It isn't the fishbowl reality that they appear to be trapped inside that weighs on Ryoko's mind in this moment. Confident as she is in her strength and abilities despite the odd disturbance she's witnessed to date within them, that isn't worthy of a measure of concern. Axel's words, on the other hand, are. The weight about them is near tangible, pressing down upon her consciousness. It stirs in her memories she'd just as soon let lie in the darker recesses, that she no longer lives in, that she has no intention of ever returning to live in because they are not her, her home, her reality anymore. She is no one's tool, no one's puppet, and she stands self-assured of that and then some for Washu.
This Xion person, though... Ryoko can't quite help how her expressions twists. Made he says. Created to be a tool... a doll, a puppet. It hits too close to home. She casts another glance where the girl pushed through those tall, white doors only moments before and frowns, folding her arms under her chest. She listens despite that hollow and the bubbling rage pouring forth from it. Not for him, but them, whoever it was that thought to treat that girl like that. Axel's words prove him with their persistence, with how solid the weight of them is for him when he speaks. She trusts that, him, and it gives her something to anchor herself to in a swelling sea of emotions. Emotions that include not only anger and something... else, but perhaps a tinge of jealousy.
Friends, like emotions, would have been deemed useless, unnecessary. She can hear Kagato say it and she closes her eyes. Aims to forcibly push that voice out of her head where it can't reach her anymore.
At length, she opens her eyes and sighs, rubbing at the back of her head. The tension still grips her. The complexity of it all grates on her nerves, but she thinks she understands well enough. She can make heads or tails of it where she once might've turned her pointers in opposite directions and questioned away.
Still.
"But you did something," she says, digging her words into a particular statement of his that stands out. "And she had -- has friends. That's more than any puppet I've ever known having, and now? You aren't going to tell me you'd do the same thing, are you?"
no subject
This Xion person, though... Ryoko can't quite help how her expressions twists. Made he says. Created to be a tool... a doll, a puppet. It hits too close to home. She casts another glance where the girl pushed through those tall, white doors only moments before and frowns, folding her arms under her chest. She listens despite that hollow and the bubbling rage pouring forth from it. Not for him, but them, whoever it was that thought to treat that girl like that. Axel's words prove him with their persistence, with how solid the weight of them is for him when he speaks. She trusts that, him, and it gives her something to anchor herself to in a swelling sea of emotions. Emotions that include not only anger and something... else, but perhaps a tinge of jealousy.
Friends, like emotions, would have been deemed useless, unnecessary. She can hear Kagato say it and she closes her eyes. Aims to forcibly push that voice out of her head where it can't reach her anymore.
At length, she opens her eyes and sighs, rubbing at the back of her head. The tension still grips her. The complexity of it all grates on her nerves, but she thinks she understands well enough. She can make heads or tails of it where she once might've turned her pointers in opposite directions and questioned away.
Still.
"But you did something," she says, digging her words into a particular statement of his that stands out. "And she had -- has friends. That's more than any puppet I've ever known having, and now? You aren't going to tell me you'd do the same thing, are you?"