talk abt prom n how the barcode tattoo thing on their wrist affects them b4 and/or after they discover what they rlly are GO
omg ok ok so prom’s always been vaguely aware of their ??? position. like they don’t know the specifics but they know they come from nifleheim, they know they have to keep it a secret bc they live in lucis, they know theyre on thin ice, constantly. n they spent, let’s say, roughly 15 years hiding this fact from the world. hiding their wrist.they just ? got used to hiding it from the outside world. their parents would always make sure it was hidden, n they picked up on that habit. eventually it got to the point where even in the privacy of their own home, their own company, it remained hidden. they cannot bare to look at it. it represents too much - everything about themself that they hate, the reason they’re alone, the reason they’re afraid, the reason they’re different. it’s all in those lines.u can ??? see it in their actions. u can see it in nervous ticks, ( they rub their wrist band when they’re anxious. canon (brotherhood episode 2)) they hold their own hands, grip their wrist. they ALWAYS keep their arms close to their torso, especially when they’re not sure about a person or situation. u can see how adamant they r abt hiding it.but??? around friends they’re rlly not that cautious. like, if u look closely while playing, u can literally see the tattoo through their bracelets. if u can see it, the others can see it - bc they let themself relax sm around them. my point being ; when they’re around friends, its almost like that barcode doesn’t exist. like they have nothing to hide, (“i forget what im not.”)y? because they give them a sense of security, a home amongst hearts. prom knows, deep down, that they wouldn’t leave em - but their feelings rarely stem from logic. they often make baseless conclusions, n they’ve spent so long hiding this, so long being TAUGHT to hide it for their own safety that it’s just??? second-nature to b scared @ this point. it’s the natural course of action. b afraid, always b afraid that ppl will hate u for what u r.that’s y it’s such a heavy blow when they have to tell them. y they keep ,,, pushing it, “i cant change what i am” even after being told that it’s okay. they’re adamant that they should b feared, or rejected, but their friends just??? dismiss them. n it’s such a moment of intense fear, that turns into shock, that turns into palpable gratitude. this secret that they’ve kept for so many years, revealed n dismissed in the space of abt 30 seconds. it’s anticlimactic, it’s incredible. prom’s best hope is confirmed then. that their friends love them more than they could doubt them.after this, they don’t go to such extreme efforts to hide it. they still do though. they still hate it - they hate what it represents (years of fear, years of anxiety, years of self-hatred) n they hate that it makes them so different, like the ,,, the broken link in the chain. BUT ,,, now they know they don’t necessarily need to hide it. it’s not a dangerous thing anymore. it’s not something that could literally get them killed if the wrong person notices, so, at least they can let their wrist breathe every now n then.
