catchall ✧ this is our story.

[regression]

WHO: Yoo Joonghyuk and you! Friends. Not-friends.
WHAT: Catchall forever
WHERE: Netherworld general
WHEN: The present, the future
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.

Look at me. I am woven together by story, held firm by myth. Look at me. I will tell you of the men that ate me bloody. I will tell you of how ferociously I bit my way out of their stomachs.

— Venetta Octavia, The Alchemy of Smallness —

Comments

[regression]

You refused to return my gem.

[ The gem of Christmas' past. The tone is the same, but the vehemence is palpable. Joonghyuk is capable of staying mad forever, but he snuffs it as it won't help them in their jail cell. His posture slackens and relaxes, focusing on their problem now. ]

Do you not wish to escape?

[ It's a sincere question since he isn't sure if Dimitri is accepting of punishment, accountability, for whatever he did. Will he be useless? Useful? Please be the latter, Joonghyuk is praying. ]

[paraselenes]

[ The Gem lives on between them forever. Dimitri doesn't miss the anger in this perceived slight, answering it with a briefly flat look of his own, unwilling to apologize for this particular thing. But they do need to prioritize. And he hasn't forgotten that moment in the woods, where his bloody hand had been treated with surprisingly efficiency.

Will he be useful though? Hard to say. ]

It hadn't crossed my mind. [ He's paying for his violence. ] Do you mean to ask whether I would help you escape?

[regression]

[ It is hard to say. Joonghyuk tilts his head back, quiet for a moment as he gathers his thoughts. ]

You're escaping as well.

[ He says that as a definite, like Dimitri has no choice—well, no, Joonghyuk is making it so that Dimitri has no choice. ]

[paraselenes]

[ Being bossed around is new to him. Being bullied this brazenly is something few ever dared when he was alive, not because Dimitri was scary about it, but because that's simply how Faerghan respect goes.

He stares at him for a long moment. ]

You watched me commit a crime, you know.

[regression]

[ This is a staring contest. ]

And?

[ Dimitri didn't kill on their trek—and, if he did, at least it wasn't one of his. In the end, he doesn't care for good behavior or misdeeds.

What matters is that Dimitri is a tenant, a "slave" of HSY Corp. ]

[paraselenes]

[ He's not losing yet. ]

"And?" It should matter. If I thought you a truly heinous man, I would let you rot here.

[ He'd take them down together. And if he was innocent, Joonghyuk should work harder to rescue him. Since he isn't, he should consider that in his escape. Right and wrong aren't stark black and whites, but they should still play a part in making choices like this.

But what does he know, he's not this sort of landlord. ]

Besides, I will be a liability once I'm outside of this cell. [ again......... trees ]

[regression]

Remember you and I aren't the same. The rules we live by are different.

[ It isn't in direct opposition to what Dimitri says. Joonghyuk isn't even offended because it may be what he actually deserves for the blood on his hands. Still, he's lived too many lifetimes where all the shades melded—right and wrong mean nothing more than what an individual believes.

Until peace is attained, his mindset won't change. He will save those he wishes to save based on his own metrics and values. ]

You would do more good freed than chained. [ If Dimitri needed an actual reason. Also, wow, your tree skeletons. ] All you need to do is move your legs. Will you keep resisting?

[ joonghyuk really is annoying ]

[paraselenes]

[ JOONGHYUK IS... ANNOYING. Dimitri regards him with some exasperation—what rules is he even talking about? This just seems like a way to say that Joonghyuk does whatever he wants.

Dimitri, meanwhile, constricts himself with every expectation held of him. Even now, something plants his feet in his cell. ]

I never said I wouldn't aid you.

[ There have been so many senseless jailings, and no matter how rocky their start was, he needs to treat Joonghyuk fairly. That means getting him—and nearly everyone else here—out.

However, since he's being so stubborn, Dimitri relents and gives some actual reasons back. ]

...But I am suffering from a curse. It makes it difficult for me to leave this place, nor do I need to escape. Account for these things in your plans, and tell me what you need.

[regression]

[ Expectations they set on themselves. Unfortunately, three(?) months in the Netherworld has not been long enough to domesticate him, so yeah. It means he will do what he wants.

There's a pause. ]

Fine.

[ Suspiciously easy and accommodating? ]