risorto | {ic inbox}

I get you, [Bruno says with a small nod.] You can always trust that I will never ask you to do something that goes against your beliefs or pushes beyond your limits. I would sooner do it myself in that case.

It's as much my duty to protect you as it is yours to do as I say.

[And that's how it works from Bruno's perspective, but it's also why he could have never been don. Being don requires a certain degree of selfishness to demand protection without needlessly jeopardizing others. Giorno has enough of that to do well. Not that he has a perfect balance just yet, mind you, but he's learning.]

Well of course I'd trust you on that.

[Duh? She trusts him on a lot of things. She isn't to Narancia- or Abbacchio-level devotion, not for Bruno, but he was the one that first invited her into the family and it wasn't like their relationship involved a lot of fond sighing over manipulation. Bruno was very...calming and gentle, to her.]

I know I'm enough for you and for Giorno, and Abbacchio's been letting me call him my friend, now. [Among other things.] I just [pause.] want to be accepted.

[That was stupidly hard to say, and it shows.]

I know that's a lot to ask of them.

[Bruno arches a brow, visibly confused. Abbacchio is allowing her to acknowledge they have a friendship and she's concerned about being accepted? Even if she didn't already have support from Giorno or Bruno (or Mista, if he had to guess)... well, Abbacchio wouldn't fight her battles for her. She'd need to do that herself to ever truly fit in. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't be a presence that would settle some of it down simply by not engaging in antagonizing her. And she must know that or she wouldn't have mentioned Abbacchio's support whatsoever.]

[Still, Bruno recognizes it was a hard thing for her to say and he must respect that, so he tempers his initial reaction to think of it from her perspective for a moment. She's coming from a place where she had a family and a home (albeit one that was a little more mobile) and now inserting herself into a family that has already existed long before her joining. On top of that, she's having to learn the hierarchy and the politics that make up the backbone of their gang. And on top of that even still, she's trying to do so without just taking up space and not providing anything back. She's in a difficult position and he can appreciate that.]

They were all in the position you are in now, stellina. [Hm, no. That's not quite right. He corrects himself,] We all were. Fugo had been disinherited. Abbacchio had no direction. Narancia was homeless and ill. Mista had been thrown in jail. Giorno lacked opportunity. My father's life was in danger.

We all started from the same place you're in now, but none of us found acceptance the same exact way because we're not the same people. What worked for one of them or for me won't necessarily work for you. I can't tell you what to do and I can't make them accept you any faster than they're ready or able to.

But I can tell you that the others will accept you. It may take time and it may be a daunting task, but they will. If you had to do anything or be anyone other than exactly who you are, I wouldn't have made the offer to you. If you can't believe in yourself, then trust my judgment. [He smiles a little.] I don't make it a habit of being wrong about people after all.

Edited 2015-12-05 05:05 (UTC)

[so how long until the inspiring speech skill kicks in again]

...Hmn. [And the video goes awry a moment as she rights herself and sets about fixing her hair. It feels a little wrong to be hearing this, being privy even to these small pieces of them without context, but that's hers, now. Hers to consider and keep.] Yeah. Yeah, I can...trust you on that one, too.

[Even if they had no reason to consider it, even if the only reason she could give them was that she was good for conversation.]

I still want to do stuff. But I guess my stuff is kinda stuck being different for a while. Which isn't so bad.

[By day 90. Unless you are a shonen protag, in which case you have that by about day 5 at the absolute latest.]

[That's why Bruno didn't provide context. Even if she asked, the only story he'd tell is his own. It's not his place to speak of where the others come from. That's for them to eventually decided on their own if they want to tell her or not. But she did need to know that the loneliness, the difficulties in finding her place, all of it is normal. It's why they came to Passione in the first place.]

Different is good, [Bruno agrees.] I think all of us could use different every now and again.

[She's at 74/90. Watch out, Ruby City.]

Good thing I've got different in spades, then. I'm so good at different. Shit's going to be so different, you won't even believe it but you'll have to because nobody could possibly make up a difference like that.

[She's back.]

[That's much better. Bruno chuckles softly.]

Then I'm glad to have something to look forward to. I was beginning to worry that things were going to start getting quiet around here even with Narancia and Fugo around.

Ha!

[Okay, Bruno. Once Narancia got fully settled in, there would be little time for peace, she was sure. Though since he'd brought him up...]

Hey, so... Do we still like Fugo?

[Like, it's too late, the haunting was a thing that happened, but. Come on, she gotta know these things.]

Where Fugo is concerned, it's a...complicated matter. He was the first I chose to join my team, but he was the only one to stay behind that night in Venezia when I betrayed the former boss.

I don't begrudge him for making his choice, if that's what you mean to ask. The others...

[Bruno sighs a little.]

They're not wrong to be angry with him or even to reject him. His decision was a betrayal to me. I didn't order him to follow and he disobeyed, but the others expected that his loyalty and trust in me should have been greater than his fears or whatever reservations he had about the task ahead of us like it was for them. And for that, the others see him as a traitor. Worse than that, they see him as a coward. Neither of those things are acceptable in our gang and I leave it to you to figure out what happens to cowards and traitors.

[Spoilers: death.]

But those aren't my feelings towards him or even Giorno's. I won't tell you whether or not you should accept him, or even whether or not you should like him, but he is still part of this family as far as Giorno and I are concerned until he says he wants out. I still have trust in him.

[But Bruno's not saying he trusts Fugo as much as he used to. He's not taking things to the extreme like the others out of respect for Fugo's ability to decide his own fate, but that doesn't mean damage wasn't still done. It doesn't mean it didn't still hurt to leave him behind because he chose to stay. There simply wasn't time for dwelling on it or worrying about it. It was meant to be something to dealt with later by Giorno, not Bruno because by then it was too late and Bruno knew that well enough. So he tucked that away in his heart, beneath what needed to be done and adding in later his grief for Abbacchio and Narancia.]

But if he says he wants out, he will walk away freely.

[It's not something Bruno knows for certain that Giorno would allow, but he'd like to believe that would be the case. At the very least, Bruno would never stop advocating for Fugo even after everything.]

[Give her a minute to parse through the diplomacy...]

Yeah, I dunno. He better impress the fuck outta me.

[This isn't even your grudge to hold, why... Just why...]

I'll leave that between the two of you then.

[Sometimes moms gotta let their children tussle and sort themselves out.]

[You don't just ditch Bruno that is wrong. He believes so much, it's not hard to believe in him right back, and Fugo just didn't do that for some reason, the jerkwad. Though, honestly speaking, she's gotten most of her feelings out already, with Fugo's walk to the house.]

...Sooo.

[Pause.]

When were you planning on the whole Stand warning thing? Not necessary, obviously, but just curious.

You know I leave that to each of them.

[It also literally wasn't an issue until very recently, so.]

Okay, but I totally would have asked and had to be disappointed?

[She has very little self-control, man.]

Something tells me you would have recovered.

You kidding? I got Abbacchio to let me see Moody Blues, if some other guy from your group didn't let me see their Stand, I would have been devastated.

[A little exaggerated, sure, but the sentiment is the same. Also she gets to brag, this way.]

You saw Moody Blues? [Visible surprise is visible. Wow, she's got her hooks in Abbacchio bad.] I take it you know what it can do now.

[Izabel is a monster you unleashed on Passione's world, Bruno. Take pride in that.]

I did. And are we talking about Moody Blues or Fugo's rage-Stand? Because rage-Stand, sorta. Moody Blues, yes.

I was referring more to Moody Blues.

[He assumed she'd be filled in plenty with what she needed to know about Purple Haze by someone else if she'd brought it up at all in the first place.]

Did he show you or tell you?

[purple haze sux booooo worst stand]

Tell. I'm not that lucky.

You could have fooled me with how quickly you got on his good side.

Well I had to, he's great.

[And her voice loses that smug tinge, all joking atmosphere gone. She really, really likes Abbacchio.]

[Well, that's alright because there's a softness now to Bruno's expression.]

He is. He doesn't always make it easy for others to see that, but he's a good man.

You just have to know how to listen. He doesn't make it that hard.

[Bruno Likes Abbacchio, this is Important. She has Noticed. Still debating the how much, but... Noticed, all the same.]

He reminds me of someone from home, but it's more than that, now. I like talking to him.

I'm sure he feels the same way.

[Even if you'd likely never hear Abbacchio say it out loud in a way that wasn't completely backhanded and/or sarcastic.]

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