[ it isn't as simple as tsuru makes it sound. the thing is... even ookurikara can't bring himself to oppose the cause as zhongli explained it. so technicalities and trust issues aside, choice means everything to him, enough to argue with his current master here and there, so why wouldn't he be in favor of freeing the people here?
but altering history, turning a whole world on its head would be a complicated, intricate thing, and committing to that will take more than one person's word.
still, there's something comforting in tsurumaru paring it all down like this. it's easier, when it means kara doesn't have to think too hard about the tightness in his chest, so he leans into it, and accepts tsuru's words as if they are fact. carry on like they have... that, he can do. ]
Sharing information, keeping others safe, making sure they're warm...
(He could keep listing. He could be more specific. And he maintains eye contact with Kara the entire time to let him know he can and will if he has to.)
I'm sure everyone appreciates it. (And a quick head pat,) As they should.
(Because Ookurikara is a good sword. A good spirit.
In comparison?? Tsuru has made people uncomfortable and just generally been chaotic so???)
Is that all? (Is it really, Kara? Well, he won't press it anymore than that but he's letting you know that he knows.) Well, we'll have to make sure everyone is taken care of until we can go home.
[ HE WILL KEEP DODGING until tsuru stops and then he can have warmth rights again
at any rate, he doesn't answer immediately. silence stretches between them, enough that it seems like ookurikara has nothing more to say. quiet has never bothered him the way it does tsuru, after all - he can sit in silence for hours and be at peace, if anyone around him would allow it.
it's only after a long, long pause that kara speaks again, voice quiet: ]
The one bearing all that extra time... they said that they wanted to create a lasting peace, with no more war.
[ and where would he even begin unravel the complicated feelings in his heart about that? ]
(Warm rights trump menacing on a frozen death mountain you win this time, Ookurikara.
In comparison, Tsurumaru has a mixed relationship with silence. Sometimes it's nice and puts him at ease and other times, it makes him restless and fills him with a desire to do something to break it. This time, it falls somewhere in between. He doesn't mind the silence so much when he knows it isn't going to last. So he waits, lets himself warm up next to Kara, and finally, when he speaks, he makes sure to listen carefully, to hear his words and feel their weight.
His heart beats hard in his chest, a pang of something twisting at his core. He's a passive spirit, the type that is content to sit back and observe, to follow orders and to just go about his days without want... or at least, without expressing it out loud.
If there was something he wanted
One thing he really desired
It was... p e a c e
He bottles it up. Covers it with more layers. Wraps it up carefully and tucks it away.
After a moment of silence that probably feels longer than it really is, he replies calmly,)
[ how many humans have dreamed of peace? how many take up their swords and spears to wage war for the sake of ending it? and how many spirits have bathed their steel in red, hoping that the day may come that they will no longer be needed at all - that they won't simply be reduced to works of art and replaced with newer, stronger weapons, but that they may not ever hear the sounds of war again?
zhongli isn't the first. neither is ishikirimaru, or nobuyasu, or gohei. when it comes to this simple wish they share, there is nothing unique about them - except, perhaps, the belief of whether it can truly come to be someday. for ookurikara, however, it's hard to imagine believing comes so easily, when it means the end of everything they've known, sword spirit, god, or human. ]
But he seems to believe that they can actually achieve it here.
[ a question goes unasked, one kara can't bring himself to voice again, for fear of allowing himself to hope too much. that's always been the core of why he acts the way he does, isn't it - while tsurumaru escapes that through surprises and tricks and games, ookurikara escapes by pulling away, and never allowing himself to get close at all, lest it slip through his fingers again, as everything he wants always seems to do.
but his heart still wants to know: is a world without war even possible? what will become of them, if it is? does that even matter, in the end?
tsurumaru won't have those answers, but no one else would even hear those questions, so there is no one better to trust them with. ]
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but altering history, turning a whole world on its head would be a complicated, intricate thing, and committing to that will take more than one person's word.
still, there's something comforting in tsurumaru paring it all down like this. it's easier, when it means kara doesn't have to think too hard about the tightness in his chest, so he leans into it, and accepts tsuru's words as if they are fact. carry on like they have... that, he can do. ]
...Helpful how?
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(He could keep listing. He could be more specific. And he maintains eye contact with Kara the entire time to let him know he can and will if he has to.)
I'm sure everyone appreciates it. (And a quick head pat,) As they should.
(Because Ookurikara is a good sword. A good spirit.
In comparison?? Tsuru has made people uncomfortable and just generally been chaotic so???)
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None of us will get much further if they die. There aren't enough Pyro visions in this camp to avoid it.
[ that's it that's his excuse ]
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Is that all? (Is it really, Kara? Well, he won't press it anymore than that but he's letting you know that he knows.) Well, we'll have to make sure everyone is taken care of until we can go home.
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Once we're off this mountain, they can handle themselves.
[ he refuses to be responsible for all of these people until they go home, that's way too much associating with others for this dragon. ]
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Then we'll have to take advantage of your kindness while we can~
(Whether he gets his hands on Kara's hair or not, he eventually does give up to just stay close to Kara. Ah, he has to warm up again.)
Is there anything else worrying you, Kara?
(Before Tsuru drags them back to camp to be around p e o p l e.)
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at any rate, he doesn't answer immediately. silence stretches between them, enough that it seems like ookurikara has nothing more to say. quiet has never bothered him the way it does tsuru, after all - he can sit in silence for hours and be at peace, if anyone around him would allow it.
it's only after a long, long pause that kara speaks again, voice quiet: ]
The one bearing all that extra time... they said that they wanted to create a lasting peace, with no more war.
[ and where would he even begin unravel the complicated feelings in his heart about that? ]
no subject
In comparison, Tsurumaru has a mixed relationship with silence. Sometimes it's nice and puts him at ease and other times, it makes him restless and fills him with a desire to do something to break it. This time, it falls somewhere in between. He doesn't mind the silence so much when he knows it isn't going to last. So he waits, lets himself warm up next to Kara, and finally, when he speaks, he makes sure to listen carefully, to hear his words and feel their weight.
His heart beats hard in his chest, a pang of something twisting at his core. He's a passive spirit, the type that is content to sit back and observe, to follow orders and to just go about his days without want... or at least, without expressing it out loud.
If there was something he wanted
One thing he really desired
It was... p e a c e
He bottles it up. Covers it with more layers. Wraps it up carefully and tucks it away.
After a moment of silence that probably feels longer than it really is, he replies calmly,)
He wouldn't be the first.
(And he won't be the last, either.)
no subject
No.
[ how many humans have dreamed of peace? how many take up their swords and spears to wage war for the sake of ending it? and how many spirits have bathed their steel in red, hoping that the day may come that they will no longer be needed at all - that they won't simply be reduced to works of art and replaced with newer, stronger weapons, but that they may not ever hear the sounds of war again?
zhongli isn't the first. neither is ishikirimaru, or nobuyasu, or gohei. when it comes to this simple wish they share, there is nothing unique about them - except, perhaps, the belief of whether it can truly come to be someday. for ookurikara, however, it's hard to imagine believing comes so easily, when it means the end of everything they've known, sword spirit, god, or human. ]
But he seems to believe that they can actually achieve it here.
[ a question goes unasked, one kara can't bring himself to voice again, for fear of allowing himself to hope too much. that's always been the core of why he acts the way he does, isn't it - while tsurumaru escapes that through surprises and tricks and games, ookurikara escapes by pulling away, and never allowing himself to get close at all, lest it slip through his fingers again, as everything he wants always seems to do.
but his heart still wants to know: is a world without war even possible? what will become of them, if it is? does that even matter, in the end?
tsurumaru won't have those answers, but no one else would even hear those questions, so there is no one better to trust them with. ]