[ asriel can't claim any particular skills nor advantages to explain the haste with which he emerges from the soil, knowing full well it's due to the desperation he hopes was missed by his unexpected (see: undesired) good samaritan.
he is wary because this is precisely the sort of scenario he would expect his enemy to conjure up to punish him. remind him that he is a man. a mortal. nothing more than clay and earth but for the grace of god, the authority. asriel's loathing for everything his enemy stands for fills him like a bitter poison. he shouldn't be here at all and certainly not in this vulnerable state! unwilling to accept failure, he persists. ]
If you were meant to be dead, you would be dead already.
[ the reason he quits struggling to claw his way out of the soil himself is the literal voice of reason that cuts through his aggravated thoughts. he'll never admit his disturbance, but an existential fear had loomed in the back of his mind until he knew with certainty that he wasn't alone. asriel feels foolish now to have doubted. of course stelmaria is here. there is no him without her.
and that's how he (finally) allows voryn to assist. the snow leopard that follows him immediately out of the ground manages just fine on her own, keeping a distance from the stranger but watching with eyes that contain an intelligence beyond that of a typical animal. ]
Barely born into this world and already being pressed into deals...
[ the audacity, honestly. something, something, don't you know who you're dealing with. it amuses him because he might've done the same, though he is less inclined to ask for help, stubborn as he is prone to be. stelmaria rumbles beside him.
it's the closest voryn will get to an expression of gratitude. ]
i.
he is wary because this is precisely the sort of scenario he would expect his enemy to conjure up to punish him. remind him that he is a man. a mortal. nothing more than clay and earth but for the grace of god, the authority. asriel's loathing for everything his enemy stands for fills him like a bitter poison. he shouldn't be here at all and certainly not in this vulnerable state! unwilling to accept failure, he persists. ]
If you were meant to be dead, you would be dead already.
[ the reason he quits struggling to claw his way out of the soil himself is the literal voice of reason that cuts through his aggravated thoughts. he'll never admit his disturbance, but an existential fear had loomed in the back of his mind until he knew with certainty that he wasn't alone. asriel feels foolish now to have doubted. of course stelmaria is here. there is no him without her.
and that's how he (finally) allows voryn to assist. the snow leopard that follows him immediately out of the ground manages just fine on her own, keeping a distance from the stranger but watching with eyes that contain an intelligence beyond that of a typical animal. ]
Barely born into this world and already being pressed into deals...
[ the audacity, honestly. something, something, don't you know who you're dealing with. it amuses him because he might've done the same, though he is less inclined to ask for help, stubborn as he is prone to be. stelmaria rumbles beside him.
it's the closest voryn will get to an expression of gratitude. ]