[There's a light tug on Riley's arm, where he has hold of it, when she starts to cry. If she wants to be hugged, a hug is here for her. If not, the invitation stands.
"Acting crazy." That's the second time she's said that when she's talking about things she did that don't make sense when you think about them later, periods where her control of herself is questionable.]
I...
...
...if "crazy" is doing things that don't make sense, that don't work the way you think they will and just hurt people, then I was acting pretty crazy, too.
[He saw an assault of a monster on a human and lost his mind. He couldn't think of anything but right and wrong. It had to be fixed. The scales were unbalanced. He saw how he hurt his friend, but his priorities were wrong, all wrong...
...but that's over. He won't become that again.]
It's okay for this place to be your home. It's not just you who feels like that! It never has been.
Making a working way home...no one's managed it in years. It'll take time. So, if anyone figures out how to do it before I do, then there's a good chance they'll have been here long enough to know that there are some people it wouldn't be right to force to leave. It has to allow monsters to make the choice themselves, or it's wrong!
[It just makes sense!!
But, there was Daniel. Exceptions do exist. The kinds of people who don't understand the cost. But they will.]
And, if it doesn't, but they try to do it anyway...I'll stop them myself.
[Deadly serious. There's iron in his voice, at the end -- "stop" has the cold force of a bear-trap. This is another promise, and the red of his eyes brightens a moment, like dying embers someone's blown on. Forcing Atem's friends with nothing to go back to but pain to "go home," as though that'll fix everything, is something Atem won't allow to happen. The implication's clear: though it's not an outright murder threat, Atem will stop the hypothetical project however he has to.]
ableism/internalized ableism all up in here. sighs in 1997.
"Acting crazy." That's the second time she's said that when she's talking about things she did that don't make sense when you think about them later, periods where her control of herself is questionable.]
I...
...
...if "crazy" is doing things that don't make sense, that don't work the way you think they will and just hurt people, then I was acting pretty crazy, too.
[He saw an assault of a monster on a human and lost his mind. He couldn't think of anything but right and wrong. It had to be fixed. The scales were unbalanced. He saw how he hurt his friend, but his priorities were wrong, all wrong...
...but that's over. He won't become that again.]
It's okay for this place to be your home. It's not just you who feels like that! It never has been.
Making a working way home...no one's managed it in years. It'll take time. So, if anyone figures out how to do it before I do, then there's a good chance they'll have been here long enough to know that there are some people it wouldn't be right to force to leave. It has to allow monsters to make the choice themselves, or it's wrong!
[It just makes sense!!
But, there was Daniel. Exceptions do exist. The kinds of people who don't understand the cost. But they will.]
And, if it doesn't, but they try to do it anyway...I'll stop them myself.
[Deadly serious. There's iron in his voice, at the end -- "stop" has the cold force of a bear-trap. This is another promise, and the red of his eyes brightens a moment, like dying embers someone's blown on. Forcing Atem's friends with nothing to go back to but pain to "go home," as though that'll fix everything, is something Atem won't allow to happen. The implication's clear: though it's not an outright murder threat, Atem will stop the hypothetical project however he has to.]