[Those words are poison as much as they are a balm. He nearly shies away, nearly protests that he, of all people, does not deserve love. But he can't even manage to get the words out. They stick within his throat, rendering him silence for once in his damn life. It lasts just long enough for Pure Vanilla to say something else, to take his mind away.]

Nothing feels like it'll be right again. I don't - know how I'm supposed to keep moving when everything I stood for, every promise I've made to never kill again, is broken.

[Pure Vanilla insists that he's not a monster, and it's that that makes him recoil. There's one part shock, one part anger there.]

How can you say that, knowing what I did? So many people lived in that city. Children lived there. And I -

[He tries to draw his arms back, to dig his nails into his hair and scrape against his scalp.]

It doesn't matter if I feel regret. I still did it.