MEME: Test Drive

[citycouncil]

Tag into this post with characters you're thinking of apping to the game (please include the name of their canon somewhere in or on the comment or on their profile page). It can be just a tag, a brief EP, whatever you want. You can be new to the game, or simply want to test out a fresh pup. Tag each other with these characters or those already in game, and have fun.

Comments

[begeondan]

Or you can choose to live elsewhere.

[phosphor]

Or I could not.

I live with my brother. I want to live with my brother. That's who I am.

[begeondan]

Is your brother not a demon?

[phosphor]

No. We're fraternal twins. But we're still brothers, and I want to live up to him. We're family, dammit. I'd never abandon that. Who would?

[begeondan]

Humans and demons cannot be family. They may try — but what we are can never be erased from their minds, nor their hearts.

They cannot trust us. They cannot understand us. And without, what is there left of family but name?

[phosphor]

We are family. I am human. But I'm a demon, too. I don't want him to forget it any more than I want forget it myself.

If I never accept that I'm both, then I'll never move forward.

[begeondan]

Like oil and water; you'll never be able to reconcile both parts of yourself. One or the other will consume you, sooner or later, and leave no room for the other.

What does moving forward mean to you?

[phosphor]

[ Rin can only wince at first. The warning is too close to the one he got from Mephisto - from Samael - on their meeting at the gravesite. 'The path you've chosen is a treacherous one. One day, you'll have to face your fate. And you will regret not dying here.' He doesn't want to hear that shit. ]

I'm willing to take that chance. As long as I accomplish my goal first. Moving forward means keeping it together long enough to kill the demon that used my mother.

[begeondan]

[ To someone who's never had a mother, to whom family has only ever been a self-constructed concept, the idea of shaping an entire identity around another person or persons is unfathomable. She's put on another face before, agreed to change her lifestyle, but neither of those require revisiting who — and what — she is. Even the smallest of concessions hurt her, in the end. But vengeance, that she understands. ]

Did you know your mother for very long?

[phosphor]

No.

She died giving birth to me and my brother. [ that's what they told him, anyway. but rin's starting to wise up to the idea that people keep secrets, even good people. ]

But if it weren't for me being made, then she would still be alive. She'd be there for my brother. And the man who raised me wouldn't have had to die. So before anything can happen to me, I'm going to rip the roots right out of this whole situation.

[begeondan]

Your reasoning is human enough. But, don't you feel it? That raging fire within you. A human wouldn't be able to withstand such a temper.

They'll only use you as a weapon to raze everything to the ground.

[phosphor]

[ the truth of her words stings again, even when he thought he was immune to shit like that by now. stings enough that there's a sinuous whip of tail behind him, wagging in agitation like a stressed cat backed into a corner. ]

I already am their weapon. That's fine. Like I told you, I've got to accept both parts of me to move forward. I can't be afraid of what will happen if I use my body as a shield and my power as a hammer.

[begeondan]

So long as you care not for what happens to you, so long as you value yourself so lowly, you don't deserve to be called a demon.

This is unnatural.

[phosphor]

[ that takes him aback, quickly dousing his rising temper. his face sobers. he forgets, sometimes, what it's like honestly talking with another demon. of course they value themselves on equal. as ucchusama had said: demon, angel, mara, acala, these are just words that humans need to use to call them. ]

Unnatural?

[begeondan]

Unnatural. Violates law. Ruins the balance.

Your guilt hangs around your neck like a heavy chain. It's best discarded.

[phosphor]

Ruins the balance?

[ he's far from realizing his own ignorance as he spouts questions, too caught up in pondering what words she's offering to him. they're too sharp, the words. not because she means them to be. maybe she does. but it's because they weave through his memories, interconnecting things. he remembers one of the fatal verses they learned in class, feels the weight of it on his own tongue. ]

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea and swallowed by the Leviathan. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble. Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come.

[begeondan]

Why place so much weight in words penned in ink by man?

[phosphor]

Because those words have power. They can exorcise demons. It's good to remember that, I think, considering I am one.

It's not my religion, but it is my old man's.

[begeondan]

Words can't hurt me. Don't you ever wonder about what it is in each demon that makes us susceptible to what we are? I've never heard of a demon brought down by words before.

[phosphor]

You need to find just the right words. And have just the right amount of will behind them.

Like anything else, I guess.

[begeondan]

You're so young.

My name is Xiaowei.

[phosphor]

I just turned 16. So.

Your name's very pretty. I'm just Okumura Rin.

[begeondan]

Only sixteen springs. I was encased in ice for thirty times as long.

Rin is a pretty name as well.

[phosphor]

[ it's something that Rin has actually thought about a lot, lately. he'd always thought his name was strange, especially in comparison to Yukio's. knowing what he knows now, strange isn't exactly how he'd put it.

crouching, he quickly scratches the character onto the ground between them, a chalky outline on dry ground. he isn't sure how it might be pronounced in Chinese, if Xiaowei is even Chinese. but the first thing that would come to mind for most Japanese people would have been: onibi. not rin. and not that it was a name. ]

It's a cruel name.

[begeondan]

[ her eyes follow the progress of his strokes on the ground. he's been labeled with what he is, bright and clear like a warning. and yet he works for humans. it's irrational. ]

So change it. It's only a name.