don't leave me here like this, can't hear me scream from the abyss;

[crouching_sin]

Characters: Naoya and whomever stumbles across him. (Aside from floor 13 which is closed to close CR only.)
Setting: Floor 101 (the hanging gardens), floor 64 (the desert), floor 13 (the cathedral). Backdated slightly to before the event.
Format: Either.
Summary: Naoya is... upset, over various things. He's trying to calm himself down, but it doesn't go that well.
Warnings: Severe rage. If you catch him badly he might attack you or simply go silent. Also, only close CR should tag him on floor 13. If you don't know if your character counts, please ask me first or just PM me.


[Floor 101]

[This floor. He hates this floor. It just reminds him of what he lost, what was stripped away, what he can never, ever have anymore. It's almost as if the plants here are taunting him for what he did. It hurts.]

[Naoya doesn't spend too long on this floor, just enough to check to see that the plants are still flourishing. He turns to leave.]



[Floor 64]

[This floor is much more agreeable for him. It reminds him of home - his first home - and while it hurts, it's comforting. He doesn't venture too far from the staircase - he knows better than to step into the desert without better tools - and sits in the sand, closing his eyes briefly and trying to remember how things were at first, before everything.]

[Then other memories cut in, of violence and blood and pain. He opens his eyes, and stands, brushing sand off of his clothes. It's time to keep moving, or he'll just remember more.]



[Floor 13 - CLOSED TO CLOSE CR]

[He hates this floor most of all. He heads to the front, shutting up the mumbling, and stares at the stained glass. This thing... all of this. Everything.]

[He punches the podium, but doesn't succeed in doing anything but hurting his hand. Still, he pounds at it, trying to get someone, anyone to listen. Even if it's not Him... some kind of higher power. Something.]

[Why does it not matter to anyone that while yes, he was the murderer, he was also a victim? Why does he have to be the example? Why did Abel have to be thrown into the demon world and then shattered? Even the Abels he's met haven't ever been the complete Abel. He misses him. He misses his brother, he misses being able to think and not be overwhelmed by this damn curse. He misses being able to just live. And He wants him to repent? It's all His fault! He was the one who stoked the desire to kill in him to have his precious example!]

[He cries out, making another attempt to shove over the podium, but it's useless. He falls to the ground, on his knees and elbows, hair draping down around his face. He can feel himself crying and he doesn't even bother to stop it.]

[No. It doesn't matter anymore. He wants to hold out hope, but it's so difficult when everything keeps going wrong. He was betrayed by his own brother, and yet he still loves him... but he can't think of any other way.]

Comments

[destructiveprinciple]

You've got keen senses and plenty of experience then. I doubt we share a world in common though.

[He pays little attention to the man's odd dress style—patterns of green data particles and long loose sleeves, like the man couldn't decide between a modernized edge or a traditional haori—and more interest on his stance as he turned to face him. Confident, calm and unbothered. But tired.]

Aspiring superhero and savior of the world, at your service, sir! [He pauses. Then failing to keep a straight face at his own self-deprecating joke, he shrugs.] I kid, I kid. I'm Avenger and uh, you are...?

[crouching_sin]

[... Yeah, he just keeps the lineface through Avenger's little joke.]

Heh. Naoya. Avenger, hm? Quite an interesting name. Now what is it that you avenge, exactly?

[destructiveprinciple]

[He isn't very bothered by Naoya's steadfast linefacing.]

Why, thank you. Personally, I have no idea. It's simply the title of the class I was summoned in.

[crouching_sin]

Class? Summon? Ah, but you're not quite a demon, are you?

[destructiveprinciples]

People have wanted me to be a demon, I suppose. [It shouldn't be possible to edge a smile so sharply.]

But nah, I'm a Servant.

[crouching_sin]

People have claimed I'm one too, but I'm not.

[He just smiles right back in the same way.]

And what is it that you serve?

[destructiveprinciples]

They hate it when you do that. Tell them you're not a demon, that is. Then they start getting angry and it's just a downhill situation from there.

[The slight tilt of his head spoke of empathy, of a genuine indifferent curiosity.]

Humanity, that would be the simplest answer, wouldn't it? It's a rather thankless boss to have, but it's my employment. [A beat.] And you? What do you serve?

[crouching_sin]

Oh, I know. And then they bring up things from the past - little things, especially when they don't know the larger things... and it tends to end up in violence.

[Oh well. That's just how things went. He'd stopped trying to explain himself long ago. It'd be preferable to be a demon sometimes, anyway... though humanity had so much more flexibility.]

Heh. Humanity as well, in some ways, though even those who have learned of my actions recently don't understand it. I have my own goals, yes, but I am also attempting to lead humanity to a path where they can have their own free will.

[He scowls. Ugh. Why things couldn't have just gone as he'd hoped?]

[destructiveprinciple]

Hm... Can't say I'm surprised at things turning violent. Happened to me too. That's people for you, preferring an easily identifiable wrongdoer to punish.

[It's always a pain. What did they know of old stories? They weren't there, they just got a version of the past that had been edited, revised and cut down over time. The distortion of it being passed from mouth to mouth, paper to paper for centuries.]

Oh, so we share a boss in a sense. What actions did you take? [Having your own agenda isn't surprising, Naoya. He blinks.] Some nutso trying to remove humanity's free will? I'm guessing your actions were taken to stop that.

[He agrees. Angra advocated individual desires after all even if he wasn't too keen on the will of the masses.]

[crouching_sin]

Trust me, I know that feeling. Disgusting.

[He chuckles darkly at the questions.]

I tried to promote a human to the title of King of Bel - the king of demons. If a demon had taken it, they would have destroyed everything. And only a human with specific qualities can enter the contest to claim that title. He did eventually claim it, but then turned to God.

[He practically spits the name.]

Now, humanity is meant to be 'perfect'. If they step out of line, they will be eliminated, and no human really has the strength to stand up to such power, not even myself. If their 'misdeeds' continue, God and the angles will simply strip away free will entirely. Any other solution - even one that didn't directly advance my goals - would have been acceptable, but no. He had to pick that path.

[He growls quietly, just barely holding in his rage.]

And when they look for a scapegoat, they'll look to me. For what I did then, and what I'd done before. I was trying to help them. Instead they'll point to me as the example of someone who took what they claim to be the 'wrong' path.

[destructiveprinciples]

It's sickening, isn't it?

[Angra cocked his head to the side, considering. So he had found a kindred spirit in a sense. It was fortunate he was gifted with knowledge of the current modern religions and their beliefs, or the rage at just one God would have been lost on him.]

A contest... The king of demons, huh. [It's spoken blithely, but with a tinge of wicked amusement to his voice like he's thinking of an inside joke. Specific qualities are required?] He claimed great power, but turned to a thing like God? Wow. Sounds like he's either an idiot, a righteous guy terminally ill with goodness, or plain misguided.

[He can't help but utter a short crackle when Naoya mentioned humanity being held to be the standard of 'perfection.' Humanity was a filthy pack of people committing constant misdeeds, big and small, the weight of innumerable sins on his shoulders proved that much.]

'Perfect?' That's ridiculous of the angels to expect that. It's ridiculous of God to expect that. To gain it, they would have to wipe away that humans humans and get ride of free will anyway, no need to bother with using a measure like tha' as a punishment. Rub out hate and love alike. Stupid, right? We cannot live without hate. Mankind will remain uncured of that little emotion for all of eternity.

[Let's enable that rage since he sure as hell doesn't disagree with it. This man had selected a human, had helped them but when presented with a choice that conflicted with his benefactors's goals, the human taken it over the other choices offered to him. A different path. The only path was unacceptable to this man. He wondered what it was.]

So they'll judge you for your history and throw you to the wolves as an example when you were actually making the effort to give 'em a boot up? Damn, that's harsh.

[crouching_sin]

I know him quite well - it's the last option. He's smart, but I think he just doesn't quite understand, despite my efforts to the contrary. We were raised as brothers... so I'm probably the person who knows him best.

[He snorts slightly. This... servant... of course he can't know. Still.]

The angels will try to chase me down, try to urge me to repent... it's the same old story. I'll repent for nothing, because even if I did I would still be in the same place. They need a scapegoat.

[He chuckles to himself, before reciting something from memory.]

"And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness."

There's always a scapegoat. In the old days they used to actually use the goat... or a person. They don't care. Just as long as they have an enemy, someone to blame, someone convenient, they'll never see the true enemy right in front of their faces.

[destructiveprinciple]

Ooooh, raised as brothers? One of you being misguided or no, brothers who know each other best rarely turn out well in the old stories.

[He sighed, bemused as he made an idle observation. His grin turns bloodthirsty.]

So they're God's zealous cronies. Make me glad I've never met an angel in my existence. They're stuck in a repeating pattern and they ask of you something as meaningless as repentance? I hope when they try, you kill them.

[Angra blinks. The passage this man had recited struck a sharp note inside him, the faint burn of recognition. No surprise made itself known, since the things he represented could, of course, span cultures and eras and worlds. His ‘way of existence’ that had eroded away his humanity until the boy who'd became a demon creased to be, and finally became a concept that was passed down through the ages.

His lips twist slightly. A goat? Anyhow, that passage... Christian in origin, he guessed. The God of Abraham.]

Indeed. In these days, they use words to make that scapegoat, instead of doing the actual, dirty act of sacrificing something to make people feel better about themselves. They like to think themselves too civilized to do stuff like that... Hah. A sacrifice, people always want that, don't they? An easily identifiable adversary to blame for misdeeds.

It saves them the effort of actually looking.

[crouching_sin]

I know better than anyone what happens in those old stories.

[He reaches out, tries to sense Avenger more closely, but his ability to do such things is limited. Everything else aside, he still is only human.]

Exactly. They don't want to imagine that it might be themselves that are the ones to blame.

[destructiveprinciples]

Heh. You were there, weren't you? You speak like you were. So, one can't claim to be surprised you do.

[To Naoya's senses, he doesn't feel human so much as a huge concentration of magical energy, heavy with centuries of taint.

Oh, and there are curses on him. Lots of curses are a thing, particularly noticeable if the man looks hard. He takes a wary step closer, fixing him with an odd gaze, not entirely dissimilar to that of a curious wild animal.]

They prefer to say it was all anothers' doing, refusing to acknowledge that its them and their own inescapable weaknesses that are the flaw. It's easier, and humans are all for easy convenience.

[crouching_sin]

Exactly. Though you're quite old, too, aren't you?

[... Curious. So very curious. His gaze doesn't waver from Avenger at all.]

Weaknesses can be useful, anyway. It's a matter of taking them and using them in the correct way.

[destructiveprinciple]

I take long naps but yeah, bingo.

[He says it casually. Then his lips, twisted slightly, curved back into a small grin. This man was the manipulative type though it was up for debate to Avenger, if he had started out that way or grown like a vine into that way of thinking over centuries.

An observation of the obvious;]

Mmm. The strong are harder to use than the weak. And even the strong have their weaknesses to be used.

[crouching_sin]

I don't get the luxury of sleep, unfortunately. Ever since I was born... no. Since the first murder I've been continuously in the world.

Everyone has weaknesses. It's what allows you to get a grasp on them, after all.

[destructiveprinciples]

Oh ho. The first murder... [He did not make an inquiry into the subject any further, beyond the lifting of a single eyebrow.] How sad. What a sad lil' murderer you are, huh? Existing is painful, especially if it is without rest.

Smoother surfaces are difficult to get your hooks into. Besides, weaknesses make things fun too.

[crouching_sin]

Tch. I don't need anyone's pity. Just what's owed to me.

But of course. A perfect person would just be boring.

[destructiveprinciples]

'tis sarcasm. I have no pity to offer, not to you or to anyone. So don't misunderstand.

[Except to Bazett, and that had been because she was so clumsy at living and a loser human.]

[crouching_sin]

Heh. Too many people have tried to pity me. It's disgusting.

[That's part of the reason why he just doesn't tell people anymore.]

[destructiveprinciple]

[Snort.] Geez, if they're going to something wasteful like that, they ought to try giving you more substantial things.

[Not really big on being pitied himself.]

[crouching_sin]

Ugh. Yes.

[... Though he does have something else he wants to talk about.]

What, exactly, did you mean by being summoned? Surely someone didn't just summon you because of your charming wit.

[destructiveprinciples]

No, no, a bozo like me? There are witty folk aplenty they didn't need to call up with sorcery.

[He laughs a little, and elaborates on the information given freely. His feet, bare except the black bandages, are quiet on the hot sands as he shifts his weight.]

'Servants' are existences called into an era by a Master and placed into a 'class,' a vessel prepared beforehand, and bound by a contract to serve 'em. To put it simply, they're tools for fighting. I was summoned to kill my Masters' enemies.