Oh? I can dump them off onto you? [His smile brightens, all false innocence.] I'll remember that for next time.
[...He thinks of the many teenagers that have been gathered in the last few Alliance meet-and-greets that he's seen, especially the ones that were not accustomed to this world of ayakashi and shady dealings. Nervousness and unsure footing, even beyond the usual; that was not his wheelhouse, and he was happy to wash his hands of it. He makes a note to himself to ask the ones he was acquainted with, just how those ones were faring.]
[For the ones he knew, it was the same story as usual. You didn't survive long in their world unless you learned quickly that sacrifices were necessary in order to stay alive. It formed twisted humans, by conventional society's standards, and that was why exorcists had long formed their own societies away from the eyes and morality of those that would shun them, even as their power kept the rest of humanity safe from that they couldn't see. Left to their own worlds, they were an inconvenient necessity that the rest of society did not want to engage with.]
[That was fine. Monsters should be left to do the monstrous things.]
[Matoba's eye drifts downward towards Ryouma's hip again, pondering that. He had noticed it at the top of the meeting, but in this moment several things rang with clarity- between this conversation, between his recent tea with Hizen. His expression doesn't shift much, but he seems somehow amused- like a natural truth laying itself bare again.]
Nor I.
[His smirk remains in his amusement, but he pulls his gaze back away from it and gestures towards outside of the VIP rooms, where tengu staff bustled here and there.]
Have things been smoothed over with the Kasasagi Tengu? I'm surprised you escaped that festival unscathed that night, with how irritated everyone was. [Given his expression, Matoba wasn't that happy either!! Thanks for blueballing him, Ryouma.]
no subject
[...He thinks of the many teenagers that have been gathered in the last few Alliance meet-and-greets that he's seen, especially the ones that were not accustomed to this world of ayakashi and shady dealings. Nervousness and unsure footing, even beyond the usual; that was not his wheelhouse, and he was happy to wash his hands of it. He makes a note to himself to ask the ones he was acquainted with, just how those ones were faring.]
[For the ones he knew, it was the same story as usual. You didn't survive long in their world unless you learned quickly that sacrifices were necessary in order to stay alive. It formed twisted humans, by conventional society's standards, and that was why exorcists had long formed their own societies away from the eyes and morality of those that would shun them, even as their power kept the rest of humanity safe from that they couldn't see. Left to their own worlds, they were an inconvenient necessity that the rest of society did not want to engage with.]
[That was fine. Monsters should be left to do the monstrous things.]
[Matoba's eye drifts downward towards Ryouma's hip again, pondering that. He had noticed it at the top of the meeting, but in this moment several things rang with clarity- between this conversation, between his recent tea with Hizen. His expression doesn't shift much, but he seems somehow amused- like a natural truth laying itself bare again.]
Nor I.
[His smirk remains in his amusement, but he pulls his gaze back away from it and gestures towards outside of the VIP rooms, where tengu staff bustled here and there.]
Have things been smoothed over with the Kasasagi Tengu? I'm surprised you escaped that festival unscathed that night, with how irritated everyone was. [Given his expression, Matoba wasn't that happy either!! Thanks for blueballing him, Ryouma.]