#i want nero and airi to interact more.

[shineonyoucrazyyandere]

Risotto branding s/o with a branding iron

    Little bit rusty but I’m trying to get back in the groove here. So if anything flows weirdly, I apologize.

      Never had you been more afraid in those singular moments you interacted with Risotto Nero. His stature looming over you while gazing at your tattered body. He had somehow wiped out everyone else without a second thought. Their bodies all lying stiff on the ground unmoving, a massacre that riddled fear to your core.

   You knew no more than anyone else until this moment, though this wasn’t the way you wanted to learn about him. Being cut open helplessly without being able to see your opponent. You were whittled down to a vulnerable husk, yet here you were alive for some cruel reason. 

    “Just kill me already” you wheezed 

“I have no reason to be alive if the rest aren’t...”

   His eyes didn’t indicate any fury towards you, it was a calculated stare that was laced with something more disturbing. It felt like you were a goal of some sorts, but it seemed like a preposterous idea with what your former Capo’s team did to the hitman squad. Why didn’t he want to see you writhe and die beneath his feet? 

 “The ones I wanted dead are already gone” the standalone assassin replied to you.

  “As for you, you’re the only one that I had no inclination to outright execute” 

   He suddenly came closer, knowing full well you were much too weak to use your stand against him. You tensed and tried to push away in fear even in such a feeble state, but the white haired male wasn’t having it. His larger frame pulled you closer with a powerful force that easily overwhelmed any resistance you attempted.

    “Their deaths only brought me closer to you”  

    That was the last thing you remembered after Buccellati and the others were decimated.

   Right now where you woke up was a dark room, of which your surroundings you were unable to discern in any capacity. But from the feel of the air in this area, you highly doubted it was very furnished. No. There was too much...metal around to have any comfort. 

   It wasn’t until a nearby door opened that you realized that there were tools hanging around. But more than that you realized there was something meant for metal working. If you’d had known that you’d have used one of the tools to break out. Though likely this estranged assassin was privy to this possibility and kept you weak for this reason.

    This visit however was much more disconcerting as a dim light was turned on by your captor. Then the abrupt noise of ventilation turning on right near by. Understandably you began trying to figure this situation out in a panicked state. While Risotto simply began looking around anatagonizingly slowly to make sure your dire situation would slowly sink in. 

    The way his hands felt around certain tools and knobs only made you feel sick. The man was deafeningly silent when he was going about his own business. A sure fit for a killer who could commit a hit in a moments notice. You didn’t say anything even in this position of yours. No your eyes gave everything away to Risotto without him needing to say a word. 

     With time you heard the tell tale sound of flames roaring to life with an airy whoosh. The male’s back was facing you as you heard something clank inside of it.

    “This isn’t usually something I normally do” Nero said out of nowhere

“But I cant help but feel this will be something that will be useful to me in breaking down your resistance”

   The six foot six male turned on his heels as he approached your side carefully.  His hands came down to your shirt in such a way you could feel every bit of it. The tenderness of it was vastly terrifying as it seemed to show some care in this hellish scenario. 

   “Those moments you tried to run away from me in Sardinia, the viciousness in your attacks after me killing Buccellati and the others...I won’t let you run out of my hands unscathed” he murmured while unflinchingly stopping your hands from halting his actions.

    You hissed as you watched those ghostly metal beings pierce out of your skin like a colony of maggots. Before long they lost their shape to a solid form that bonded your hands together like makeshift handcuffs.

   “Hgnnghh....f-fu-” You clenched your teeth harshly 

 He idly observed your profane curses that you spoke after using just a bit more of your iron to ultilize Metallica with. Your choked back whimpers drove him wild.

     Though he’d have to break himself from listening into your small cries towards the high heat just a short distance away. With a pair of sturdy leather gloves he grabbed the desired object from this forge. The end piece himself was erected through the use of other people’s iron. Specifically your former teammates, though that was something he would know for now. 

   Turning towards you, he watched your eyes widen in fear at the glowing metal at the end of this branding tool. 

    “What do you think you’re doing you psycho!?” You bursted out 

   He wasn’t phased by your yelling a single bit, rather he only kept approaching like he had always done before. 

     Risotto went silent as he came upon your body, which faintly struggled even with the deprivation of iron. It was something that he could leave a mark with, his very letter on your body.

    Very precisely he pushed the hot iron right onto your exposed skin without hesitation. The agonizing scream that shot out of your lungs seemed to be background noise as he carefully timed the amount the metal was on your skin. 

  ““Just take it” He told you calmly “I want to burn my presence right into your mind”

    Moments later he took away the metal and observed the clear mark that was in the exact shape of his buckle. It was nearly admirable how it suited your previous skin. Though more than anything he marveled in your reaction. 

   It was anguish that was caused by him, similar to what he felt to his teammates passings. Death was an end that was somewhat peaceful even with a deplorable destruction. Everything he felt was the heat of that brand, and you’d understand that pain after what he did to your teammates. 

    He removed them to force a shallow common trait, but if scarring was what it took to keep you then so be it. He was obsessed with every aspect about you, he just had to force you to see eye to eye with him. Even if it meant fearing him he’d calmly keep you trapped in his arms for the rest of his days if he had to.         

[stagnantmako]

so i want to touch a little on my portrayal with intergrade out. it won’t change my post-dirge portrayal much, but i definitely have to seriously adjust some things prior to it.

the impression i had from dirge was that nero was a little more put together prior to weiss dying. he wasn’t as interested in the wanton slaughter as rosso and azul were and seemed much more on shelke’s level. it was a mission and he was just doing what needed to be done. he just seems tired and upset.

but intergrade shows us that isn’t the case at all. nero is as bloodthirsty and feral as the rest of the tsviets. he’s more unhinged than when he was after weiss died, like he’s spent so much time in his own little world he doesn’t know how to engage with the real one. weiss’ death is what forced him to touch base with reality again.

i suspect he spent most of his life in a glass containment cell. nero was definitely allowed out for brief periods of time, but he was probably kenneled most of the time and frequently drugged to keep him managable. i still maintain that he was deployed on some field missions - he and weiss did go out to get genesis, and with confirmation that deepground was designed to take down wutai, i think he was sent there as well. but for the most part? he was kept even more isolated than initially thought.  as a result, nero’s extremely unstable and seems to be a danger to himself and others. 

thing is, nero is so desperate for connection that someone hurting him is basically like a hug. the longer the fight goes on, the more animated and engaged nero becomes. he wants to kill them but that’s essentially how you say hi in DG, but he’s also enthralled by the fight and wants them to hurt him. even if he was deployed on missions, nero kills people so quickly that they never really interact. he’s just there and then the people around him are dead. the fight with sonon and yuffie was a new experience.  he swings wildly from being upset that he’s in pain to experiencing straight up euphoria at the sensation. 

he doesn’t seem to have had much human contact. and maybe for the most part it was actally just weiss. maybe even just weiss through glass.

and sonon... left and impression. nero’s clearly taking sonon with him for a grander purpose - namely, someone strong enough to rebel against the restrictors. but i think it’s a little more than that. he seems to have decided he likes something about sonon. he saw that memory of sonon and his sister, that’s how his powers work, and  nero and weiss’ entire bond is an aberration in deepground. people like sonon simply aren’t there. and sonon gave him such a good fight that i think he tripped nero’s obsession button.

he’s definitely not angling to replace weiss. weiss will always be the most important thing in nero’s life. but i think he recognizes what he likes in weiss in sonon, and now he’s decided he wants to keep him. because nero has a very limited understanding of other people and has never actually connected with anyone before.

and i want to also i guess touch on the fact that sometimes he can be very childish. that doesn’t make him a child though. i think it was two parts - one being that nero spends 90 percent of his time drugged into a stpid, the other being that it’s a coping mechanism or even a deliberate act he’s developed to protect himself. 

that “deepground is where my brother and i like to play” line sticks out like a sore thumb. when in front of the researchers nero comes across as very simple and childish, and also like he’s not all there. without them is when he’s suddenly much more present. his manner of speaking changes fairly drastically. it becomes very adult, present, and verbose instead of disconnected and airy.