[Ryou's ears prick up when Nanami moves close to tend to his cuts...but they lower again soon enough. Talking about these kinds of things...they hurt. He wishes he could have done better.
But he won't push her away, and he does appreciate that she's dabbing at the cuts he's created.]
The other deaths...? I...I just know that he fought AM and rather than lose and suffer a worse fate...Atem took his life. He's a strategist, and he chose the best move. I was upset, but...I couldn't stay that way, not when I knew the reason he even tried to fight AM in the first place.
[Ryou glances down, away from Nanami.]
He did it for me. Because AM...hurt me. He burned me while I was defenseless, just because he could, and Atem wanted to pay it back.
[Ryou's burn scars seem to stand out more clearly after that, at least to him. the gnarled skin of his right forearm, the furless plane of wrinkled flesh along his right foot...and though no one can see it, the worst of the lot, seared into his thigh.]
I could have done better by Atem, if I was stronger. If I weren't such a weak, flimsy shade, then I could have prevented his suffering any further. But I was weak...so when the next awful thing happened to him, all I could do was lose and die against the enemy, then come back to see him lost and alone.
If I was strong, I wouldn't have died trying to stop that manticore taking him and cutting him open, but I'm just. I'm...not enough.
[He shakes his head, softly, then quietly murmurs the next sentence.]
cw; suicide, death, burn mention, bad surgery mention
But he won't push her away, and he does appreciate that she's dabbing at the cuts he's created.]
The other deaths...? I...I just know that he fought AM and rather than lose and suffer a worse fate...Atem took his life. He's a strategist, and he chose the best move. I was upset, but...I couldn't stay that way, not when I knew the reason he even tried to fight AM in the first place.
[Ryou glances down, away from Nanami.]
He did it for me. Because AM...hurt me. He burned me while I was defenseless, just because he could, and Atem wanted to pay it back.
[Ryou's burn scars seem to stand out more clearly after that, at least to him. the gnarled skin of his right forearm, the furless plane of wrinkled flesh along his right foot...and though no one can see it, the worst of the lot, seared into his thigh.]
I could have done better by Atem, if I was stronger. If I weren't such a weak, flimsy shade, then I could have prevented his suffering any further. But I was weak...so when the next awful thing happened to him, all I could do was lose and die against the enemy, then come back to see him lost and alone.
If I was strong, I wouldn't have died trying to stop that manticore taking him and cutting him open, but I'm just. I'm...not enough.
[He shakes his head, softly, then quietly murmurs the next sentence.]
That's why I needed Her help.