GODLY AUDIENCES - TAKAOMI SHISHIMARU

[divus]

Comments

[bakaomi]

I dunno... it's hard to tell what people are thinking.

[ that's more taka's fault than anything. he's not sure if he's particularly close to anyone enough to really be able to gauge that. ]

[divus]

I stopped trying after a while to be honest. [A shrug.]

...sort of hard to believe this thing's almost over. It's going to be a pretty close race to the end. [...] You're going to really stay with your god until the end?

[He doesn't sound like he cares one way or another, but he's curious.]

[bakaomi]

I want to.

[ he knows merriment isn't going to win, but... ]

I'll have to see what next week looks like. But... it's what I'll prefer.

[divus]

Loyal. [It's a thoughtful sort of tone.]

...even after everything, I think Guy might stick around. Everybody else is up in the air. You guys are gonna have to watch the numbers really close in the last week.

[bakaomi]

I have no idea what it'll look like at this point. This week is pretty even, but...

[ people are

so unloyal ]

[divus]

I know. [...] It's why I'm worried about Ambition.

[bakaomi]

[ he frowns ]

Why?

[divus]

You've seen the fluctuation in numbers, haven't you? Why wouldn't I be worried about that?

[bakaomi]

[ yes but he wanted to hear him say it. ]

... she takes it really personally, too.

[divus]

I know. She's just a kid, this competion's been rough on her even when she was in the lead. [Ambition is the one person Cunning is actually soft for. ] Figured people like you and Senri are going to keep trying to talk to her anyway at least but...I dunno.

[bakaomi]

There's only so much you can do.

[ you can try to support someone, but if she doesn't actually believe in the support. ]

I think some people treat her like she's older.

[divus]

Oh, they do. [Which also pisses him off a little.] And I don't blame them. She's smart and she's capable and she's a lot more mature than most people. […] She's still fourteen. And when you have a lot of people trying to bargain and counting on you to create the best possible scenario? That's a lot of pressure either way.

[There's a sigh.] …my entire life's been dictated by girls who know what they're doing and forget how to be a kid. I shouldn't be surprised, but I can at least try to monitor things from my end.

[bakaomi]

... that's an interesting thing to picture.

[ but also makes sense as to why he is so fond of her. he remembers senri saying that cunning and disorder didn't actually care that much about ambition, but it didn't really... seem right. ]

We'll try to keep an eye on her.

[divus]

Is it? [Senri maybe had a biased picture since Cunning said he couldn't actually always rely on the girls, but that's his own issue. He shrugs though.]

But thanks. […] I almost failed back in my own world, so I'm not sure I'm ready to fail somebody else in this one. It's why I'm trying to win. At least if she's with me she can delegate and still have somebody else to take the pressure off.

Then again, I think she's starting to change because of you guys, too.

[bakaomi]

We're really annoying like that.

[ making people have character development and all. ]

... still, in the end, when we leave it's going to be you and the others she has. So I think it's still good to want to help her, even if she's growing up.

[divus]

Yeah, you really are. I had a whole argument about it with Zoe. [He frowns lightly but immediately ignores it.]

...like I said, it's different when you have kids. [Cunning definitely sees Ambition, and this other mysterious person from his past, as his daughter.] She's going to probably fight me all the way to the end but maybe I don't mind as much. Kind of a bummer to think about how things'll be when you're gone again.

I'd like to maybe avoid a competition like this one again though.

[bakaomi]

Mm, yeah. The bonding and hand holding were nice [ no they weren't ] but maybe make this a one time only thing.

[ there's a pause. ]

When you say kids... do you mean some of the girls that can kick your ass?

[divus]

I think our pantheon learned the hard way not to do this again. Don't sweat it.

[...] I'm not exactly old or responsible enough to have kids of my own, but yeah. That's what I mean. Sometimes you meet a girl inside a dragon's cave and get a little too attached, and sometimes you get a hammer thrown at your face and adopt a seven year old to create a little family.

[And there is, perhaps, where terrorfam came from.] ...so maybe Ambition's a little similar to Annabeth. So what?

[bakaomi]

... mm. It happens.

[ it doesn't.

or... sometimes it does. he thinks back to the relationships he's made here, and how the people he ended up counting on the most were just sort of thrown at him during a hectic moment. ]

You seem to be a decent like, pseudo dad.

[divus]

[A derisive snort.] Thanks, but I fucked everything up pretty bad the last couple of years of my life. [...] I always said that I had to be the dad for the three of us, because all three of us had shitty families and shitty lives and powers none of us knew how to really use and had to figure out on the way. I was going to be a good dad and protect them.

I want to win to be a better god than my own dad, and to make up for everything I did back then. I'm not sorry, it still needed to be the wake-up call Olympus got, but there was maybe a better way to do it.

If I don't win...what do I have left?

[bakaomi]

I mean... just because you won't be the leader doesn't mean you still can't do shit.

[ he's still not entirely sure what the logistics to running a whole ass pantheon is like. ]

Your dad wasn't the ruler, right? That was Zeus. So if you end up in a similar position that he was, you can still be better. You could still try to shape things the way you want them to be, it just wouldn't be in the huge grand gesture that this competition was going to hand you.

[divus]

Depends on who's ruling. If it's somebody like Love or Beauty I'm definitely out of the running. Piety and I at least have an agreement going, but...well. You've seen his numbers, too.

I get what you're saying. I think this place is starting to drive me crazy. Do you know how boring it gets around here? All you end up doing is thinking if you're not careful.

[bakaomi]

Well... what do you have to do here when you get bored, then? As a god?

[ taka just makes out with his boyfriend ]

[divus]

...steal stuff from your god. [:)

And maybe making out with his girlfriend but like. Whatever.]

[bakaomi]

...

Be nice to him, he's an old man.