video; un: an.exorcist

[likethelight]

[ Deep breath, come on, you've got this. ]

...just because someone becomes a beast, it doesn't mean they stop being human.

[ The video comes on and it's an older, slender teenager with stark white hair; pale grey eyes and a strangely delicate bright red mark slashed across the left side of his face. He seems to be in a courtyard of sorts, one of Amaterasu's guardian saplings is behind him in full bloom. He's only visible from the chest up, but the chair he's sitting in has handles behind it-- looks like a wheelchair. Whatever is taking the video also appears to be a flying sort of thing that bobs slightly. It's trying to hold this video still, but really... ]

Most of you probably already know this. [ His head cants to the side with a lightly apologetic smile. ] Some of you might even be able to still hear or reach them despite that form.

But not everyone does, and it's still too easy to say "oh, it's safer and quicker to just kill them. You don't save monsters." [ The official creed of the Hunters... but he's diplomatic enough to not say that aloud. ] Or "oh, a Sleeper can just come back." Except it isn't just us. Someone else who isn't... most of them who were human... they aren't like us. [ He smiles softly, but in a way that doesn't reach his eyes. They hood, bittersweet. ]

They're just dead then. The soul suffers until the end. Maybe beyond.

It doesn't have to be like that though. [ He seems a soft-spoken sort with a lilted voice, but his tone shifts then and becomes more certain. ] They aren't just a monster, and they don't have to stay one. Even with what they've become -- the soul is still human. Some part of them still wants to be saved; to be themselves once again. And they can. [ Mostly. At least so far in his experience. ]

Some of us have abilities that can let us purify or reverse what corrupted them and bring them back. Some of us-- [ he pauses, looking for a moment just a touch overwhelmed as his eyes drift to the side, the smallest curl of a touched sort of smile at the corner of his mouth ] ... a number of us, we're trying to do something to change things. At one of the old monasteries in Crenshaw.

[ But he closes his eyes. Deep breath, you can do this.

He lifts his eyes back up to the "camera", his expression schooled now with a quiet sort of determination. Chin up, eyes forward. ]

My name is Allen Walker. I'm an Exorcist. [ Clearer, more certain: steady. Rung like a quiet bell. ]

Who's been able to save someone who became a beast?

[ More importantly: ] Who wants to?

[ It's more determined and clearer still. ]

[ ooc: for those who want to poke around in person, there is also an open mingle log for Sanctuary!
CW: mentions of prior character death throughout ]

Comments

[likethelight]

[ Can you blame him for asking that question? How do you think he feels having to ask someone's brother that question? He doesn't like it either. But you already told him when he was within your spirit world that it was only basically because of not being able to extract maximum revenge that you didn't kill Shouto before, and weren't apologetic in the least. Went out of your way to paint him so very negatively and as someone you didn't want to exist, so what's Allen to think? Even if, in a sense, even if he meant it that he wanted to be the one to end him... there was a twisted sense of mercy about that.

But, admittedly, especially after talking to him now... he is more confirmed in his belief that that was also a very twisted aspect of Dabi's soul more than it was Dabi as he is now. He was corrupted and a beast, after all. To Allen, of course it makes sense that his most negative desires and impulses would be amplified. He gets a bit of a free pass in that regard. A bit.

So he thinks long and hard about that response and everything it implies. ]

I'll make sure Tim has it as a standing command. My Omen.

He'll let you know even if I can't.

[ He wants to protect Shouto and will, but not telling a man something like that had happened to his brother would also just be cruel. Especially if, perhaps...

...he cares? ]

[burnitblack]

[nah, wouldn't blame him. perhaps he should feel like it's not his business to invade someone else's family issues? but of course, heroes like to make other people's business their own. he's already seen it in his own world and if shouto's making friends here, he expects them to do the same. but at least it should give allen some relief to know that dabi's main reason for attacking shouto isn't here. but of course he was going to paint his replacement negatively. who wouldn't? the being who was everything you weren't, all the positives you could never be, the very image of your own failures...

allen's free to make his own conjectures. dabi may or may not bother to talk about it to any degree deeper than what he'd already done. whether his bestial corruption had more or less influence on his normal feelings. but until the man actively goes to kill his youngest sibling, there's not much to stand on asides from words.

don't think too hard about dabi, allen. it gets difficult.]

good.

[because he's not going to allow anyone to kill shouto except for him. won't be telling allen that, however. the priest would freak out.]

[likethelight]

[ God you're an idiot for not getting how maybe, just maybe it's important to people to protect the people they actually care about, and that lines like "family business" don't mean shit then. There's more to the world and the bonds people have than that. "Family business" isn't some shield to put up that means you're exempt from the actions of the rest of the world, and somehow it always seems to get slung around by someone doing something terrible they know they'd be stopped for.

Isn't that the ugly truth that led to so much misery?

Still, he's left staring at that single word as a response a little grimly for a while, conflicted. Yes, he's going to keep his word. However... he didn't say when he would let Dabi know when and if that ever happened. And it certainly isn't going to be "right away" as it stands right now, he's not that stupid and one civil conversation with the man isn't going to make him change his tune that quickly. Nor without Shouto explaining his feelings regarding Dabi further -- and what he would want to have happen if he also became a beast. So he's siding pretty far on the side of meaning to protect the people who are actually close to him first.

It's also something he's going to ask Shouto about. If that happened... what would he want. Would he want Dabi there. Sorry Dabi, but this isn't something of yours he's going to keep secret. It's not fair to Shouto.

If he becomes a beast and Allen falls again... Tim will let him know. That's how the command is going to stand for now. Until he learns better of Dabi and the nature of his intentions towards Shouto here and actually trusts in that sort of situation, and least to not jump the gun on deciding to just burn him because it would be easier. And... until he knows Shouto's own feelings on the matter. Trying to make plans behind his back like that...

Doesn't sit well with him. Doesn't feel honest.

And he's going to just leave it at that for now. ]

[burnitblack]

[there's a difference between not knowing how that shit works and realizing it's often used as an excuse to shove someone's own thoughts, ideals, and preferences onto another person and/or their lives, springing from an arrogant idea that they are somehow "better" than the person they seek to shove beneath their individual rule. "stop it; i know what's best for you," is the underlying words, regardless of the excuse cover used to force it through.

fact is, endeavor used "family business" to cover his own domestic abusive and no one came. no one stopped it. there were no heroes who arrived to stand in front of shouto and block him from his father's tyrannical fists, no protector who stepped in and offered to help touya handle the strain of his quirk ravaging his unfit body. no, "family business" meant no one interfered.

of course he knows that's not how it should work, but jaded and embittered as he is, dabi thoroughly craves taking every damn thing he got from endeavor and his own past and then slinging it out into the world in a twisted venom, determined to poison every aspect of his father's legacy and stain their entire family black.

in time, he'll learn that people here simply don't care. because in trench, endeavor doesn't exist...

dabi realizes that agreement leaves a lot open to interpretation. but he also trusts allen's inherent goodness to not be an asshole and "conveniently" interpret the agreement to mean something he knows it doesn't. or else they're going to have another meeting again and it won't be pleasant. if shouto ever does wind up in a critical state, from corruption or beasthood, dabi wants to know. the implied "right then" should be easy to infer, but allen's free to make his own choice.

wouldn't be the first time a hero's lied. they do it so very often. and always have a convenient excuse to sidle away from the consequences. eternally "innocent" and dodging the law they so eagerly dispense upon others.

there's no further response and dabi tosses the omni to the couch before dropping on his back. he'll keep an eye on allen and his sanctuary as well. might be time to look into finally getting a "job" around here. a hunter being the obvious choice, but perhaps a specialist night walker on the side. hn... anyways, he'll see the priest again one way or another.

after all, they've both left unseen scars on each other.]