GODLY AUDIENCES - TAKAOMI SHISHIMARU

[divus]

Comments

[divus]

Recently? Yes. People are finally wising up that I'm not as bad as everyone said the first week.

[bakaomi]

You did get a pretty bad rep after the Shiki thing.

[divus]

That was totally ridiculous. [She grumbles, just thinking about it.] How stupid would I have to be to order a hit on my own follower?

Never mind the fact that we can only suggest, not order. I want to win this. Getting people who believed in me enough to choose me in the first place killed after a single argument would just be idiotic.

[bakaomi]

That's what happened with Disorder too, isn't it? After Chuuya started started talking about their argument, everyone thought she was going to kill the shit outta him.

[divus]

Which was totally unjustified. She never said she was going to kill him. He came up with that ridiculous idea all on his own.

[bakaomi]

Yeah, she told me the story when I first met her.

I didn't know him but he seemed dramatic.

[ he's dead you rude fuck ]

[divus]

He was a jerk. And we all saw that stupid poem because Sincerity wouldn't shut up about it.

He hadn't met any of us, but he decided to go and insult all of us.

[bakaomi]

Usually it's hard to change your mind once you form an opinion on someone.

[ he's quiet for a second ]

But you guys really aren't that bad.

[divus]

[hey what the fuck

ambition stares at him for a few long moments]

Did you hit your head or something? You're the last person I expected to hear that from.

[...]

No. Second-to-last.

[bakaomi]

I mean, you guys are easily offended, decided to choose leadership in the most over the top way possible, and don't really seem to know what you're doing.

[ taka, ]

But you're all trying your best, and aren't bad to talk to, so I can't say you're bad.

[divus]

...

[TAKA,]

It took you that long to figure that out?

[ambition is just being rude because she doesn't know how the fuck else to respond]

[bakaomi]

No, I figured it out a while ago.

[ there is a reason he keeps talking to the gods so much and it's because he actually likes them, which is terrible ]

But it's not like I want to tell you something like that more than once.

[divus]

Fine, don't tell us that again. But maybe tell some of them that.

[She huffs. By them, she means the participants.]

Even with the new rule, some people are just talking to Fortune when she's out there [on the public mingle] and calling it quits. Which works, I guess, since no one is aligned to her, but that's the easiest way of doing things and it doesn't actually teach them anything about the rest of us.

[bakaomi]

[ ... ah, he frowns.

taka is too much of a fortune stan for this. ]

She said that they just feel sorry for her...

[divus]

That's my point. They're just feeling sorry, and they're not getting any new information, so none of them are learning anything from this rule.

[bakaomi]

... well, I'll see what I can do.

It's just annoying if they don't try harder.

[divus]

It's ridiculous. Totally ridiculous! They'd better shape up.

[bakaomi]

Have your followers been talking to you at least...?

[divus]

They have. Well, most of them, anyway. I don't have any complaints there.

[...her voice actually softens at that? She likes her followers. Amazing.]

But at the end of the day, it's about the numbers. I need to keep my current followers and get new ones. But people find it off-putting if I'm too aggressive, so just ambushing them won't work...

[bakaomi]

[ hm ]

What do you think might be working for other gods?

[divus]

[you know what the problem here is? ambition doesn't know how to shut up when she actually thinks people are paying attention. so: ]

Well, Love is obvious. She's a friendly, touchy-feely person who has a nice-sounding name to boot, so of course people are going to gravitate toward her. She started off with a good lead and she's maintaining it. But she hasn't really gained any new followers, either, so who knows how long that's going to last? If people start ditching the gods with only a couple of followers and don't go to her, any of us could pull ahead.

Sincerity is another one of those feel-good names. People like thinking of themselves as being sincere people, even when they're lying to themselves. I hate to say it but he's got a good sense of fashion, too, so he's probably winning people over that way. [Grumbling:] People can get makeovers in my room too...

Piety went out of his way to stick his neck out for all of you. The only thing I'm surprised about is that more of you didn't join him after his stunt at the last trial.

Meanwhile, Fortune's playing the sympathy angle really well. I bet she'll have a bunch of followers on Monday.

[bakaomi]

[ oh that is a lot of information ]

Well, at least with Piety, people weren't even completely sure if it was going to work. It might be different now that we know it did.

[divus]

[yeah if you can deal with ambition long enough to get her talking she never shuts the fuck up]

Right. Even I have to admit it was pretty smart. [she hates admitting other people are smart...] The thing is, I'm not sure if it's going to work anymore. It was a loophole, but it's not in the spirit of the rules we all ended up agreeing to. It might've been a one-time thing.

[bakaomi]

We're not supposed to know if all the culprits are dead, right? Justice said he made a mistake, so I'm not sure how we'd even reach the point of being able to do it again.

[divus]

Some people would definitely try. If there's anything you all are good at, it's surprising us by trying a billion different things to get out of having to condemn someone.