It’s that he doesn’t know what to do and failure is upsetting and he can only bear so much of it before it gets painful to keep trying. The pranks stop, little by little. He hasn’t turned everything in Adrian’s apartment upside down or put plastic spiders in the coffin in over a week now, since he stole his game console and replaced all the flowers on his island with skullblossoms. He shows up every few days either as himself or Hierophant to make a batch of cookies and then leaves again. That’s about it.
Really, he’s only trying again because he’s hit a wall on this fucking arm. He’s been working from Adrian’s designs, doing what he can to turn them into a working prototype. But that means that, much as he hates to admit it, he can’t fix this problem without help. ]
Get out of the box, asshole.
[ There’s not much fire in it. Hierophant passes a limb into the coffin but just rests itself flat against Adrian’s hand instead of coiling around it, nervously anticipating rejection instead of curious and affectionate. ]
[There's silence for a moment. Adrian doesn't even quite react to Hierophant right away, but eventually he does turn his hand to curl his fingers around the tendril. It's amusing how tender Hierophant is with him when Kakyoin is more abrasive by comparison.]
What do you want?
backdated to all times when Adrian has ever been depressed, an infinite thread
[ He doesn't know how to deal with this. Open hostility hasn't worked and outside of pretending to be perfect that's basically the only thing he has in a social situation.
Hierophant, at least, is willing to try tenderness. It starts to slither away at first, pulling back until it's only resting against Adrian's very fingertips, as terrified of rejection as Kakyoin himself is but more willing to risk it. Once Adrian holds onto its tendril, though, it coils around his fingers. Overjoyed to still be wanted where Kakyoin just feels raw and frustrated. ]
Your designs won't work anymore. For the arm. You have to-
[ He doesn't have to. All that really needs to be done is to find a place to fit a more powerful chroma attenuator, so that the arm can handle the sudden surges of chroma that the planet seems to be undergoing now without making itself non-functional for safety's sake. Realistically he could just stick it on anywhere and it would work. It would be safe and functional.
It just wouldn't be Adrian's design anymore. It wouldn't be a complete thing, it'd be a broken thing repaired with a patch job. It'd be ugly and shameful and wrong and he cannot bear to make things wrong. Adrian doesn't have to do shit. Things will be fine no matter what. Kakyoin just can't stand doing things wrong. ]
-I need you to alter them.
[ An awkward pause. Hierophant squeezes Adrian's hand. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Backdated to whenever Adrian is still depressed
It’s that he doesn’t know what to do and failure is upsetting and he can only bear so much of it before it gets painful to keep trying. The pranks stop, little by little. He hasn’t turned everything in Adrian’s apartment upside down or put plastic spiders in the coffin in over a week now, since he stole his game console and replaced all the flowers on his island with skullblossoms. He shows up every few days either as himself or Hierophant to make a batch of cookies and then leaves again. That’s about it.
Really, he’s only trying again because he’s hit a wall on this fucking arm. He’s been working from Adrian’s designs, doing what he can to turn them into a working prototype. But that means that, much as he hates to admit it, he can’t fix this problem without help. ]
Get out of the box, asshole.
[ There’s not much fire in it. Hierophant passes a limb into the coffin but just rests itself flat against Adrian’s hand instead of coiling around it, nervously anticipating rejection instead of curious and affectionate. ]
joke's on you he's always depressed
What do you want?
backdated to all times when Adrian has ever been depressed, an infinite thread
[ He doesn't know how to deal with this. Open hostility hasn't worked and outside of pretending to be perfect that's basically the only thing he has in a social situation.
Hierophant, at least, is willing to try tenderness. It starts to slither away at first, pulling back until it's only resting against Adrian's very fingertips, as terrified of rejection as Kakyoin himself is but more willing to risk it. Once Adrian holds onto its tendril, though, it coils around his fingers. Overjoyed to still be wanted where Kakyoin just feels raw and frustrated. ]
Your designs won't work anymore. For the arm. You have to-
[ He doesn't have to. All that really needs to be done is to find a place to fit a more powerful chroma attenuator, so that the arm can handle the sudden surges of chroma that the planet seems to be undergoing now without making itself non-functional for safety's sake. Realistically he could just stick it on anywhere and it would work. It would be safe and functional.
It just wouldn't be Adrian's design anymore. It wouldn't be a complete thing, it'd be a broken thing repaired with a patch job. It'd be ugly and shameful and wrong and he cannot bear to make things wrong. Adrian doesn't have to do shit. Things will be fine no matter what. Kakyoin just can't stand doing things wrong. ]
-I need you to alter them.
[ An awkward pause. Hierophant squeezes Adrian's hand. ]
Please.