#and ends the fight standing alone caked in gore and hyena-laughing to the ceiling — absentmindedly pressing down on a gash in his side

[tedthetalk]

Antagonist exists as a lot of things, a shadow on the narrative, the rot in the foundation of the industry, someone to have done it first and give a path to follow — but the most visceral truth of him is the living bleeding proof of what mecha do to a person, and what happens when the iron control it forces on pilots on pain of death either snaps or is willingly tossed aside

#thinking about the circumstances in which the protagonists see him use his prosthetic on a person #I was imagining an execution when I made the original post but now I’m thinking about him vs a big group #he realizes they’re trying to kill him and they’re going to succeed if it isn’t mutual #and ends the fight standing alone caked in gore and hyena-laughing to the ceiling — absentmindedly pressing down on a gash in his side #and swaying from blood loss #big fuckin robots and stuff #(the protags have a shot but are frozen in fear & awe — it’s not in the record that shrieking laughter will send their enemies scattering) #(from the hive-memory of ripping loss that always came with it)