[It's the nature of a psychic injury to have no insight into itself.]
[These kids are a step up, in that regard. It doesn't color their souls deeper, because their souls are already wine-red and darkling-deep with things that have hurt and hurt and hurt again. Is a scab still a scab when it's been picked so many times that it leaves something more indelible than dried blood and clinging skin?]
[One can cut the body, and it will heal.]
[But do it over and over again in the same spot, and you will scar.] [The soul cannot be so different.]
[And it isn't.]
I know. [Soft words. The tip of one thumb grazes the crescent edge of the hatchet blade. Duller than he'd like. Or - duller than someone else would like. He doesn't know anymore. He didn't know what he was before he got tangled up in someone else's soul, in the souls of two someone elses. He's got no clue what he's meant to be now.]
[Other than safe. And that, in and of itself, is laughable. He's the furthest thing from safe. He corrupts people's heads and robs them of their sanity. And here he is. Safe.]
no subject
[These kids are a step up, in that regard. It doesn't color their souls deeper, because their souls are already wine-red and darkling-deep with things that have hurt and hurt and hurt again. Is a scab still a scab when it's been picked so many times that it leaves something more indelible than dried blood and clinging skin?]
[One can cut the body, and it will heal.]
[But do it over and over again in the same spot, and you will scar.]
[The soul cannot be so different.]
[And it isn't.]
I know. [Soft words. The tip of one thumb grazes the crescent edge of the hatchet blade. Duller than he'd like. Or - duller than someone else would like. He doesn't know anymore. He didn't know what he was before he got tangled up in someone else's soul, in the souls of two someone elses. He's got no clue what he's meant to be now.]
[Other than safe. And that, in and of itself, is laughable. He's the furthest thing from safe. He corrupts people's heads and robs them of their sanity. And here he is. Safe.]
...but it doesn't mean you have to.