[Darin doesn't even get to express his full confusion before Yusuke strikes. What follows is a particularly horrifying snap of Darin's neck as Yusuke's punch connects with Darin's face. His head snaps impossibly hard to the side, his neck wrenching so hard it almost looks like it might be broken.]
[Darin stumbles back one step...two steps...but stays upright.]
[What the hell was that...?! Normal people don't punch that way...! Normal people don't have strength like...like...]
[It hits him then...the force of that punch...he knew of only one person who could punch like that. In fact, he'd weathered a punch like that not long before arriving in Cerealia...]
[Dromas...]
[Just the thought of that name...of his newly resurrected brother...of the monster he'd become...]
[Of the monster that he himself was.]
[Slowly, Darin reaches towards his own head. The best thing about hyper resilience wasn't so much that you healed quickly...it's that your threshold of pain tolerance was often leaps and bounds higher than a normal person. Yeah, Yusuke's punch hurt...it hurt so much that he was probably going to feel it for days. But strikes like that were so infrequent that when they did happen? Adrenaline took over.]
[He grabs his chin and snaps his head back forward...then spits blood out of his mouth. His entire aura had changed. This wasn't just a goof anymore. His green eyes burned, his muscles tensed like steel, and there was almost a look of resentment crossing his normally happy features.]
[When he strikes, he does it without warning. No digging in this time. No theatrical foreshadowing of his strikes. No big wind ups. He rushes down Yusuke with everything he has. His fists are practically throwing off sparks and embers with the speed and force he cracks them off with. His self-imposed limitations quickly falling away. He's not trying to kill him. But he's trying to hurt whatever Yusuke is. Because he's a flagrant reminder, a physical manifestation of everything Darin's been spending his life fighting against.]
[He doesn't even give a defiant yell. He just grits his teeth and lets fly.]
no subject
[Darin doesn't even get to express his full confusion before Yusuke strikes. What follows is a particularly horrifying snap of Darin's neck as Yusuke's punch connects with Darin's face. His head snaps impossibly hard to the side, his neck wrenching so hard it almost looks like it might be broken.]
[Darin stumbles back one step...two steps...but stays upright.]
[What the hell was that...?! Normal people don't punch that way...! Normal people don't have strength like...like...]
[It hits him then...the force of that punch...he knew of only one person who could punch like that. In fact, he'd weathered a punch like that not long before arriving in Cerealia...]
[Dromas...]
[Just the thought of that name...of his newly resurrected brother...of the monster he'd become...]
[Of the monster that he himself was.]
[Slowly, Darin reaches towards his own head. The best thing about hyper resilience wasn't so much that you healed quickly...it's that your threshold of pain tolerance was often leaps and bounds higher than a normal person. Yeah, Yusuke's punch hurt...it hurt so much that he was probably going to feel it for days. But strikes like that were so infrequent that when they did happen? Adrenaline took over.]
[He grabs his chin and snaps his head back forward...then spits blood out of his mouth. His entire aura had changed. This wasn't just a goof anymore. His green eyes burned, his muscles tensed like steel, and there was almost a look of resentment crossing his normally happy features.]
[When he strikes, he does it without warning. No digging in this time. No theatrical foreshadowing of his strikes. No big wind ups. He rushes down Yusuke with everything he has. His fists are practically throwing off sparks and embers with the speed and force he cracks them off with. His self-imposed limitations quickly falling away. He's not trying to kill him. But he's trying to hurt whatever Yusuke is. Because he's a flagrant reminder, a physical manifestation of everything Darin's been spending his life fighting against.]
[He doesn't even give a defiant yell. He just grits his teeth and lets fly.]