For the first time in millennium Skull was actually honestly taking in the world around him.
He was always peripherally aware of what he was doing, what he was seeing around him, had always stuck to his morals even when he was only really 'going through the motions' so to speak. Occasionally something would even rouse him from his state of apathy, would gain more of his attention than the minimum needed to interact with it, like the Primo Vongola and what he had done in giving rise to the Vigilante Group he called Vongola.
(And wouldn't that be funny? If people realized Skull had been there from the beginning of Vongola, had been honestly loyal to them until Vongola had let go of its roots and descended into blood and darkness?)
While some people and certain moments had roused him a bit from the state he had placed himself into to protect his mind from the endlessness of forever, of one loss after another, of watching the world repeat the same mistakes and being unable to really do anything to change what he had seen over and over and over again, Skull had not truly been awake in a very long time.
The applying of the curse changed that.
It gave him an honest reason to 'wake up' and focus, to interact fully and completely with the world around him. It gave him hope that he could form bonds again, honest deep bonds of love and friendship like he had formed way, way back in the beginning when he hadn't truly understood what it would mean to never die, and to watch children he had played with and loved, to watch his children, grow and age and die while he forever stood a young ageless 23 years old: unchanging.
He had hope for the first time that this endlessness would have an end.
So Skull 'woke up'.
The other Arcobaleno had pegged him as a weakling, as the weakest link in their chain. After the Curse was applied and he 'woke' to the world he was very quick to disabuse them of that notion. One could not start out where he had, live as long as he had, seen as much as he had seen, do the things he had done, or be chosen as one of the World's Strongest Seven without becoming one Bad Ass Motherfucker.
And Skull?
He may not have been acting like much of one in his previous state of apathy, but he certainly was a Bad Ass Motherfucker, thank you.
