My intent isn't to threaten. What trouble is a Homunculus to the Mage that created it?
[ some wild, high-pitched noise catches in Jack's throat, and he clutches Lux's hand tightly, a point of anchorage. if this really is the Moon Man, if he really can control Jack, then holding onto her won't help at all, there won't be anything he can do - but he wants to think that maybe, maybe he could somehow stop it from happening. maybe he wouldn't lose Jack Frost the way he lost whoever he was before. he desperately wants it to be true. ]
What's the point of all this? [ it comes out as a shout. he feels like he's on the verge of tearing his hair out here, choking on a tangle of fear and anger, confusion and frustration. ] Why?! Why any of it?
Of course. "Say it plain", yes? Then here it is, Jack: no matter how much you ignore it, you're broken.
[ the words strike hard, and it's the familiarity that drives them deep. he hadn't been aware of how much of an outsider he is until he started trying to settle down in Union, and it had suddenly seemed ridiculous how many things he couldn't cope with. everyone tries to treat him like a person, which should be a good thing, but instead it grates at him like they're brushing against an exposed nerve. even as a Homunculus he isn't right, he wasn't made with the others, he was just abandoned on a table in some lab with no idea why, so he doesn't understand anything and he can't help and he doesn't fit. and the arguments over Sanctuary - people had been scared of him, his lack of control and his cold rage, Waver had said rehabilitation and something in Jack had panicked, not at the thought of being rehabilitated but the possibility that he might actually need it because maybe everything wasn't okay, maybe he was—
it had been impossible for the word "broken" not to come to mind when he thought about it all at once.
still, he affects an air of flippancy, of casual disinterest despite his shallow breaths of frost and his shaking, icy hands when he asks the Mage: ] Seriously, that's it? That's all you have to say?
no subject
[ some wild, high-pitched noise catches in Jack's throat, and he clutches Lux's hand tightly, a point of anchorage. if this really is the Moon Man, if he really can control Jack, then holding onto her won't help at all, there won't be anything he can do - but he wants to think that maybe, maybe he could somehow stop it from happening. maybe he wouldn't lose Jack Frost the way he lost whoever he was before. he desperately wants it to be true. ]
What's the point of all this? [ it comes out as a shout. he feels like he's on the verge of tearing his hair out here, choking on a tangle of fear and anger, confusion and frustration. ] Why?! Why any of it?
Of course. "Say it plain", yes? Then here it is, Jack: no matter how much you ignore it, you're broken.
[ the words strike hard, and it's the familiarity that drives them deep. he hadn't been aware of how much of an outsider he is until he started trying to settle down in Union, and it had suddenly seemed ridiculous how many things he couldn't cope with. everyone tries to treat him like a person, which should be a good thing, but instead it grates at him like they're brushing against an exposed nerve. even as a Homunculus he isn't right, he wasn't made with the others, he was just abandoned on a table in some lab with no idea why, so he doesn't understand anything and he can't help and he doesn't fit. and the arguments over Sanctuary - people had been scared of him, his lack of control and his cold rage, Waver had said rehabilitation and something in Jack had panicked, not at the thought of being rehabilitated but the possibility that he might actually need it because maybe everything wasn't okay, maybe he was—
it had been impossible for the word "broken" not to come to mind when he thought about it all at once.
still, he affects an air of flippancy, of casual disinterest despite his shallow breaths of frost and his shaking, icy hands when he asks the Mage: ] Seriously, that's it? That's all you have to say?