and though the rules of the road have been lodged

[windchasing]

Who: Pietro Maximoff & Various
Where: Various locations
When: Throughout May
What: A catch-all post that I'll add top-level comments to throughout the month. If you want a thread we haven't already planned (or get tired of waiting for my slow ass), feel free to toss your own starter in here!
Warnings: None yet, but there may be some manipulation in the thread with Jiaying.
[Open for new starters]

Comments

[ouzel]

[ There's real risk, real danger in what Pietro is describing - while Cassian has spent a lifetime interacting with other cultures, species, this town is not a shining example of those experiences.

So he's hesitant to dismiss them as not a problem. Out of the two of them, Cassian suspects Pietro has a better understanding of what xenophobic earthlings might get up to, if pressed. ]

I can't tell you that hiding is worth it, in the end. I can't even tell you that I think you won't exhaust yourself this way, that you won't...reach a point in which doing what you know you can will outweigh the risks in the moment.

Obviously it's easy to say that you shouldn't have to - just because it's easy, doesn't make it less true. But I don't know what would happen, here. It's a small town, we're heavily monitored... [ Cassian shakes his head. ]

My point is: you shouldn't have to hide, and if I know you, there will reach a point where hiding is no longer a real option for you. When that happens? And whatever happens after? That isn't on you, that isn't your fault. That is on the people who decide what their fears and presumptions of what it means to be human 'like them' means to anyone who doesn't fit that mold.

Self-preservation is important, protecting family and community is important. But so is being true to yourself, or you end up suffering from every direction, and it is hell. It is. Trust me.

[windchasing]

[ Pietro does trust him. But Cassian sounds so much like he knows what he's talking about right now, it strikes Pietro that he doesn't think of Cassian as someone who hasn't been true to themselves, not ever. Cassian is more controlled than him, yes, more cautious in ways that are occasionally frustrating for someone as unapologetically headstrong as Pietro, but he's always been honest, to Pietro's memory. He's always been sincere when they're together.

But maybe he isn't always. Maybe he can't be. Pietro doesn't want that for either of them. It makes his chest ache just to think about.

(That isn't your fault. That hits him under the ribs, too. It still feels like his responsibility.) ]

I wish I could simply make them see. [ His voice is small, a vain, childish hope he promptly shakes his head to dismiss. He isn't a child anymore. ] When pigs fly, perhaps. Until then, I won't put our family in danger unnecessarily.

[ And unnecessary includes for his benefit, whatever his frustrations. This may be about the worst way he can imagine to spend the rest of his life, but his siblings' needs always, always come first. ]

How is it you know so much about this kind of thing, anyway?