[ in any other situation, she'd be fascinated by how things are just appearing, especially in the absence of magic. but this is the hunger she's dealing with, so even if she's being silly, her priorities are for once, in line. as long as she's here, however it happened, she has to stay focused on what's important. ]
[ so she flips the coin while resisting the urge to go off on a tangent, or ask him more about how he makes things, or try to make something appear from thin air, too. ]
[ heads. typical. ]
Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless to lie, wouldn't it? [ being polite and forthcoming and conversational is one thing, but how can it can expect her to trust in it when all it does is kill entire planets? john himself had killed her the last time they spoke. ]
Toooo be honest, I don't really know. She's pretty secretive. We only found out that she died multiple times 'cause of someone else, and she's been pretty cagey about it when we've asked. I assume it's magic-related.
[ and that it's different from how the reclaimers get revived. even that she doesn't know too much about. ]
[All of those are highly valid questions that might or might not warrant an answer if that's what she wanted to burn her ask on. Which, he figures they'll eventually get to relatively quickly once John's done with his round.
There's a certain intensity in the way that he watches Maya. Almost as if he was ready to grow a fireball in his hand at the very slightest hint of something he didn't agree with... and he's about to go and do just that, when she continues onward with the explanation.
Figures she'd be secretive with everything. You don't become an all-powerful being just to be outwitted by someone who would be exactly forthcoming with their plans and motives. And then there's John, who seems to be exactly that: an absurdly powerful entity content with meeting someone who wants to understand him. Them. Singular and communal.]
Magic.
[The answer almost comes out like laughter, harmonious and disharmonious all in the same.]
I don't know if this qualifies as a follow-up or part of the same question, Maya- rules and boundaries are something that haven't really been defined yet, and I don't suspect that they will just yet.
But I shouldn't have limited to just her, despite my current fascination with her ability to evade me throughout... well, our mutual trip here, but where are her other companions? Have they been revived as well? We've had a theory that they're... [He sighs.
[ that there is exactly what she expected. the intensity. he's almost looking at her like she's a piece of meat. that makes way more sense to her than the sit down meal, the soft smiling, the joking around. ]
[ he says trust and rapport, but she's completely at his mercy and he could kill her at any second. and may just, if her answers aren't up to par. ]
[ she shoves her hands in her lap so he can't see them shaking, and takes a deep breath. focus, focus!!! ]
I don't know about companions, but there are some other people around that she counts on... aside from us. If they've been revived, they haven't said anything about it. I won't count it as a question if you tell me what your theory's about.
[ and it's not just the royal we. ]
I want to know why you're doing this. All of you. What do you gain out of killing everything and consuming whole worlds? You don't seem like the kind of person who wants to hurt people for no reason.
Although the higher ups in the Hunger organization probably wouldn't approve of his empathy towards her situation, he remains calm and collected- and hey, look, he hasn't actually hauled off and killed her just yet, so there's that. Good day in the office so far.
But on a far, far more serious note-]
It's just a theory, there's only a little bit of observational evidence I have of this, but unless I can manage to wipe out all 8 of them, they just keep coming back.
[He looks at the table between the both of them.]
I'm sorry, would you like some water? Does the concept of thirst even work in this... this thing we're in? I don't really know, but I do know I've been inhospitable, and for that- you haven't each touched your burger. Maya, [with a sort of bravado and assuredness in his voice, elegant and subtly pushy in all the ways that an expert salesman would have] Come on now, I promise you that this is the best burger you'll ever eat in your entire life.
[There's a pause, for a moment, and he produces two glasses of water, in case she's not hungry and would like something to hold onto instead of her hands... he knows what it's like to have fear, he can vaguely remember that once upon a time, eons ago. It always helped for him whenever he had a big talk or event coming up to hold something. Acquisition is a form of comfort, after all.]
I do it simply because there's nothing I can do at this point- or, sorry if this sounds presumptuous- you can do to stop either of us. And Maya, what we're doing, the thing that we're becoming. It's not pain.
Existence, Maya. Existence is pain.
[That sounds like some Grade A anime bullshit right now, and he knows that, so give him a second to explain and he'll do his best.]
That's a big question, Maya. I'm after, hmm. Well, peace, I suppose? It's-- it's-- oh god, there are so many pieces to this question. I am a man, Maya, who knows the answer to the question of why we're all here, and to be frank, I didn't like it. There are laws and limitations placed on every living thing that they are never made aware of. But once you know them, Maya, once you see them, they are too... way, way too cruel to bear.
And so what I want, Maya, is to grow, I suppose. I take it that you've seen me absorb and expand in the wild. I'm doing this, Maya, not out of spite or malice. I'm doing this to become larger than those limitations can contain, to overtake whatever capricious creator installed those limitations in the first place. That's a long-winded answer, and probably more than you were looking for. I just, I want to grow.
[ as gently pushily and persuasive as he's being, it kind of makes her want to throw it on the ground out of spite. it's probably poisoned or has truth ketchup serum in it or something. ]
[ okay, no, maybe not. he'd probably kill her directly if he was going to, so, slowly, she takes a bite. ]
[ it's convenient because it stops her from instantly retorting at his speech. so she chews. and she chews. and eventually, she speaks up. ]
Of course you think existence is pain if you're a businessman. Just change your career to something else... and I don't mean gobbling up worlds.
[ it's almost worse, though? that he's not doing it out of malice. just because he wants to expand, to make the rules. sure, she can sympathize a little. the world is cruel sometimes (all the time), and it feels more and more like they're all powerless, and at the mercy of things so much bigger than them. she feels that now, and she's felt it before. but.... ]
That's not how you grow, though. You'll never make peace like this. You don't grow by consuming everyone and everything else, it doesn't fix anything, it won't even make you feel better in the end. If you really want to grow, if you really want to overcome life's cruelty..... you have to do what we're doing right now, but with everyone else. Without hurting them.
[ there's some irony here because so far all he's been trying to learn is information to destroy lucretia (and friends), but she's trying to make a point. an.. anime point. he says there's nothing she can do to stop him, but she's going to try anyway like the shounen that she is. ]
Learn from other worlds and people instead of hurting them, instead of destroying them. There is more to existence than just pain and cruelty, and other people can help you see that, if you let them.
Changing his career? She can't be serious. Of course she is. That's too funny. The sound of The Hunger's voice wavering in delight at a joke might be extremely unnerving, but in a way, it's wholesome and true. Not filled with disdain or anger, not mocking, or condescending.]
I love what we do, Maya. Or, well, I guess I loved what I did when I was a human. I still am, I suppose, somewhere in here. I'm a public speaker. I was one, a successful one, too, if memory serves. And people from around the world would come to hear my speeches and my message and I would delight in their adulation and I would preach understanding and the pursuit of enlightenment and the broadening of personal horizons. I'm kind of a big picture guy, Maya.
And I suppose when I say we, I'm talking about everyone in here. Everyone-- it's weird, Maya. I've never talked to anybody about this outside. Usually my transactions with other people are, um, you know, adding them to my being.
[John pulls up the sterling silver cover over the dish that he was planning on eating while Maya had started to chip away at her burger.
It's unsettling, what's underneath it. No, unsettling is the wrong word. It's completely, irrevocably, and in whole, awful. Before Maya sits a small light, and it's just. It's filled with this holiness to it, this soft and beautiful compassion that glistens and she knows, without a single doubt in her mind that this.
This has to be the Celestial plane. He cuts into it, and like a steak, puts it in his mouth and chews.]
I am. Sorry. You feel that way. You're the only person in the world I've ever talked to that didn't agree. There were-- Everyone listened Maya, I'm not being hyperbolic, every person in the world was swayed by what I had found out. I don't know why you're different, but everyone else listened. Everything, everyone across our whole plane of existence, our shared vexation with life covered the world like a blanket and soon every bird in the sky and every tree in every forest and every blade of grass and every grain of sand shared our fury and it wasn't long before it changed us.
[ she's used to people not taking her seriously, but it still burns. it makes her resentful. the more he talks, the more he has to bite her tongue. almost literally, because she hides her irritation by focusing on the burger and eating it with gusto.... ]
Sitting and chatting is much better than... adding people to your being, [ if that's the way he's going to put it!! ] for the record. You even seem to be enjoying yourself, soooooo....... Try things my way, for a change of pace.
[ she's ready to continue like this.... until he lifts his cover and she just stops to stare. it takes her a second to realize what she's even looking at, and the horror on her face is pretty plain to see as it dawns on her. then, in a swift motion, she's shoving the burger plate away from her. it takes all of her willpower not to run across the table and throw his plate on the ground. if she didn't think he'd probably kill her on the spot, she probably would have. ]
[ she has no sassy comment on any of this, just that look of pure horror. she says this more to herself than him: ]
So.... you... "We"..... That's the "us" you're talking about...
[ it's like legion, but worse? a whole world? and these were just regular people, not even bodyless souls? just from them all being unhappy? is that even possible? ]
[He's extremely up to speed on formal etiquette, so it's said after he finishes off his palate, even going as far as to wipe up his mouth with a napkin- not there's any residue of god-like beings there, of course. Everything's a metaphor, after all.]
We're breaking the rules of existence, Maya. No two beings can occupy the same place at the same time, no two atoms, comprising of quarks dancing together in polarity can ever be in the same vacuum at the same time. And yet, here we are. We're taking what sad existence that's been handed to us, either by some god who created us or the science that brings us here, and we're evolving. We seek to defy the barriers, to tell the answer to all of existence that there's more.
[He places the napkin down, feeling the look of sheer terror on Maya's face.]
We must look beautiful to you. Our ribbons of endless light, our impossibility of being.
[ even if it's a metaphor she still wants to slap the plate off the table. but she's missed her chance. the horror still hasn't left her expression, either. ]
[ she's so not qualified for this. any of it. ]
But you're not..... you're not defying anything. I don't know you convinced everyone else [ brainwashing??? ] to follow you, but all you're doing is killing people. There's nothing occupying the space you've taken over, because they're all dead.
[ beautiful? she almost laughs at that, but instead her expression hardens. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ so she flips the coin while resisting the urge to go off on a tangent, or ask him more about how he makes things, or try to make something appear from thin air, too. ]
[ heads. typical. ]
Yeah, it'd be kind of pointless to lie, wouldn't it? [ being polite and forthcoming and conversational is one thing, but how can it can expect her to trust in it when all it does is kill entire planets? john himself had killed her the last time they spoke. ]
Toooo be honest, I don't really know. She's pretty secretive. We only found out that she died multiple times 'cause of someone else, and she's been pretty cagey about it when we've asked. I assume it's magic-related.
[ and that it's different from how the reclaimers get revived. even that she doesn't know too much about. ]
no subject
There's a certain intensity in the way that he watches Maya. Almost as if he was ready to grow a fireball in his hand at the very slightest hint of something he didn't agree with... and he's about to go and do just that, when she continues onward with the explanation.
Figures she'd be secretive with everything. You don't become an all-powerful being just to be outwitted by someone who would be exactly forthcoming with their plans and motives. And then there's John, who seems to be exactly that: an absurdly powerful entity content with meeting someone who wants to understand him. Them. Singular and communal.]
Magic.
[The answer almost comes out like laughter, harmonious and disharmonious all in the same.]
I don't know if this qualifies as a follow-up or part of the same question, Maya- rules and boundaries are something that haven't really been defined yet, and I don't suspect that they will just yet.
But I shouldn't have limited to just her, despite my current fascination with her ability to evade me throughout... well, our mutual trip here, but where are her other companions? Have they been revived as well? We've had a theory that they're... [He sighs.
He's getting too ahead of himself.]
Apologies, I think that it's your turn.
no subject
[ he says trust and rapport, but she's completely at his mercy and he could kill her at any second. and may just, if her answers aren't up to par. ]
[ she shoves her hands in her lap so he can't see them shaking, and takes a deep breath. focus, focus!!! ]
I don't know about companions, but there are some other people around that she counts on... aside from us. If they've been revived, they haven't said anything about it. I won't count it as a question if you tell me what your theory's about.
[ and it's not just the royal we. ]
I want to know why you're doing this. All of you. What do you gain out of killing everything and consuming whole worlds? You don't seem like the kind of person who wants to hurt people for no reason.
[ maybe just for bad reasons. ]
no subject
Although the higher ups in the Hunger organization probably wouldn't approve of his empathy towards her situation, he remains calm and collected- and hey, look, he hasn't actually hauled off and killed her just yet, so there's that. Good day in the office so far.
But on a far, far more serious note-]
It's just a theory, there's only a little bit of observational evidence I have of this, but unless I can manage to wipe out all 8 of them, they just keep coming back.
[He looks at the table between the both of them.]
I'm sorry, would you like some water? Does the concept of thirst even work in this... this thing we're in? I don't really know, but I do know I've been inhospitable, and for that- you haven't each touched your burger. Maya, [with a sort of bravado and assuredness in his voice, elegant and subtly pushy in all the ways that an expert salesman would have] Come on now, I promise you that this is the best burger you'll ever eat in your entire life.
[There's a pause, for a moment, and he produces two glasses of water, in case she's not hungry and would like something to hold onto instead of her hands... he knows what it's like to have fear, he can vaguely remember that once upon a time, eons ago. It always helped for him whenever he had a big talk or event coming up to hold something. Acquisition is a form of comfort, after all.]
I do it simply because there's nothing I can do at this point- or, sorry if this sounds presumptuous- you can do to stop either of us. And Maya, what we're doing, the thing that we're becoming. It's not pain.
Existence, Maya. Existence is pain.
[That sounds like some Grade A anime bullshit right now, and he knows that, so give him a second to explain and he'll do his best.]
That's a big question, Maya. I'm after, hmm. Well, peace, I suppose? It's-- it's-- oh god, there are so many pieces to this question. I am a man, Maya, who knows the answer to the question of why we're all here, and to be frank, I didn't like it. There are laws and limitations placed on every living thing that they are never made aware of. But once you know them, Maya, once you see them, they are too... way, way too cruel to bear.
And so what I want, Maya, is to grow, I suppose. I take it that you've seen me absorb and expand in the wild. I'm doing this, Maya, not out of spite or malice. I'm doing this to become larger than those limitations can contain, to overtake whatever capricious creator installed those limitations in the first place. That's a long-winded answer, and probably more than you were looking for. I just, I want to grow.
no subject
You think they're tied together in their souls or something? Well, your guess is as good as mine, John.
[ eight, though. that's an interesting number. she'll remember that. ]
[ as gently pushily and persuasive as he's being, it kind of makes her want to throw it on the ground out of spite. it's probably poisoned or has truth ketchup serum in it or something. ]
[ okay, no, maybe not. he'd probably kill her directly if he was going to, so, slowly, she takes a bite. ]
[ it's convenient because it stops her from instantly retorting at his speech. so she chews. and she chews. and eventually, she speaks up. ]
Of course you think existence is pain if you're a businessman. Just change your career to something else... and I don't mean gobbling up worlds.
[ it's almost worse, though? that he's not doing it out of malice. just because he wants to expand, to make the rules. sure, she can sympathize a little. the world is cruel sometimes (all the time), and it feels more and more like they're all powerless, and at the mercy of things so much bigger than them. she feels that now, and she's felt it before. but.... ]
That's not how you grow, though. You'll never make peace like this. You don't grow by consuming everyone and everything else, it doesn't fix anything, it won't even make you feel better in the end. If you really want to grow, if you really want to overcome life's cruelty..... you have to do what we're doing right now, but with everyone else. Without hurting them.
[ there's some irony here because so far all he's been trying to learn is information to destroy lucretia (and friends), but she's trying to make a point. an.. anime point. he says there's nothing she can do to stop him, but she's going to try anyway like the shounen that she is. ]
Learn from other worlds and people instead of hurting them, instead of destroying them. There is more to existence than just pain and cruelty, and other people can help you see that, if you let them.
i am so sorry that this is so late
Changing his career? She can't be serious. Of course she is. That's too funny. The sound of The Hunger's voice wavering in delight at a joke might be extremely unnerving, but in a way, it's wholesome and true. Not filled with disdain or anger, not mocking, or condescending.]
I love what we do, Maya. Or, well, I guess I loved what I did when I was a human. I still am, I suppose, somewhere in here. I'm a public speaker. I was one, a successful one, too, if memory serves. And people from around the world would come to hear my speeches and my message and I would delight in their adulation and I would preach understanding and the pursuit of enlightenment and the broadening of personal horizons. I'm kind of a big picture guy, Maya.
And I suppose when I say we, I'm talking about everyone in here. Everyone-- it's weird, Maya. I've never talked to anybody about this outside. Usually my transactions with other people are, um, you know, adding them to my being.
[John pulls up the sterling silver cover over the dish that he was planning on eating while Maya had started to chip away at her burger.
It's unsettling, what's underneath it. No, unsettling is the wrong word. It's completely, irrevocably, and in whole, awful. Before Maya sits a small light, and it's just. It's filled with this holiness to it, this soft and beautiful compassion that glistens and she knows, without a single doubt in her mind that this.
This has to be the Celestial plane. He cuts into it, and like a steak, puts it in his mouth and chews.]
I am. Sorry. You feel that way. You're the only person in the world I've ever talked to that didn't agree. There were-- Everyone listened Maya, I'm not being hyperbolic, every person in the world was swayed by what I had found out. I don't know why you're different, but everyone else listened. Everything, everyone across our whole plane of existence, our shared vexation with life covered the world like a blanket and soon every bird in the sky and every tree in every forest and every blade of grass and every grain of sand shared our fury and it wasn't long before it changed us.
no worries!!
Sitting and chatting is much better than... adding people to your being, [ if that's the way he's going to put it!! ] for the record. You even seem to be enjoying yourself, soooooo....... Try things my way, for a change of pace.
[ she's ready to continue like this.... until he lifts his cover and she just stops to stare. it takes her a second to realize what she's even looking at, and the horror on her face is pretty plain to see as it dawns on her. then, in a swift motion, she's shoving the burger plate away from her. it takes all of her willpower not to run across the table and throw his plate on the ground. if she didn't think he'd probably kill her on the spot, she probably would have. ]
[ she has no sassy comment on any of this, just that look of pure horror. she says this more to herself than him: ]
So.... you... "We"..... That's the "us" you're talking about...
[ it's like legion, but worse? a whole world? and these were just regular people, not even bodyless souls? just from them all being unhappy? is that even possible? ]
no subject
[He's extremely up to speed on formal etiquette, so it's said after he finishes off his palate, even going as far as to wipe up his mouth with a napkin- not there's any residue of god-like beings there, of course. Everything's a metaphor, after all.]
We're breaking the rules of existence, Maya. No two beings can occupy the same place at the same time, no two atoms, comprising of quarks dancing together in polarity can ever be in the same vacuum at the same time. And yet, here we are. We're taking what sad existence that's been handed to us, either by some god who created us or the science that brings us here, and we're evolving. We seek to defy the barriers, to tell the answer to all of existence that there's more.
[He places the napkin down, feeling the look of sheer terror on Maya's face.]
We must look beautiful to you. Our ribbons of endless light, our impossibility of being.
no subject
[ she's so not qualified for this. any of it. ]
But you're not..... you're not defying anything. I don't know you convinced everyone else [ brainwashing??? ] to follow you, but all you're doing is killing people. There's nothing occupying the space you've taken over, because they're all dead.
[ beautiful? she almost laughs at that, but instead her expression hardens. ]
It's not beautiful. It's horrible. It's ugly.
[ rude, maya!!! ]
no subject
Nobody is dead, Maya. We're all here, together. All of us, without pain or suffering.
[He almost looks like he's not as interested in his meal anymore, as he pushes the plate forward and away from him for a moment.]
I'm truly sorry you feel that way. But seeing as our negotiations are beginning to break down, I don't think I can risk being here any longer.
[John genuinely does look perturbed. Maybe distraught, it's impossible to tell. But just as before, the black fire swirls in his hand.
And he kills her, again.]
I think... I'm sad.