GODLY AUDIENCES: RAY

[divus]

Comments

[divus]

[There are so many reasons this child can be unhappy including the existence of Love herself? But away they go. At least it's not too cold...]

What's with the tone? [What's eating you today?]

[selfimmolates]

Well, Love—as the god who currently represents it, what's your opinion on the necessity of love in life?

[his tone is as deadpan as he can make it while wanting to know the answer, because damn it, if he can't stop this, then he's going to be as passive-aggressive as possible right now.

YOU KNOW WHAT'S WRONG.]

[divus]

[You know. What if she just starts giggling uncontrollably? SORRY...ABOUT...THAT...]

A really interesting question, huh? [She's definitely smirking behind the mask.] But it's totally necessary.

[selfimmolates]

I officially hate your other followers.

[is this retribution for what he did to takaomi.]

Yeah? How so?

[divus]

I'm just impressed someone managed to target you. [Targeting someone from your own faction is hilarious.]

Anyway...if you don't have things you love, how do you know what to fight for?

[selfimmolates]

[ugGGH]

... Well, I won't deny that.

[wow, something 100% genuine that didn't require getting cursed.]

Though some people act purely in self-preservation.

[divus]

Do you think people are more inclined to be selfish, or selfless? [She kicks aside some snow.] Especially when it comes to what they love.

[selfimmolates]

I think that if you love something enough, you could easily become a terrible person.

[like he did, as someone who was once willing to throw anything and anyone away as long as emma and norman survived.]

[divus]

[There's a nod. That's about what she expected.] And do you think those people still deserve to be happy?

[selfimmolates]

... Some people would say they do.

[he knows it's not answering the question but hahahahaha uh don't make him think too much about himself, thanks.]

[divus]

[And then Love pushed Ray into the snow =\

Just kidding, but there's a soft noise of consideration.]

I've been thinking a lot about what happened with Itachi-san. I was just curious what other people might think. [They're walking through the village toward the lake.] Are you some people? Or other people?

[And then:] The thing about love is that it's so circumstantial it's hard to have a real, solid answer, I think.

[selfimmolates]

I'm not in a position to judge Itachi.

[he can totally judge naruto canon, though.]

People love in different ways.

[divus]

But it's always some kind of love. So doesn't that answer the question of the necessity of love itself?

[selfimmolates]

Well, it depends on if you count self-love as proper love.

[divus]

I think self-love is probably one of the most important forms of love in general. Mostly because it's one of the hardest to obtain, too.

[selfimmolates]

And what about people who will therefore do whatever it takes for their own survival?

[divus]

...isn't that what you guys have to do here now because someone else set things in motion?

[That's a gray area she doesn't like.]

[selfimmolates]

Well, I guess it's fundamentally the same idea—but here, there's more room to have compassion for others. At the very least, you can pick and choose whose lives you don't care about.

[divus]

In a competition like this love is a necessity, too, definitely. It stops people from being ruthless for no reason...or killing out of boredom. [A pause as she thinks something over.] Are you really unhappy with whoever did this to you?

[selfimmolates]

... I'm annoyed, but if they don't know about my alignment, I can understand why they did it. Assuming a charitable interpretation, it was probably their idea of a joke.

It'd be hypocritical of me to be seriously angry, considering what I did to Takaomi last week.

[divus]

...if I had to guess, it was something they did to try and help me. [But she doesn't really know.] But that's also why I'm not going to look into trying to undo it.

[Ray deserves this =\]

Besides...I bet you can actually use this to your advantage to figure out people's alignments.

[selfimmolates]

Why pick me, then? Do I look like the kind of guy who'd switch to Love just because of something like that!?

[he's been trying very hard to seem like someone who wouldn't pick love for anything besides pragmatic reasons???]

... I was thinking that.

[the problem is that the process would probably involve him dying of embarrassment.]

[divus]

No, but you look like the kind of guy who wouldn't be honest or even change his ways very easily. [JUST SAYING.]

Yeah? [Good.] What's your strategy so far? You have it planned out already, don't you?

[selfimmolates]

[ :/ ]

It just happened! Even I don't think of a complete strategy that fast.

But the most obvious one would be whoever did this. It depends on how good of a liar they are or if they even intend to hide it if I come across them, but they might react if I show the effects around 'em.

Something similar goes for anyone else aligned with you. They might respond well to discussions about love... though on the other hand, I'd have some doubts about their intelligence if they make it so obvious what they value.

[a beat.]

Or they might get paranoid about why some random kid is talking to them about love. That might be good, actually.

[divus]

[Love reaches up and gently thwaps Ray behind the head. Be nice!!]

Don't make it obvious that you think people are dumb, that's rude. Anyway you have a point. If people are receptive to a topic they're more likely to tell you a lot. I don't know how you would even find whoever did this without talking to a lot of people though. [Hm...]

Start small? Make a pool of a few people you think you have suspicions about. [On the other hand.] You think paranoia would work?

[She can think of at least one person who'd flip out about it, at least.]