although they both suffered at the hands of kokuzan, ayato was never dehumanized like yuuhime was. he was still allowed to maintain his dignity and was even given a partial agency over his life ▬▬ the fact that he was compliant and willing to murder for the crows allowed him to be regarded as a human by kokuzan himself. the same can't be said for yuuhime, whose mind broke under the weight of her assassinations and of the mental manipulation that she was forced to continuously endure:

while kokuzan praised ayato for his willingness to participate in all these assassination missions, yuuhime was left alone with the ghosts of the dead: only once the mission was complete, would she be allowed to awaken from her hypnosis ▬▬ just to find herself bloodied and bruised, standing over the mutilated corpses of men and women that she could not recall ever meeting, nor killing. yuuhime was dehumanized to the point that in order to protect her mind from this continuous shattering she, too, had to begin thinking of herself as less than human ... as a doll. believing herself bare of agency over her own actions was much easier than accepting that neither her mind nor her body belonged to her anymore ; at any given moment, kokuzan could have activated the music box and she would have transformed into a hollow mannequin with no soul nor will to speak of.

This was a level of danger he didn’t usually mess with. The world was the same, sure—but this was deeper, darker. The kind of criminal underbelly even Gil-ho tried to avoid. And when he ended up too close, it wasn’t like he went looking for it. No, it was always the tide pulling him under.

One of the girls would get tangled up with a client—a rich bastard who thought the law didn’t apply to him. And, hell, most of the time, he wasn’t wrong. These guys could do whatever they wanted under the cover of Gangnam’s shadowy backstreets, then wake up in their luxury apartments, slap on a suit, and play the part of respectable businessmen.

But this? She was talking about killing. No pretense. No cover story. Not the usual trade of drugs, guns, or sex. Just killing. If he were younger, he would’ve walked away without a second thought. Stupid to get involved with people like this, after all.

But now? Now he’d seen too much. Two of his girls were gone. One of them dead. And no one was going to lift a damn finger unless he did something about it. The cops? Useless. Half the time, they were as dirty as the criminals they were supposed to arrest.

　 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐓𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌, 𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐓 ─ 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐒𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐅𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐑, 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐔𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐈𝐍𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖. for a moment, yuuhime poised herself to wait ( ... ) would he have recoiled at the sight of the blood beneath her nails ? where did his intrinsic instincts of survival end and where did his hunger for a better future begin ? but much to her genuine surprise, he did not run away. his fear remained hidden beneath a stubborn façade, his demands were once more 'pon the bed of his tongue. a mantra, a pitiful prayer that he kept on repeating to the deaf ears of some half - forgotten god above.

relief bloomed within the hollow caverns of her heart. relief was certainly there, but if someone forced her to be completely honest for once, they would have discovered that a serpentine sense of disappointment had also crept its way down her spine as if to break those delicate vertebrae in its destructive embrace. he was still here, which solely meant that her mission was lamentably far from being over.

THE SERPENT AND THE WINGS OF NIGHT a roleplay sentence meme with various quotes and sentences taken from carissa broadbent's the serpent and the wings of night. feel free to tweak as needed. content warning: foul language, mentions of violence/murder, suggestive themes

you have to push hard to make it through the breastbone.

death isn’t frightening when weighed against an insignificant existence.

they’re dead, and if you go after them, so are you.

you must be better than they are, to make up for what you are not.

here’s how you stay alive. here’s how you make sure that no one can hurt you.

think about what you have to gain from an interaction. the answer is usually nothing.

i want an apology. for stabbing me.

you just wanted to swing your cock around.

you haven’t said a single true thing since you strode in here, so i’ll be honest for the both of us.

i am the only person who will ever make that promise and keep it.

you are prey. you will always be prey.

you’ll bleed to death, or they’ll kill you.

i will stab you again if you come even a single step closer to me.

i taught you better than to serve yourself to your enemies that way.

you need to focus on staying alive. nothing else.

i tried to come to you for help and you weren’t there.

watch his back, but don’t let him see yours.

you don’t know how to give a fuck about a single person other than yourself.

you think my life is worth nothing, but i can still leave a stain on you that can’t be washed out.

what’s immortality if we don’t use it to do the same things over and over again, forever, until the end of time?

that’s an uncharacteristically boring retort.

i have my ways. very dangerous, very clever, very impressive ways.

do you want to change this world? then climb your cage until you are so high no one can catch you. break its walls and make them your weapons. nothing is sharper.

you cannot accomplish anything in this world without power, and power requires sacrifice, focus, and ruthlessness.

now is the time for conquering.

do you want people to think you’re a brute?

you fucking knew, and you still gave me that much shit -

do you wish to unseat me? try.

you have opened a door you cannot close again, and you are not prepared for the horrors that i will pour through it.

these horrors will not spare you. not even when you beg for death.

i’m glad your bedside manner is about as delicate as i would have expected.

he left me. i called and called, and he wouldn’t come.

stop resisting it. lean into it. that’s the only way we make it through.

i’d be disappointed if you didn’t walk into that party armed to the teeth.

don’t be so quick to throw away your humanity, you might find you miss it once it’s gone.

i’ve lived through some injustices. seen some fucking travesties. but the biggest is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.

your heart is beating very fast. you must be very concerned for my well-being.

that wasn’t how i’d imagined making you come for the first time.

are you really not aware that you are always making a face?

you seem to be good at winning the hearts of ill-tempered creatures.

our dream world is nice, but it’s not real. and i don’t want to be woken up from it by you tearing open my throat.

i didn’t want you to see me that way, so i pretended that version of myself didn’t exist. 

i’m not going to just sit next to you while you die.

you made it so far, but at least your bones will lie in your homeland.

i’ve had many years of practice, it is always important to be decisive and efficient. 

power demands ruthlessness. what did you expect me to do?

i gave you teeth and claws. i made your heart steel. do not pity them. they are less than you.

i appreciate your thoroughness, but i think he’s dead.

you think i pity you? i don’t pity you. i just think you deserve better.

i don’t want to fuck you for the first time in an alleyway three feet from a pile of entrails.

we’ll probably die tomorrow. show me something worth living for.

i would beg. for you, i would. you have fucking destroyed me. do you know that?

glad your pillowtalk is about as pleasant as your bedside manner.

promise me you’ll never stop fighting.

end the danger and the fear and the violence. end it.

i know grief. i know what it is to lose half of one’s soul.

a dead lover can never break your heart.

love was a sacrifice at the alter of power.

stop speaking. stop dying. stop leaving me.

i loved you. i loved you from the first moment.

power is a risky business.

we have teeth, you and i. now is the time to use them.

i can’t kill you. i tried. i can’t. a world without you would be a dark, depressing place.

“Your brother.” The mention of smoking almost pulls a smile out of him. Almost. It reminds him of the old lady he used to work for, the way she’d nag at him about the same thing. Until she got killed. Some lowlife did it—not that he was much better, just a different kind. Killed her over a few bills, some small, insignificant amount. Or maybe just because he could. Because he wanted to. Who the hell knows anymore?

A whore like her wasn’t going to be missed. None of them were. Not her, not the others in his circle. They were all seen the same—trash lining the streets. At best, you’d get pity. At worst? Contempt. Because people like her, like them, were reminders. Proof of what could happen to anyone if they made the wrong move. No one wanted to look too long at that.

Still, what she’s offering? It sounds too good. Way too good. Which means whatever she wants him to do for her brother must be dangerous as hell, or downright stupid. Probably both.

“And what about my girls? They’re gonna be protected.” His tone is sharp and cautious. It’s not like he trusts her, has no reason to. But he’ll play along, see if there’s something in it for him. He always needs more money—always. Not for himself, though, not for some shiny new thing. It’s for the girls. One of them just had complications after an abortion and ended up in the hospital. That kind of care? Costs a fortune when you don’t have insurance.

　　　　 𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 ( … ) 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐖 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐈𝐌. even if she believes herself to be wholly ill - suited for this task, yuuhime focuses her senses on him, just as she was taught to do: beneath the curtain of long lashes, she tries to perceive even the smallest change in his demeanor, all those habitual movements that people perform on instincts alone, hunting for those words that wilt 'pon the far edge of his tongue before they may be given proper voice. his distrust is palpable but so is his despair ▬▬ a treacherous conglomeration, for it is the scent of despair that ofttimes lures the most callous and cruel of vultures.

it is mayhap cruel on her part to think of him in such terms, but what's her dearly beloved brother if naught but a man hungry for the bones and sinews of all those around him ? never one to expose himself, always the lingering shadow behind the woman that he now treats as his hunting dog.

her gaze falls on the creases of her long skirt, which she idly fixes whilst she ponders on a proper response. it seems that although money is indeed quite a priority, there is something else that he treasures even more than that ( ... ) these women. her brother had been vague about their identities and struggles, certainly convinced that their target would have happily left them all behind once fortune finally deigned to set its golden eyes on him ▬▬ a mistake, it seems. one born out of his own serpentine selfishness and greed. ❝ if you wish for them to also be protected, then i'll take care of it. i am sure that we can find a safe building where they can be life ... i will personally fix this. ❞ a fragment of hope, in exchange for the dirt under his nails.