They shared that quality, didn't they? Both so specifically obtuse they couldn't die when it was proper for them to do so.
Ashitaka doesn't laugh. It's not really in his nature to do something like that. But, hidden from Hei's view, there's the faintest wisp of a sardonic smile which brushes past his features before disappearing once again. "I do not relish any of our losses." It only made what they were trying to do harder, after all, as it made them seem less strong individually and also as a whole. Silence stretches between them a moment before he adds on, quietly, "Unfortunately."
It's a joke. Or what passes for one, in Ashitaka's book.
They are, at least, equalized by their mutual exhaustion and vulnerability. If it's worth anything, it doesn't change much of how he perceives Hei, to see him this way. The strong can always fall; the nature of entropy demanded such a thing, sometimes.
A slow breath escapes Ashitaka, and his eyelids flutter closed. "No one of consequence." He had not gotten involved in house politics. With his upbringing and training, it was nowhere near his area of expertise. He had not, then, made any incisive decisions into who he was to fight. "An Aranean, a professional fighter. Nkh." He had thought to make a name for himself through this, and, well... perhaps they spoke of him now, but not in the way he would prefer.
There is silence again, and then he concludes, "It did not go as I might have wished."
that icon ... omg
Ashitaka doesn't laugh. It's not really in his nature to do something like that. But, hidden from Hei's view, there's the faintest wisp of a sardonic smile which brushes past his features before disappearing once again. "I do not relish any of our losses." It only made what they were trying to do harder, after all, as it made them seem less strong individually and also as a whole. Silence stretches between them a moment before he adds on, quietly, "Unfortunately."
It's a joke. Or what passes for one, in Ashitaka's book.
They are, at least, equalized by their mutual exhaustion and vulnerability. If it's worth anything, it doesn't change much of how he perceives Hei, to see him this way. The strong can always fall; the nature of entropy demanded such a thing, sometimes.
A slow breath escapes Ashitaka, and his eyelids flutter closed. "No one of consequence." He had not gotten involved in house politics. With his upbringing and training, it was nowhere near his area of expertise. He had not, then, made any incisive decisions into who he was to fight. "An Aranean, a professional fighter. Nkh." He had thought to make a name for himself through this, and, well... perhaps they spoke of him now, but not in the way he would prefer.
There is silence again, and then he concludes, "It did not go as I might have wished."