acatalepsy_rpg

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It seems we're all stuck here together like one big happy family, aren't we? Since that's the case... how about we play a little game to get to know each other?

What is most important to you in your entire life? What would you be willing to do anything for? And I do mean anything~

And please, nothing like 'friendship' or 'world peace.' Really dig down deep; we should all be honest with each other, don't you think? ❤

[feel free to answer the question or not, Joshua seems to just be very bored. what a chatty nerd!]

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For all the rest of us know, you could be copying all of our answers down somewhere on the off-chance that you should need to bribe one of us for a favor in the future, all while presenting your intentions as a "harmless exercise" in order to dupe us into giving you exactly what you want.

Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to be nearly as gullible as the people who have already been foolish enough to answer you without thinking about what you're actually asking of them, but I doubt that will make very little difference now that people have already fallen for your little trick.

Of course, I don't exactly care about what's going to happen to them as a result of their own stupidity... I'm simply interested in your motivations, that's all.

[ what do you mean people can actually be interested in other people without standing to gain something from it??? what!!! ]

Oh, how devious of you!

I could assure you that I am not copying these down for future use, but I can't imagine my own testimony is very reliable.

Tell you what; I'll tell you my motivation for asking, if you give me your answer?

We'll keep it just between the two of us.

All right, but only if you hold up your end of the bargain first. Deal?

[ he ain't falling for this one.

he's also been screwed over by striking deals with other people in the past ahem so he just wants some extra insurance here ]

Fine with me.

[Josh didn't usually like the deals being flipped around, but it's not like he had that many secrets about his intentions anyway.]

I used to be in the business of measuring the mettle of human souls. A sort of... gatekeeper for the afterlife, you could say?

Part of that was measuring what was most important to a person, and seeing how they dealt with losing it, or what lengths they would go to to get it back. I find that it reveals quite a bit about one's character.

Worry not! I have no intention of taking away anything from anyone here. Our lovely hostess has stripped me of that ability, sorry to say.

But it's a fascination I find myself attracted to nevertheless. That's all.

[ oh.

that's certainly not the answer that dark bakura was expecting, and it's obvious in his response that he was caught off-guard, his choice of words, in a way, revealing the very vulnerabilities he's trying to hide: ]

And if that person has nothing left for you to take?

In my experience, that's rarely the case.

Even a person down on their luck and stripped of their means has something left. Sometimes it's all they have left, and you better bet they fight tooth and nail for it! It brings out an energy for life that they'd once though irredeemable.

On the other hand, if that thing can't be found without, then it can usually be found within. A sense of self, memories of a better time, that sort of thing... In which case I would have to take that from them, and they'd have to learn to be a new person from its absence.

Sometimes what ends up being most important to a person is something they don't even realize, and only learn more about themselves after it's been taken away.

[If he notices the particular choice of words, or how long it took for the reply to come through, he's certainly not making it apparent. He's simply... explaining the mechanics of his work. Surely, that's all.]

Well, you know what they say: there's always a first time for everything, and today, it looks like I'm about to be the very rarity you were talking about... or can you really still think of something to take away from a man that's lost his home, his family, his community, his future, his humanity, his life, the one shot at vengeance he had left that was supposed to compensate for all of that, and with it, the one chance to free his family that he had been subsisting on for the last three thousand years that isn't his very state of being?

Because let's be honest, here, at that point, you'd probably be doing him a pretty big favor by putting him out of his misery anyway.

[ not that dark bakura has any particular desire for that, but he wouldn't be too terribly disappointed if he were to simply disappear, either. everything he was refusing to pass on into the next world for before coming to the Circle is gone, as far as he's concerned, but he's also always been extremely short-sighted. ]

Edited 2018-11-14 06:59 (UTC)

My my, someone's a drama queen. [said the Actual drama queen.]

But let me see... obviously I would need to know more about that man, and the conditions here aren't conducive to how things work back in my world. But unfortunately you wouldn't be the first person I've had to sort who would wish to be put out of his misery.

[In fact, the sentiment hits far too close to home.]

Let's see... your family seems important to you, so I could take your memory of them. You would wake up and not remember a thing about them, and only remember a life of loneliness. Or, I could take away your desire for vengeance, and you'd learn what it'd be like to live free of that burden.

Or, maybe I could take away your identity; everything that makes you you. You'd forget who, what you are, where you've been, and leave you to fend for yourself in a world that doesn't know who you are either. I wonder what kind of person that would be...?

Well, excuse me for being angry that 99 people, most of whom I personally knew to one degree or another, were all rounded up and sacrificed against their will before my eyes when I was only a child for some black magic ritual under the false pretense of restoring Ma'at to the Kingdom of Egypt.

You make some interesting suggestions, however... be careful not to say them too loudly, though, or the Circle might go for those next, and enough of my memories of my ancient past have been lost in time already.

Seems like an audacious misinterpretation if they're sacrificing people in the name of justice and order. But Ancient Egypt isn't exactly my strong suit.

[Yeah that's as good as he's got. He's not very good at expressing sympathy. Or feelings?]

Worry not; like I said, I don't have the power to take anything from you anymore and my lips are sealed~

But I will say... the original intent of my work was in the hopes of helping someone grow by the loss. A part of that was hopefully helping people who ended their own lives find new reasons to continue, or reignite something they'd left behind.

...Of course, I suppose your feelings are none of my business. But I hope I could provide some sort of insight.

It's funny that you should say that, because your motivations are remarkably similar to what I was always told were the responsibilities of Anubis in the afterlife.

And you're right, they aren't, but... in a way, I suppose you did.

Thanks, I guess.

[ it's more consolation than anyone else has ever offered him, anyway, and it may not seem like it from his response, but he's still grateful nevertheless, much to his own surprise. ]

I'm not so full of myself as to compare my role to a real god. But I suppose as far as job qualifications are, it's not too far off.

No need to thank me. I'm glad I could still help out a bit.

[It's a wildly different tone than he's taken with most people, but-- but like Bakura, while it may not seem like he's genuinely glad, a part of Joshua does take a bit of pride in a job well done.]

You certainly could have fooled me.

Are you saying that you aren't actually a god, then? But before, you were talking about being a sort of gatekeeper to the afterlife. How can you not be, if that's the case?

[ what is joshua, really ]

Depends on how you define a god, I suppose.

I certainly didn't come to exist in this world through some otherworldly mythical event. I simply... seized the opportunities where I could.

[just wait until you hear about the Grim Reaper Bureaucracy.]

What a coincidence... because so did I.

It would seem that you and I are more alike than I first thought.

Oh really?

[Well now, this was interesting. Maybe a bit concerning, given that sort of confession right there, but it's not like Joshua was going to lose a family to a godly sacrifice. He didn't even have a family to lose!]

I'd love to hear that story some time~

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