#once again agony that mollymauk is defined by love--

[dent-de-leon]

It just makes my whole heart ache that we never actually see Mollymauk doing "choir practice" until Lestera is already gone--and every time he's ventured out, it's always been alone. "You stuck out your neck like that, completely alone, to help people you don't even know?"

To me, it really drives home the fact that Mollymauk just completely disregarded his own safety after losing someone he loved. It's not quite a death wish, but--there's an isolation and recklessness to it that feels eerily similar. Like if he did just go missing or die alone in the middle of the woods, it wouldn't really matter.

It's okay if the world is "harsh and cruel," if he knows no one will ever thank him--"And I'll tell you--and this is true--I did my best every town I went to and every town I left. No matter how they treated me--and many treated me with deep disrespect...I left every town better than I found it." In spite of how cold the world always was to him, Mollymauk will still throw his life on the line to save those people anyway. That's just who he is.

And when Yasha insists, "You're not doing this alone anymore, got it?" we get to see how lonely Molly truly he is. In spite of how readily he risks his life for others, he never actually expects anyone to do the same for him. And his response? "Got it. Suppose I could use the company. I am recently out of a relationship the hard way..." He deflects and smiles, but he's clearly hurting. That he's just trying to cope, but he's always carrying that loss and grief. That he's missed having someone, anyone--

Thinking of how Taliesin defines every incarnation of Molly's soul as a romantic, and what it does to Mollymauk to lose his first love. How he still carries all the same feelings for the Nein in another life.

Thinking of Kingsley remembering choir practice for the first time, wanting to take it up again. Letting himself be open enough to finally ask if one of the Nein would go with him--