Yeah, and just in general. I see you go like this...
[He copies a motion he's seen Leona make probably at least a dozen times by now, the hand brought to the temple. It could practically be sign language for "migraine."]
[As if to test that claim, he pulls one of his arms out from under his head and holds it side by side against Leona's--not where he was scratched, he's not mean--like skin touching skin will actually give him any usable data.]
[Leona, without any hesitation or reservation, pulls his arm away— and then snatches Yoojin's arm so that he can curl his claws into Yoojin's skin. They're thicker than they are sharp, but Leona still wants to test Yoojin, see if he's pathetically sensitive or not— so while he doesn't grip hard enough to really harm Yoojin, it's still a rather firm hold.]
Edited (didn't like the wording wasn't catlike enough) 2025-05-24 03:20 (UTC)
[He starts, a look of mild surprise on his face. When that's as far as Leona goes, though, he blows out a breath.]
Even if my skin is thinner than yours, I'm not that delicate. I'm tough enough to raise monsters, you know.
[At no point does he flinch away or try to pull his arm back. He was startled, but it's like he has every faith Leona won't hurt him. Or like he's forgotten how to be scared of being hurt, at least at this level.]
[And Leona does continue to inspect, his claws loosening to drag his hand up to Yoojin's palm, using the directing of his thumb and forefinger to spread Yoojin's fingers and palms in a thoroughly stupid analysis.]
Funny thing about that.
A beast tamer from another world fell into ours months ago.
There's certainly a 'type' among you, isn't there.
Edited (quotation marks come in pairs) 2025-05-24 19:12 (UTC)
[That's. Ummmmm. Yoojin's not going to think too hard about how that feels, the slide of Leona's claws up past his wrist, the way he moves his fingers apart. His gaze relocates to the skyward void.]
[Leona answers, inspecting the state of Yoojin's human-claws compared to his own. Human nails are interesting in that they tend to tell a quite a bit about the work or personality behind them, and he doesn't expect Yoojin's hands to be delicate at all.
...Altogether he's gotten a bit aimless with it, though, observing less as an attempt to learn and more and more as just a cat reveling in a behavior it hasn't been scolded for.]
You're uncompromizing in your goals for two people who don't seem to have as much to lose. You analyze others to learn their behaviors and tame them as though they're beasts themselves.
[Leona's right about that; hands, in general, can reveal a lot about a person. Yoojin's hands aren't those of a fighter; after turning the clock back to before his own awakening, all those little scars and calluses, those signs of fighting bare-knuckled, armed with knives, or holding a spear, are gone. They do, however, speak of years of different kinds of labor. Construction work. Carrying things. Cooking prep and dog-walking. Anything anyone would hire him for when he dropped out of school at fifteen.
Now, he tames beasts. And, as Leona so keenly observes, people.
On reflex, he closes his hand loosely.]
...Ah... I mean...
[It becomes even more obvious that he's looking away.]
[The noise Leona makes in immediate response is a bit vague, and it takes a moment before he's willing to turn his eyes away from their hands to look more toward Yoojin, smirking a little when he asks;]
[Satisfied with the exchange of pettiness, Yoojin lets his arm rest on Leona again.]
It's not just a survival tactic, for me. It's a skill--a bunch of skills. If people knew how much I could read into their abilities, or how I make powerful folks twice as powerful, or that I can basically brainwash even S-ranked humans, not just monsters... Yoohyun locking me up forever for my safety would be the best-case scenario.
Worst-case, someone finally figures out I'm a threat and takes me out.
[And as an F-ranker with no offensive abilities of his own, what could Yoojin do to stop them? Cry about it?]
Besides, it's not the kind of thing that works if people... well, know how it works. Even if it wasn't a skill, no one would trust what I said anymore if they knew I was manipulating them into getting stronger, right?
[That first bit makes sense, without Leona even having to ask further. It's not even surprising, after everything else. But the next...]
...I don't think that's the question you want to be asking.
[It's a bold claim, but Leona continues;]
Every coach manipulates their team into succeeding. It doesn't matter what the odds actually are; it's the coach's job to sell the team an undeniable vision of victory. To feed their hunger, their drive—
All of it's manipulation, in the end. And it's a manipulation they're asking for. They want to be made to believe the world can change, and it's your job to make that happen for them.
But you see it as a lie instead of an exchange. Maybe it's that you expect others to trust you, but you don't trust them in return. The bond feels uneven, for whatever you think you're not giving them.
[But Leona knows it isn't.
No amount of hiding things from Ranma could change the kind of reaction Yoojin had to seeing that kid chopped to pieces. Whatever Yoojin thinks he isn't giving his 'kids'— honesty, trust— he is giving each of them the whole of his heart.]
Rules of magic are one thing, but rules between people are another.
Not everyone who trusts you is too stupid to see who you are.
[Leona turns his head to look Yoojin in the face. He's talking about himself. He is the one who assumes he sees Yoojin for what he is.]
The person they see might just be worth the investment.
[For someone so good at seeing and nurturing other people's talents, Yoojin is astonishingly terrible at gauging his own value. His item-smithing friend Myungwoo saw it and gently worked around it, keeping Yoojin safe in his own way. Haeyeon Guild's top administrator saw it and filed the observation tidily away. Sung Hyunje certainly noticed it, because Hyunje notices everything, especially when it comes to the well-being of his favorite toy. His fifteen-year-old ward Yerim once picked him up by the collar and tried to shake some sense into him. Just days before this horror show started, even big, bad Yoohyun had bawled his eyes out about it on Yoojin's shoulder like a baby.
Leona isn't the first to run into this crud-tier self-recognition problem of Yoojin's. He's just the first to put it like this--to confront it so baldly to his face.
He stares at Leona, mouth falling slightly open with nothing in it to say.
For so long, others seeing him--noticing him as anything more than background noise--was unequivocally bad. It got him bullied, berated, and beat up. It tore his reputation to shreds and shattered his very bones.
The past few months after using the wish stone have been a drastic, if not always positive, reversal of fortune for him. But they haven't erased the last five, eight, twenty-something years of rejection and abandonment. He hasn't forgotten what people used to call him. Leech. Parasite.
He can't forget how it felt for Yoohyun to tell him, 'All you do is drag me down.'
The answer to "Who is Han Yoojin?" has always been a worthless nobody. So for Leona to say so seriously, looking at him so intently, that he's somehow worth his dodgy, exploitative, lying bullshit is like... getting rammed in the gut by a juvenile manticore. Like someone forcibly turning off a skill effect he's taken for granted, for good or ill.
He has to restart breathing eventually, and that makes him blink and wet his lips in turn. He pulls his arm back to fold it over his own chest, an unconscious curling-in.]
Heh. You're way too nice to me, man.
[Nobody asked him to be a coach. Well, nobody he counts among his team, anyway.]
[Leona protests, casually, looking back up at their shared patch of sky.]
I still think you're a thick-headed meddling herbivore.
[He sounds a little pleased with himself saying so, too.
Because it doesn't really matter how Yoojin sees himself in the end. Leona understands his value to the pack regardless. What Yoojin does may be manipulative, but in the end, he crafts somewhere safe for the heavy to lay their hearts. For some packs, he may as well have traded gold in exchange for loyalty— or perhaps he would be worse off doing so.]
[Still feeling oddly fidgety, even out from under Leona's sharp gaze, Yoojin squirms a couple moments more before bringing his elbow back up to shield his face.]
...Thanks for saying that other stuff, though. I'll try to take it to heart.
[He may not feel deserving of the overall assessment, but there were gems in there he can definitely use.]
[Pfft. Just like that, Yoojin's snickering again, slapping right back at that tail.]
Oh, my bad. Eeeeeeeeveryone eavesdropping on our ghostly pocket dimension is gonna think you're a gentle little kitten just 'cause I can show a guy some gratitude.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
monsterdaddy) wrote2025-04-29 12:06 pm
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[He copies a motion he's seen Leona make probably at least a dozen times by now, the hand brought to the temple. It could practically be sign language for "migraine."]
And I was wondering, that's all.
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Yeah, that's right. I get 'em real easy.
Especially when dealing with others.
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[He laces his hands behind his head and flops back, not quite sleepy yet, one knee raised.]
That's good, anyway. Dunno if we've got painkillers available on this side.
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[Leona's tail smacks against the ground a few times as he considers, lifting his arm to look at the scratches left by Jade on his arm.]
Oh well.
[He lets his arm fall to his chest again.]
Stay out of trouble, then.
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[Turns his head towards Leona without getting up.]
Does that still hurt?
[He makes a vague gesture at Leona's arm.]
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[He lies, very easily. It actually stung like shit while it happened, but it was worth getting Jade to at least consider they may not be dead.]
My hide's thicker than yours.
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[As if to test that claim, he pulls one of his arms out from under his head and holds it side by side against Leona's--not where he was scratched, he's not mean--like skin touching skin will actually give him any usable data.]
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[He starts, a look of mild surprise on his face. When that's as far as Leona goes, though, he blows out a breath.]
Even if my skin is thinner than yours, I'm not that delicate. I'm tough enough to raise monsters, you know.
[At no point does he flinch away or try to pull his arm back. He was startled, but it's like he has every faith Leona won't hurt him. Or like he's forgotten how to be scared of being hurt, at least at this level.]
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Funny thing about that.
A beast tamer from another world fell into ours months ago.
There's certainly a 'type' among you, isn't there.
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R-really?
[It occurs to him to frown a little.]
Wait, what's that mean?
[What's this 'type' and why is it funny.]
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[Leona answers, inspecting the state of Yoojin's human-claws compared to his own. Human nails are interesting in that they tend to tell a quite a bit about the work or personality behind them, and he doesn't expect Yoojin's hands to be delicate at all.
...Altogether he's gotten a bit aimless with it, though, observing less as an attempt to learn and more and more as just a cat reveling in a behavior it hasn't been scolded for.]
You're uncompromizing in your goals for two people who don't seem to have as much to lose. You analyze others to learn their behaviors and tame them as though they're beasts themselves.
[Leona seems amused about that last bit.]
Can't say it's a terrible tactic.
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Now, he tames beasts. And, as Leona so keenly observes, people.
On reflex, he closes his hand loosely.]
...Ah... I mean...
[It becomes even more obvious that he's looking away.]
...I guess there's no point hiding that now, huh.
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[The noise Leona makes in immediate response is a bit vague, and it takes a moment before he's willing to turn his eyes away from their hands to look more toward Yoojin, smirking a little when he asks;]
You were hiding it?
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Don't give me that. I was hiding it back home, at least.
[He doesn't know exactly what came out during that first ritual, but the cat is definitely out of the bag with Leona, he's sure.]
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It's not the most obvious thing about you.
[But he is curious;]
What's the point of hiding it?
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It's not just a survival tactic, for me. It's a skill--a bunch of skills. If people knew how much I could read into their abilities, or how I make powerful folks twice as powerful, or that I can basically brainwash even S-ranked humans, not just monsters... Yoohyun locking me up forever for my safety would be the best-case scenario.
Worst-case, someone finally figures out I'm a threat and takes me out.
[And as an F-ranker with no offensive abilities of his own, what could Yoojin do to stop them? Cry about it?]
Besides, it's not the kind of thing that works if people... well, know how it works. Even if it wasn't a skill, no one would trust what I said anymore if they knew I was manipulating them into getting stronger, right?
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...I don't think that's the question you want to be asking.
[It's a bold claim, but Leona continues;]
Every coach manipulates their team into succeeding. It doesn't matter what the odds actually are; it's the coach's job to sell the team an undeniable vision of victory. To feed their hunger, their drive—
All of it's manipulation, in the end. And it's a manipulation they're asking for. They want to be made to believe the world can change, and it's your job to make that happen for them.
But you see it as a lie instead of an exchange. Maybe it's that you expect others to trust you, but you don't trust them in return.
The bond feels uneven, for whatever you think you're not giving them.
[But Leona knows it isn't.
No amount of hiding things from Ranma could change the kind of reaction Yoojin had to seeing that kid chopped to pieces. Whatever Yoojin thinks he isn't giving his 'kids'— honesty, trust— he is giving each of them the whole of his heart.]
Rules of magic are one thing, but rules between people are another.
Not everyone who trusts you is too stupid to see who you are.
[Leona turns his head to look Yoojin in the face. He's talking about himself. He is the one who assumes he sees Yoojin for what he is.]
The person they see might just be worth the investment.
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Leona isn't the first to run into this crud-tier self-recognition problem of Yoojin's. He's just the first to put it like this--to confront it so baldly to his face.
He stares at Leona, mouth falling slightly open with nothing in it to say.
For so long, others seeing him--noticing him as anything more than background noise--was unequivocally bad. It got him bullied, berated, and beat up. It tore his reputation to shreds and shattered his very bones.
The past few months after using the wish stone have been a drastic, if not always positive, reversal of fortune for him. But they haven't erased the last five, eight, twenty-something years of rejection and abandonment. He hasn't forgotten what people used to call him. Leech. Parasite.
He can't forget how it felt for Yoohyun to tell him, 'All you do is drag me down.'
The answer to "Who is Han Yoojin?" has always been a worthless nobody. So for Leona to say so seriously, looking at him so intently, that he's somehow worth his dodgy, exploitative, lying bullshit is like... getting rammed in the gut by a juvenile manticore. Like someone forcibly turning off a skill effect he's taken for granted, for good or ill.
He has to restart breathing eventually, and that makes him blink and wet his lips in turn. He pulls his arm back to fold it over his own chest, an unconscious curling-in.]
Heh. You're way too nice to me, man.
[Nobody asked him to be a coach. Well, nobody he counts among his team, anyway.]
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[Leona protests, casually, looking back up at their shared patch of sky.]
I still think you're a thick-headed meddling herbivore.
[He sounds a little pleased with himself saying so, too.
Because it doesn't really matter how Yoojin sees himself in the end. Leona understands his value to the pack regardless. What Yoojin does may be manipulative, but in the end, he crafts somewhere safe for the heavy to lay their hearts. For some packs, he may as well have traded gold in exchange for loyalty— or perhaps he would be worse off doing so.]
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[Still feeling oddly fidgety, even out from under Leona's sharp gaze, Yoojin squirms a couple moments more before bringing his elbow back up to shield his face.]
...Thanks for saying that other stuff, though. I'll try to take it to heart.
[He may not feel deserving of the overall assessment, but there were gems in there he can definitely use.]
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Fat load of good it'll do ya if we don't get out of here.
[He sighs as though dissatisfied.]
Actually, don't thank me at all. You're gonna get people thinkin' I'm soft.
[punctuating that with a smack of his tail against Yoojin's leg.]
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Oh, my bad. Eeeeeeeeveryone eavesdropping on our ghostly pocket dimension is gonna think you're a gentle little kitten just 'cause I can show a guy some gratitude.
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[Smack, smack, smack.]
There goes Yoojin, out to sleep with the big bad lion that ate 'im.
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Tch, like you're any better. What's a cool, tough guy like Leona doing horsing around with the dumbdumb who brainwashed him?
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