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extramortem) wrote2023-12-31 12:44 pm
golden peacock | inbox
▶ AUDIO
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17 / male / interested in: men / 6♠
Details
Prior to arriving here, I was a new demon applying myself to learn everything I could about Hell and its rules as well as demons and the games that they play among one another. Prior to that, I was human—a student in school.
Anything else you want to know about me, you will have to ask me yourself.
Regardless of whether I’m here or in Hell, my goal is the same: I want to learn everything I can about this place and its people, and then I want to utilize the rules and rewards of the Game to best benefit myself. I want to discover what it means to become “powerful” in this place, and I plan on collecting cards and climbing ranks in order to do so—and on my own terms.
Determination and adaptability.
I’m interested in anything thrilling, frightening, or mysterious. Beyond that, I’m willing to try any number of new things, though I typically tend to focus on whatever is capturing my interest at the time. As for food, I would say that my sweet tooth is comparatively underdeveloped—I tend to prefer savory food, though I would be happy to share sweets with another.
What’s most important to me is that it’s someone who accepts me and loves me for everything that I am.
…Though, if he’s attractive, that would certainly be a bonus.
Wine
.02 CLOWNS OR MIMES
…Neither
.03 SHOWER OR BATH
Bath
.04 PIRATES OR NINJAS
Seriously? Neither. This is kind of childish…
.05 TITS OR ASS
Depends
.06 COFFEE OR TEA
Either
.07 SPICY OR SWEET
Spicy
.08 SUMMER OR WINTER
Winter
.09 LEATHER OR LACE
Lace
10. ROUGH SEX OR GENTLE SEX
Both have their place, I think…
INTJ-T
no subject
( they’re the object of the golden peacock’s machinations, after all, not any of kazuya’s demons. so that he can pull them from where they’re from without much issue isn’t all that strange. he ruminates on this as he continues to eat. no, they probably won’t be putting much of a dent in this at all, because it looks like kazuya (and his demon instructor) had prepared a spread for a party rather than just two young demons. but there’s still something exciting about the presentation of the thing, though. )
It’s pretty convenient that you can just summon help like that whenever you want.
( he does his best to keep his tone neutral, not betraying any itching sense of inequity or envy. fortunately, with kazuya, he has ample opportunity to practice. it’s not like makoto had any demon underlings to summon even if he had the ability to. technically, he’s the demon underling; he’s just lucky J isn’t exactly leveraging his power as his master over him here. )
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[No denying that. He already knows Makoto envies him for the power he holds, and while he really wouldn't mind sharing it with him, the younger demon has already made it obvious that he doesn't want anything out of pity or that he doesn't think he's earned. It's a harsh way of looking at things, but considering what he's been through, Kazuya doesn't blame him for not wanting to be indebted to someone else that might pull rank at any time.
Even if he'd never do such a thing.]
I try not to summon them so much, though. Honestly, I don't really like demons, for the most part. I wouldn't care if the majority of them disappeared forever.
[But that's his own chip on his shoulder. It's hard not to feel negatively about creatures that have more or less ruined your and the lives of your friends. And with the Angels and God gone, there's not much more for him to care about, is there?]
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it’s what kazuya continues to next that makoto struggles more to contend with. they have chips on their shoulders that directly mirror one another’s—where kazuya lionizes humanity, makoto can’t help but feel wary of it, even preferring the company of demons despite their many cruelties and faults. it’s not as though demons haven’t committed their own trespasses against him. J has treated him as little more than a plaything, very nearly up to his breaking point. datenshou had honestly been far kinder of an employer than he expected in the confines of hell, and he knew it wasn’t for show; the incensate always kept in mind the capabilities and wellbeing of his employees. his opinions are far more muddied when it came to the general ranks of demons that had come to visit him, eager to purchase, time, attention, and intimacy; genteel and well-mannered monsters were still monsters. does he agree with kazuya? would he care if the majority of them, those which he had met in hell, disappeared forever?
hm… well, he certainly wouldn’t mourn them. but he’s not sure he would celebrate it either. makoto understands demons—in his eyes, they are almost admirably earnest in the way they pursue their most base and destructive desires. he would always prefer a demon being honest about their cruelty to a human pleading righteous piousness while doing the same; it’s the hypocrisy he sees in many people, tangled in their considerations of morals, that disgusts him so much more. )
But you’re their king, though… Are you just going to ignore them forever?
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[And how could he? He hasn't even been home yet. The scope of the problem that likely awaits him on arrival after everything is beyond his knowing. Atsuro had wanted to bring the demons to heel under the power of the COMP. To use and force them to obey all of humanities whims as little more than obedient tools.
It's not that he disagrees with him. Maybe he would have tried to pursue that path if it hadn't been for other factors. But then again, is that what was right? To entrust such dangerous tools to humanity to use as they see fit? It's something he struggles with thinking about even now.
To say nothing of how people might receive him back home either. There's the potential that they'll hate him. That they'll turn on him and his friends for what they did. Think he's a threat that needs to be taken care of. Or maybe they'd exalt him? There's just so much he doesn't know, and any plans he might have are contingent on other factors.]
I guess it depends on what it's like when I do get back home. If they don't want me around, then there's no point in me staying in the human realm, so I'll probably just leave.
[To say nothing of his contract with Weiss. That's also something to consider, how he'd promised himself over to her side to protect her until her dying breath, more or less.]
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makoto’s mental picture of the scenario which awaits kazuya in his own world is a sketchy one, but it had been tumultuous enough to involve angels and demons and the death of God, so one would assume that it would be a world that has undergone some potentially calamitous changes. kazuya doesn’t seem to be alone in leaving such precarious situations behind back home, or at least so makoto has gleaned from talking to others. it didn’t really apply to him. little happened in hell, and back home… well, he had left it in the same state it had always been in. he didn’t miss it. he didn’t want to go back. he wouldn’t say he wished ill upon it; it’s not like he yearned for some sort of vengeance against them. he just never wanted to see his family or any of those other people again.
but he knew that wasn’t the case for kazuya. he had people he cared about—both personally and in general. still, makoto wouldn’t need to be hazarded to understand his friend’s wariness at returning. it seems like he had lived a normal life, before; the kind of life makoto had always been on the outside looking in on, with all of his classmates. becoming a demon might very well other him just as makoto had been once. knowing how deeply it cut, the horrible and deep abyss of depression he had sunk into because of it… it causes his heart to ache in sympathy. he wouldn’t want his friend to ever have to face something like that.
for a moment, makoto sets his wrist down on the table, pausing in his meal. his sympathy is written plainly in his gaze and his knit brow. he pauses before replying. )
…I think they’d be crazy to not want you around. ( it’s a heartfelt thing to say, and therefore a vulnerable one. his gaze immediately flicks down because of it; he always feels self-conscious when speaking this way. he’s not accustomed to it. ) You’d do whatever you needed to to help them, so it would be stupid if people rejected that.
And if they do… ( his hand lifts to poke at his food, ) Well, good riddance. You’re king… maybe you could make something better out of Hell.
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[Not that he isn't grateful for Makoto's sympathy, or his honest words. His own voice is soft and gentle as he speaks, and even if he tries very hard to avoid thinking about his situation, every time it does come up, it gives him more to think about. A new way to consider his future roll in the grand scheme of things. ]
You know, when my friends back home asked me what I'd do when I was King, I tried to make lighthearted jokes. Tell them I'd take over the world. [They... Didn't entirely believe him, thankfully.] I didn't want them to worry about me, since everything was so tense at the time, and I wanted to lighten the mood.
[Mildly successfully, at that.]
It's not as if everyone would hate me back home. There's a handful of people I know who would support me no matter what. It's them I care about more than myself. I can't help but wonder how people would react to them supporting me. Would they get hurt just for me being around?
[It's hard to say. He doesn't know why he's saying all this anyway. This is supposed to just be a light-hearted meal for the two of them.]
Either way. It doesn't matter while I'm here. I won't know how things will turn out until I get home, right?
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not by what kazuya says, necessarily. it’s logical. it’s perhaps too logical, considering what he knows about what kazuya’s world went through prior to his arrival here. but it’s just… he just doesn’t think he can understand how he can take such a measured look and approach to the situation. makoto had never done a single thing for his world—the only kindness he had ever truly given it was taking himself out of it before he ever actually hurt anyone. but even then, he had burned with an irascible wound at how he had felt rejected by it. ultimately, it didn’t really matter; no one from his own world had owed him anything of the sort. but to someone like kazuya, who had seemingly suffered just as much as the rest of them if not more, only to risk his own life and make what might be considered a great personal sacrifice to try to help it? he just doesn’t understand the level of magnanimity that he has. if makoto had done all of that only to be shunned and rejected yet again, well. he’d probably try to burn the whole place down.
but they are two very different people. kazuya might joke about taking over the world, but makoto would heavily consider it, less out of personal desire and more out of simple spite. )
It seems to me like you’re just forgiving people for giving into their prejudices. You may be a demon now, but you were a human, and it’s not like you’ve become some completely different person.
( he frowns. what an alien thought, having people who might fall under fire for continuing to support him. though makoto supposes it might not be too strange here… so many people have been accepting or at the very least indifferent of him and his morbid desires, but certainly not everyone would be, right? he understands the thought of wanting to retreat away from it all, if associating with him suddenly put those he cared about in trouble (or inconvenience). )
You could try to protect them from that. Though… I don’t know. That might not help.
( how to defend some humans from other humans, without the latter latching on to the idea that you’re some sort of threat? )
I guess. But this time might be useful to try to think about it and prepare as much as you can. I’m not saying all the time, but… it could be an advantage if you decided to use it that way.
( he’s certainly been treating his time here like that. if he can’t get a wish from finishing the game, he at least wants to have pieced himself together as a more intimidating demon. well, either that, or just making sure he doesn’t get too out of practice just in case he had to go back to work for datenshou… )
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[It's Makoto, so maybe the younger demon might understand it. Maybe because he's a demon, maybe because his own situation was the same when he was human. He doesn't know, but he grabs a piece of the tuna sushi, putting it on his own plate to contemplate it for a moment.]
I say all these things, but... If it weren't for those friends of mine, I wonder where I'd be, as the newly crowned King of Bel. Truthfully? I think... I don't much care for people aside from my friends. I try to remain polite and respectful, but if it weren't for them? If they hadn't been there when the first group of them turned on me at the angel's behest to try and kill me for their own salvation? I don't think the outcome would have been nearly as pleasant, nor nearly as neat and tidy.
[Which is to say, he probably wouldn't have hesitated in fighting back. In removing those who would deem themselves threats, even if there was no way for them to truly hurt him, even at his weakest.]
Maybe they know that. The government is right to be afraid of me. So is the common person.
[He can be a threat, if he needs to be. The moment his friends get hurt, all bets are off. But his friends would be sad, and that may be the last lingering shred of humanity he has. The ability to pull back.
The piece of sushi gets prodded a little more, before he finally eats it.]
I think... It shouldn't really be too much longer before I completely subsume the other Bel demons. Who knows how much of myself I'll still have left at the end.
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he doesn’t know. he doesn’t think it would have changed much, ultimately. he might have just ended up too worried he might end up hurting them instead. that, and it would have made it even harder for him to leave earth behind if he actually cared about anyone there. it had been all too easy for makoto to agree to go to hell with J, believing full well in his heart that he didn’t care if he ever saw any of its people ever again.
he isn’t the right person to advocate for humanity—it feels uncomfortable, especially considering they had never even once advocated for him.
and yet… )
When people are afraid and desperate, they’ll make choices they wouldn’t have otherwise. Ones they might regret, later.
( he frowns, grappling with words for a moment before continuing: ) I don’t think you’re wrong. But maybe if you just give them time, they’ll calm down and be more open-minded.
( he says it more for kazuya’s sake than anything else. regardless of what he might say, he does get the sense that being rejected by humanity like that would hurt his friend. he doesn’t want something like that to happen.
his expression further folds with concern. ) I—I know it doesn’t work the same way for us, but… I was actually surprised, how much myself I still felt, after. ( he rests his arms on the table, leaning forward; his food is forgotten, though he’ll probably remember it at some point (probably?). ) You could fight it. You already beat them once, so why couldn’t you beat them again? And, even if you do change, I still think you’d be you at your core. Even with how you’ve already changed, I think I see that… I think your friends would, too.
( and then everyone else would follow?
a wave of timidity washes over him; he slouches a little in his chair, gaze down. ) I… don’t think I’m very good at being encouraging, but… I bet you’d be able to deal with something like that way better than me, or anyone else I know.
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You're a good person, you know.
[And he means it, and he laughs slightly.]
I don't think I'm close to being as good of a person as you are. What I do, I do strictly for selfish reasons. I don't really care about people other than my friends, and I mostly do what I do because I'm thinking about how it would make them feel. I don't want to upset them, but you? You're a good person. You don't want to upset or hurt anyone for your own reasons.
[If they wanted, he'd burn the entire world down for them. If someone tried to hurt them, only then would their happiness come second.]
My brother told me I was a good pawn. I guess I can't disagree. I do what the people I care about want me to do.
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he wants to correct kazuya. he wants to tell him that he doesn’t really care for anyone like that, because they’d never given him reason to—not his parents, not his brother, not any student he had been in school with or teacher or anyone else. but… that’s not necessarily true anymore, is it? and it’s not just fjord and datenshou; there were people here who have been kind to him, who have extended him far more compassion and understanding than he ever thought possible. no, he didn’t hate them. sometimes in his weaker moments, he mistrusted them, as if their kindness was simply a lie that would vanish as soon as they saw the full monstrousness of him. he would feel tempted to think the same with kazuya, if the other demon wasn’t already aware of much of makoto’s darker side.
or is he? does he even know that those desires had resided in makoto long before he’d become a demon? would he still think that, knowing how many months he had spent luridly painting the walls of his mind with increasingly vivid tableaus of imagined violence and vice?
he sits a little woodenly in his chair, food forgotten. his hands fall into his lap, shoulders tense, and he wrestles with how to respond. ) I… ( there is a far less diplomatic way he wants to respond; he wants to tear the words to pieces because he feels like they paint a picture that isn’t even really him. surely kazuya has to understand him better than that? or is it his fault, because he hasn’t explained himself well enough?
it’s hard. just as much as makoto wishes to be accepted and embraced for who he is, he’s terrified to reveal that truth to others, because the alternative is far too terrible to consider. )
I—just don’t want to become the kind of person they all assumed I would turn out to be. ( “that i am.” his throat burns, feeling raw. his expression looks faintly pained. ) It’s not the same.
( it’s simply not true to say he doesn’t want to hurt people, because he does. he does desperately. the intrusiveness of the thoughts stick their fingers into his mind often enough that it has become second nature at this point. he just doesn’t allow himself to act on them except in ways that feel “right” because… well, if he did, then what was the purpose of summoning a demon in the first place if he just ended up that same monster he feared he would become? )
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[And he smiles for that, resting his head in his hands as he watches the other young demon. Where then, had Kazuya lost his humanity completely? It had never been something he'd thought about, but maybe it'd somehow happened the first time he'd summoned a demon, the ferocity in which he'd fought, and almost lost his life with. All to protect his friends.
Truthfully, what he mostly remembers had been rage. Had been hate. A need to kill to protect what mattered most to him.
He also remembers deciding that Keisuke was important to save because Atsuro and him had been close friends, and he'd wanted to protect that smile more than any true inclination to protect another person.
How terrible.]
What keeps me from hurting people, even now, is knowing that my friends would be sad if I did that. Truthfully, I've actually almost killed someone here already. Thankfully he's pretty good at defending himself, and I wasn't really in my right mind.
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the urge to reject what his friend said is still there, but it’s quieter. there’s too much pressure of evidence to prove contrary. in a way, it feels nice to be acknowledged, to have someone see and recognize how much effort he put into trying to be… not even “good,” but just not actively “bad.” in another, it felt wretched; one shouldn’t have to try so hard, right? isn’t this something that comes naturally to most people?
he’s quiet for a long minute, looking down at his half-eaten plate of food without really seeing it. then he speaks up in a subdued voice, ) …Thank you. For saying that.
( makoto glances up at kazuya as the other demon continues, the moroseness of his expression fading as confusion replaces it. ) Really? ( he hasn’t really viewed this place as very… conflict-heavy? sure, some people go to Talon or otherwise to spar and fight, but he hasn’t really seen people do so with intent to injure or kill since he’s arrived here. )
…Did he deserve it?
( the most important question, of course.
he’s quiet for a moment longer, considering, before he also adds, ) If it’s alright that I stop myself just because I don’t want to prove the people I grew up around correct, then… I don’t think it could be wrong that you do the same because you think your friends would be upset. ( a beat. ) Maybe the reason doesn’t matter. Not as much as what you do, or don’t do.
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[He laughs, but it doesn't necessarily lack humour. It's there, seeping in at the edges because it's-
Ridiculous.
Yeah. It's ridiculous that he'd have lost control over something like that. It'd been a perfect storm scenario. A lack of being properly fed magnetite or even bits of Weiss' Aura. The game that had compounded his inherent need for chaos. A call to make good on a centuries old grudge that isn't even his. And, of course, the inherent need for violence that all Bel's possess. God may have been killed, but that hasn't quelled them entirely. It probably never will.]
Maybe you're right, though. I hadn't even meant to attack him seriously. I only wanted to scare him a little.
[He worries his lip. They have all this food, but he'd gone and soured the mood anyway, hadn't he? Well, maybe he can convince Makoto to bring back leftovers that he might enjoy that won't go to spoil so fast.]
If I hurt him seriously... If I hadn't had my powers reigned in by the hotel, I would have made someone I care about really sad. Maybe she would even hate me. I don't want to do that. I want the people I care about to be happy, and I don't want Abel to influence me like that ever again, but... How would you even go about fighting against an inherent part of yourself? It's difficult. I know you know this. [Maybe not necessarily in the same way, of course. But they're similar still, aren't they?]
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( scaring him, that is.
though, in makoto’s experience, nearly getting killed once (or actually getting killed once?) kind of takes the sting out of that particular fright.
he doesn’t mind that their conversation had gotten rather dense and heavy over dinner—not the adjectives one would want to have over a meal, but makoto hadn’t necessarily been very hungry to begin with. he’s made a decent effort even despite their subject, sampling as many of the dishes as he could while they were freshly-made and warm (when applicable). there’s something about food that always awakens the only shred of nostalgia he has in his body; he doesn’t miss home, not in the slightest, but he does sometimes miss the food. finding places to order it within the resort, or friends that could cook, is very much worth it to him.
the young demon sits back in his chair, slumping slightly; he listens, and it’s around the time that kazuya acknowledges his own understanding on the topic that he smiles in a fragile, sad sort of way. yes, makoto has lived two lifetimes full of constant self-conflict, intent on caging the parts of himself before they could do too much harm. he probably understands what kazuya means more than anyone else. he’s just… newer at it, he thinks. )
it’s… hard. ( obviously. he rubs at one forearm as he speaks. ) I can tell you what doesn’t work. Trying to force it down, ignore it, starve it into disappearing… if it’s anything like what I’ve dealt with, that will only make it worse. You can’t punish yourself into making it go away.
( it’s sad that he’s so young and yet speaks with such authority on this, but he had spent years hating himself so deeply and fervently that he’s an expert at this point. he doesn’t as much—anymore. but there’s still a bit of that in him still. he is at least better at acknowledging that it’s all him now, the good and the bad. it’s just about controlling the impact that the latter has to others. )
…Do you think of Abel as something separate from yourself?
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So it goes.
But he does listen to Makoto. Takes what he says and internalizes it, because the other younger demon knows more. Makoto might be younger, but he's still more knowledgeable than he is, even if their experiences and worlds don't line up 100%. He's an authority figure at best, and still someone to bounce around conjecture with at worst. Either way: Someone important, and who's experience he trusts.
He can't starve it into disappearing. He can't force it down and away, and even if he hadn't been doing that entirely, there'd still been a breaking point where it hadn't been enough and he'd snapped.]
Abel is me, but I'm not him. Those are my feelings on the matter. His soul was shattered and I just happened to be the one to pick up enough pieces to put it back together.
[And now, Abel's soul rests, at least in part, where his own had. He'd given up his to take control of Babel to save everyone, and the united pieces had firmly taken up residence in the hole left behind.
Maybe it hadn't been a bad thing. It's not his, but it is a soul, isn't it?]
no subject
here, there experiences are once again dissimilar. for whatever reason, kazuya seems to embody another figure—one so Biblically ancient that he was one of the first two sons of man. makoto himself tends to think of that more metaphorically and allegorically than literally, but it’s still a part of him, and it had existed both before and outside of himself before he had been “kazuya.” or, at least, that’s his understanding of it. it casts a shadow across his friend’s psyche, perhaps coloring his thoughts and opinions sometimes, but it hadn’t stolen away the essence which made him “himself.”
this is very different from what makoto contended with—a division so strong and so stark between the dark, cruel nature of his innermost desires and his heart, which recognized how wrong they were to want, that almost made him feel like two people sometimes. he knows he isn’t. he can’t blame his desires on some external force or influence because he knows they’ve always been honest within himself. this is why he doesn’t allow himself to deny their existence as part of himself anymore; it had been harmful to ever try.
they are different scenarios, but he thinks they can hurt in the same way. that’s why he fumbles through the “advice” he attempts to give, trying to walk the narrow, shared road between them.
he pauses, hesitating for a moment before continuing, ) …The way I started to get better at handling it is, I don’t try to deny it outright. I set limitations… rules. So it goes from something like, “I can never have something like that” to “I could, given the right conditions, and I just have to be patient.” ( he bites his bottom lip, trying to fight down a faint feeling of self-loathing and revulsion as he admits that. it still feels wrong, even if it’s the best he can do. ) Changing it mentally from a ‘never’ to a ‘eventually’… It just makes me feel a little less—crazy.
I don’t know if something like that would help you with what’s between you and Abel because, well… it’s different. But maybe you could try to set some limits with him as well. It might make it easier.
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He'd waited, and he was rewarded. Proof of concept simple enough. Enough monkeys and enough typewriters, so to speak. And it could be the same for Kazuya and Abel too. They had an eternity on their side, after all. More than enough time to figure out the future and how to shape it. Or not.
Kazuya hums contemplatively.]
That might work. Though... I still don't want to be the kind of person who hurts others just because I can. Maybe just knowing there's a time and a place to get those kinds of urges out constructively would be nice.
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for someone like makoto, something like that would never be taken for granted.
he nods, encouraging. ) And if others notice that you only apply your power sparingly, whenever you feel like it’s actually needed… I think they would grow to respect that as well.
( fear and contempt can build for the truly powerful who brandish their strength as a cudgel to bludgeon everyone around them with without reserve. but for someone who applies it instead as a precision weapon, with the wisdom to temper it? that was different, he thinks.
he pauses, glancing at the table, then up to his friend again. )
Um… I think that’s probably as much as I can eat, for now. ( and it wasn’t a lot, given he hadn’t really arrived with an appetite, but he’d at least sampled some of everything. he starts to stand up from the table. ) I can help you put it away… I’m going to be here all day, so we can definitely eat more of it later.