[ She says it with the quickness of certainty, but perhaps she shouldn't say it so easily. After all, isn't this the same conversation she's had with another Naga — an argument where his only venom was his voice, accusations that she was throwing away the things she believed in, trading her Entertainer's smile for a hardened will and unstoppable spirit, trading softness and kindness and a heart that bruises so easily for one that can withstand the fires and agonies of this world. Does she really have the right to declare something like that, when even her best friend — the person who knows best the place she came from, and the future that once shone bright before her — can't see it?
(But then, is that really her truest passion? Is that really the thing that sets the fire in her heart, that gets her blood boiling?)
Indecision is a weight on her shoulders, but she forces herself to shrug it off, to shake her hands at the wrists, as though these heavy thoughts were physical things that cling to her body, like cold water and dark algae. Her cheeks puff for a moment of held breath before it expels outward, thankfully bereft of fire or smoke. After all— ]
The thing I want most in the world isn't going to change just because it's difficult to reach. [ To protect her friends — to protect the city she calls home, to safeguard the peace that makes those smiles possible... isn't that the thing that makes her Yuzu? The girl who wanted to become stronger to protect her school — the girl that would challenge anyone who threatened her friends, isn't that who she's always been? Isn't that who she is?
She speaks with greater confidence, and it shows in her very skin: the change would be slight to an untrained eye, but an artist would spot immediately the richer saturation to her red scales, their color shifting ever so slightly to a warmer hue. Fired up indeed. ] I won't back down from that, even if it's terrifying, or if I get hurt along the way. You wouldn't need courage or passion if everything came easy.
Once you give up on what you love most, then you've already lost everything that makes you you.
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[ She says it with the quickness of certainty, but perhaps she shouldn't say it so easily. After all, isn't this the same conversation she's had with another Naga — an argument where his only venom was his voice, accusations that she was throwing away the things she believed in, trading her Entertainer's smile for a hardened will and unstoppable spirit, trading softness and kindness and a heart that bruises so easily for one that can withstand the fires and agonies of this world. Does she really have the right to declare something like that, when even her best friend — the person who knows best the place she came from, and the future that once shone bright before her — can't see it?
(But then, is that really her truest passion? Is that really the thing that sets the fire in her heart, that gets her blood boiling?)
Indecision is a weight on her shoulders, but she forces herself to shrug it off, to shake her hands at the wrists, as though these heavy thoughts were physical things that cling to her body, like cold water and dark algae. Her cheeks puff for a moment of held breath before it expels outward, thankfully bereft of fire or smoke. After all— ]
The thing I want most in the world isn't going to change just because it's difficult to reach. [ To protect her friends — to protect the city she calls home, to safeguard the peace that makes those smiles possible... isn't that the thing that makes her Yuzu? The girl who wanted to become stronger to protect her school — the girl that would challenge anyone who threatened her friends, isn't that who she's always been? Isn't that who she is?
She speaks with greater confidence, and it shows in her very skin: the change would be slight to an untrained eye, but an artist would spot immediately the richer saturation to her red scales, their color shifting ever so slightly to a warmer hue. Fired up indeed. ] I won't back down from that, even if it's terrifying, or if I get hurt along the way. You wouldn't need courage or passion if everything came easy.
Once you give up on what you love most, then you've already lost everything that makes you you.