glint of some kind of positivity. ]

i. literally had this tag open all night

[perspire]

Right. Thinking positively.

[ does akira want pampering too? ]

[bloodread]

[ , but he's kinda half-smiling. ]

Sure, we can call it that. I'm over vengeful ghosts, anyway.

[perspire]

Luckily I never wanted revenge.

[ ignore all the times in the gy that he pettily responded back to nine being petty ]

[bloodread]

What have you wanted here? [ Bertolt is valid. ]

[perspire]

-- To not stand to the side.

[bloodread]

I don't think you would. I don't lose to people like that.

[perspire]

I spent a lot of time doing that back home. It was... time for me to stop.

[bloodread]

I've never not known how to fight. I don't think I could stop even if I wanted.

[ Nestled against Bertolt's side, Nagako kicks a little. ]

[perspire]

--I had to learn quickly. Back home among the other Warriors, we believed in "might makes right": whoever was strongest got to decide.

[bloodread]

Yeah that's kinda true, but people cheat. [ He's seen it too much to think otherwise. ]

No one taught me anything, I was just pissed off all the time so I picked fights and got better at them.