[#180 Panacea] Identity V - Only Survival

[luvcrumbs]

Title: Simply Survival

Fandom: Identity V

Author: luvcrumbs 

Rating: G

Word Count: 200 (double drabble)

Characters/Pairings: Eli Clark/Luchino Diruse

 

 

Luchino’s scoff made most step back. Head tilted, Eli remained in his chair. 

“You’d expect I came for money, wouldn’t you?” he replied with amusement. “Most would, after all. People treat it as a panacea, as if enough could cure anything — mend loneliness, erase frailty, purchase dignity, quiet fears.”

“Can we blame them?” Eli asked. “When the world keeps proving its power; it’s natural to reach for the one thing that seems to hold everything together.” A weary smile touched Eli’s lips, heavy with undesired experience. “Without going far, it decides whether you eat that day… or not.”

Luchino exhaled through his nose, leaning back. “True…” he conceded. “It’s a promise of safety. Food on the table. Walls against the elements. Hope when illness comes.” 

“No one can afford not to have that secured.” Eli sighed. “The mininum to exist.”

“Yes. Simply survival.” A tap on the table. “Everything beyond is only possible once the body is not starving, freezing, or hunted.”

“Survival,” Eli repeated, wistful. “That's what it always comes back to, isn't it?”

Luchino’s mouth quirked in acknowledgment of shared, bitter truth. “We like to believe we’ve outgrown the ancient instinct…” He gave a dry chuckle. “We haven’t.”