Then it's a cycle
Runaan's mission starts and ends with his own tears.
He sheds his first tears mere seconds into performing the lotus ritual.
His mission ends with tears, too, mere seconds after launching his shadowhawk arrow into the sky.
The fact that he was holding his husband's handiwork both times is not lost on me. Aaaaangstyyyyyyyy
This mission was probably several orders of magnitude harder than the average. I wonder if Runaan usually cries his way through missions or if he generally keeps it together better than this. Does having Ethari's creations in sight, in his hands, make him softer? Is it bad that I hope it does, as dangerous as that may be for him?
It's been Quite A Year, huh, so seeing how many times Runaan has basically stress-cried at work and kept pushing forward is oddly inspiring, in an inside-out way. The ideal solution is not to have the stress in the first place. But the resilience of a dedicated spirit is reassuring, too.
Never give up, never surrender.
And crying is okay, if you need to.