Requiem aeternum, bullets right through the sternum...

[crouching_sin]

Characters: Naoya and you
Setting: Starting in room 4-20, and then various places around the tower! (Backdated to yesterday I am a slow turtle.)
Format: Starting with prose, but I'll match you.
Summary: Naoya wakes up in the tower and actually glad at the message. He then sets out to explore the tower.
Warning: Naoya is a warning. But okay - blasphemy, massive Devil Survivor spoilers, crazy laughter… I'll edit it if need be!


[Room 4-20]
Naoya stayed still while the paralysis passed, and rose from the bed, looking down at the letter next to him. He opened it, reading its contents.

"… Destroyed. … Destroyed? Ahaha… haha…" He clutched letter tightly in his hand, laughing in a mixture of relief and pure madness. As long as it were true - and oh he hoped it was - then it was likely He was dead.

"Time to learn where I am…" He turned and looked at the chest at the end of his bed, opening it. … Good. His clothes were there and he could get out of this stupid outfit. He put his cloak up as a privacy barrier and started to change.



[Floor 3]
A library, hm? Naoya walked along the aisles in the darkness, peering at the titles. No history… hm. Disappointing. He would have liked to find out more about this place the easy way. Ah, well. He could find it the hard way.



[Floor 22]
In the darkness, Naoya could make out a few of the paintings. Some of them looked familiar. He walked along further, and stopped, staring at one of the paintings.

A blue-haired boy with cat-like headphones in a white cloak stands above a group of people, blood running on the ground. A golden light shines out from behind him, and Naoya sneers.

"Idiot. He thought that this would be the right way to use this power. Haha… hahaha…"

He reaches out, grabbing the painting and pulling it off the wall in strips, throwing them on the ground.



[Hallways]
A group of Miniblins stands in front of Naoya. He smirks and lifts a hand, gazing down at the pathetic creatures.

"Too weak. You guys get a game over."

Energy gathers into his hand, and he lets the Megidolaon go, the sound of the explosion ringing through the hallway. He chuckles, and steps over their charred forms.

Comments

[crouching_sin]

"... Heh."

He looks away for a moment. That explains why he could tell who he was. "Of course you are." Naoya looks back at Enoch, smirking a little bit. "So a chosen of His was saved. I can't say I'm surprised... though I am disappointed."

[warriorscribe]

Except that isn't why he knew who he was. Enoch takes a deep breath, quieting that initial knee-jerk resentment at a hatred of God. He knows what's happened to him. He knows why this bitterness exists and...

...and yes, he understands. He disagrees, but he understands. When he speaks, his tone is soft.

"I know. Immortality among mortals is painful."

[crouching_sin]

He flinches visibly, but keeps his proud posture.

"I don't need you telling me that. You have no idea what I've been through. You are but a child."

[warriorscribe]

His tone of voice doesn't change. "Compared to you, yes. In Meridian, we were the only two immortal humans, and I'd wager this holds true here as well."

A pause and an uneasy shift at speaking so much in one go to someone who's only technically just met him.

"I've lived three hundred years on Earth. I do understand, and I'm sorry."

[crouching_sin]

He narrows his eyes, shaking his head. "Three hundred years is nothing. Nothing, compared to what I have seen. Birth, death, war, famine, hardship... dying in the worst ways, having family ripped from you over and over again, being used as a toy for a God that is cruel and merciless and lives off of fear and torture."

His voice is rising, and he can't calm himself. Not here. "You have no idea. No idea what it is to be trapped like this - with a memory that never ceases archiving memories, with a soul older than all the empires of the world, with this eternal joke of 'mercy'. You have no idea what I've been through. Do not even try to pretend that you can understand."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch closes his eyes, mouth twitching once or twice as Naoya rants, tosses aside his pain, his offered sympathy. His hands are clenched, but not in anger.

"Do not tell me my suffering is nothing. I may not know all of your pain, but I do understand the dread of loss, the pain of leaving families behind time after time - I was in danger, pursued. I couldn't stay with the women I married, the children I fathered; I faked my own death before I could see them grown so I could lead Azazel's hunters astray.

"I nearly went mad, and I would have if I didn't have an angel at my side."

He pauses, shaking now. Tears escape from behind his closed eyelids and he raises a hand to wipe them away.

"It's why I don't begrudge you the demon at yours. When I tell you that I'm sorry, great-uncle, when I tell you that I understand, I don't mean it lightly."

[crouching_sin]

"I don't need your pity, only your understanding - understanding that your God is cruel, the enemy that has been plaguing mankind since the beginning. And that you are a fool for following Him. I suppose I should expect as much, though - coming from the line that was sent to replace my brother. As if any of them could replace him."

He brakes off into soft laughter. "You speak of madness. Perhaps I've already crossed that line - I've been called mad enough. But it is a madness with a purpose, and a goal - and one that not even your God will stop me from reaching."

Naoya smiles suddenly, something dangerous in his eyes. "Do you know what my goal is, son of Jared?"

[warriorscribe]

"You have my pity all the same. But I will not say God is cruel - His punishment of you is."

Baring his heart was a mistake. It always has been, always was, and it's a hard habit to break even when it's been hurting him so much for so many years. Between the threat of Meridian being gone, of Armaros being gone, of the unfamiliar place where things lurked in the corners and now someone that he had some understanding with, someone he would call family for their unique circumstances, now this...

"...No." It's both an answer and a request. Both no and don't. Because he doesn't know but he knows he wouldn't be able to take it, to reconcile the man he'd call his great-uncle with whatever act against God his goal must be.

[crouching_sin]

He hears the request in Enoch's voice. He chooses to ignore it.

"Death. Forgetfulness. The sleep of no memories. Even in dreams I cannot escape my memory. Even in death I return with all I know. I cannot forget anything, and it takes its toll both mentally and physically." He doesn't like to admit weakness, but it's a weakness he can compensate for in some ways.

"And before you say 'have you tried this?', don't bother. I have tried everything. Everything except appealing to God. You should know why that is not an option."

[warriorscribe]

That...wasn't what he was expecting. He'd almost forgotten how badly he himself had wanted to die, to escape the pain, in those darkest years so long ago.

Without a word, he reached out to put a hand on Naoya's shoulder.

[crouching_sin]

He smacks Enoch's hand away, backing up a few steps. "As I said, I don't need your pity. Idiot... don't treat me like I'm a child."

[warriorscribe]

"You have it all the same."

Enoch slowly draws his hand back before letting it fall at his side. He's shaking, and his voice is soft. But he draws himself tall, summoning whatever strength of conviction lurks in the cracks of the former life that seems more and more dead the longer the conversation goes on.

"Nothing you say or do will change that."

[crouching_sin]

He turns away with a scoff, looking back at the shelves. "Fine, then. Have your foolish feelings. You'll find, soon enough, that pity has no place in how the world actually works."

[warriorscribe]

"I've had enough time to find otherwise."

That creeping weight on his heart is getting to be too much for him. Enoch turns away, himself, going for the stairs.

[crouching_sin]

"Clearly, not enough."

He watches Enoch's retreating back, not saying anything about that.