#distryw

there is a somberness to his countenance that caked onto his face like grit and blood, exhaustion that claws at his shoulders and drags him about, a misery that reaches even his quiet breast. forcing his heart to beat, forcing his still - mortal body to perform divine miracle after miracle -- it made his head spin and his chest ache; it felt like becoming everything and still, becoming nothing at all. it felt like breaking, it felt like healing, it felt like --

oh, to see his own face, peering at him with such bright eyes. byleth couldn’t even pity himself. he brushed past his words, his pleas, his questions, and stepped forward.

           ` the things i’ve done in this life ... and the one before. and the one before that. i’ve made terrible mistakes. but i know better now.’

he reaches forward, a single hand pressed against his doppelganger’s chest. after all, this wasn’t the first time he’s killed himself. but hopefully, this time ... this time --

           ` i won’t make the same mistakes again.’

his long nails dig past the fabric of his glove, past the fabric of his double’s tunic, digging straight into his skin, clawing at his flesh, as if to carve out where a heart should be.

how’s my portrayal  .  accepting  .  @distryw  

                ❛  i used to help our stablemen with the horses back home .  ❜      he says with a faint smile  ,  still as he permits one of the more skittish mares to munch upon the apple offered in upturned palm .      ❛  my father had worried  ,  initially  ,  that i may have been harmed given their size compared to my own at the time  ,  but he relented in his apprehension fairly quickly once i’d proven capable .  it’s been some time since i spent any real time there but  ...  ❜      the apple is gone  ,  and he runs his hand gently over the animal’s snout as is he now permitted to do  ;  gaze shifts  ,  slowly  ,  from horse to human as he looks upon byleth to speak in a tone softer than before .