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[daemonized]

ARDYN IZUNIA

Ardyn Izunia. Professor of law. Lord of law. Liege of law. The one grading your papers. Leave a message.

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( old contact post here )

Comments

[standalonehuman]

[Togusa has to stare at this text message for a very long time, before he realizes that the longer he delays any response, the worse Ardyn will worry about his reaction. He just has to take it in.]

You can't blame yourself for this. Not the man you are now.

[It takes him another few minutes, just working through what he knows in his mind, and his usual optimism has to fail in this instance.]

I know you've thought this through more than I have. Normally, I'd be trying to minimize, it can't be as bad as you think. But there's not really any other explanation, is there? Given what we heard out of him in October? Something happened to change that man.

What do you feel about it all?

[daemonized]

[And yet he has faith that Togusa will take it with a mote of understanding -- but always there lies that fear, its claws hooking into his mind, that some shall look upon him after this revelation and shrink away, realizing what sort of man he used to be.]

I don't want any of those feelings, of those memories. I used to say that I would rather face the truth than be oblivious, but there is a limit to even that, I think.

And yet here I am, holding onto this information and it makes me feel more... defiant. That I refuse to let these changes carve out the core of who I am and replace it with someone who was so hateful.

[standalonehuman]

You know? That's exactly the reason that I think you'll be fine. It's good to know that you're still willing to change your position based on the facts. Everything you were teaching as a professor, everything about the law. You gather the information, because keeping blind to it is as good as making yourself powerless. But when it gets too much? You're willing to adjust what you're doing.

Someone who has changed from the healer you were describing, to the man we heard in October? They're clinging to some level of hate, resentment, something that they will not let go of. Until it consumes them.

You know what to keep close. Family, friends, Grell. Too many cats. You won't let go of them. But those won't turn you to hate. You won't hold fast to the things that would. At least, that's what I see.

[daemonized]

[There's no immediate response, as Ardyn reads all of this. And gratitude swells in his chest; for a moment, he doesn't know what to write in return.]

Thank you. It isn't enough, those two little words, to illustrate how much I mean that. It is the support of others, including yourself, that helps me remember just who I am now. Not who I was in the past.

I've always been the stubborn sort, after all. Not one very easy to give up and give in. I don't see why I should be any different now.