▍ ▎ ▏ { ☼ } ;

                  Important.

                      He was i m p o r t a n t.

                  The nine lettered, three syllabicated world rolled off of the seemingly
        clumsy tongue, its galvanizing resonance tolling in the crevasses of Armin’s
                                 brooding mind. The effect left him dazed…confused…utterly 
                                                                               s p e e c h l e s s, even.

                  [ Once upon a time, a little blond boy had tripped, fallen, and never managed
        to pick himself up; there was no point in doing so if he was bound to get knocked
                                                               down and kicked around all over again.
        (Even the cold asphalt he lay upon mourned him as he howled at the lazy sky;
                                                                               cursed himself for not being s t r o n g e r.)

                  Once upon a time, the boy with the irrepressible zeal and the girl with the
        cutthroat gaze—the boy and girl who braved the bleak weather with thunder
                                  blazing in their eyes—reached out for his quivering hand
                                                                  and told him that he meant something;
                                        that the fibers of his existence were s i g n i f i c a n t
          and his existence had somehow saved them in ways not understood.
        (They a l m o s t convinced him,
                    but once upon a time was long, long ago.
                                                   Besides…old habits died h a r d.) ]

                  ❝—I’m…i m p o r t a n t?
                                 Y-you don’t really mean that, do you?❞