listen to your heart 😌

[parrygripp]

"Can You Handle Your Emotions?"

Emotions are... eh. We all have them, whether we want to or not. Some people have control over their emotions, and some people let their emotions control them. Where does your character fall on this spectrum? More importantly, what's their relationship with their emotions like? Do they bury everything deep, deep down inside, or are they the first one to cry over a sappy movie? Do they even know how they feel about what's going on inside? Pretty meta stuff.

• No blank top-levels.
• Instead, characters are to respond to the proposed question: can you handle your emotions? / are you in touch with your feelings?
• Get deep. Look within. Hear, think feel... or don't.

Comments

[againstgod]

What did you do?

[now? why is he blaming himself for that. it just seems overworry at this point.]

But like curses, you'll have to latch on to someone someday.

[not just because it's what curses do, but because he'll be less lonely.]

I have agreed to help you...shopping. [spoken as stoically as possible.] When did you wish to go? You are the one with a demanding schedule.

[fellfurthest]

What I didn't do, I suspect. Don't worry, if it was supposed to be my job to fix, that's a design flaw. Don't leave things dependent on one person who may not do the predictable outcome. [Icy!]

[But he warms back up to amusement thinking of himself as a free roaming curse. :> absolute nutjob here.] Then we'd best hope they're the strongest individual in the multiverse, because they're going to need it.

[Lucifer isn't lonely except when he shuts the fuck down, and that's why he has so many brothers he's spent millennia teaching to get stronger.]

[He laughs again.] Yare yare. This is true. The rest of this week I won't have time to so much as think. [Just the way he likes it.] Maybe after that?

[againstgod]

Mm. Not everything is on you.

[she's not sure what is he trying to "fix." or what is broken in his opinion.]

If you choose them, they must be formidable.

[she doesn't think he'll have the patience to endure either folly or feebleness.
his brothers don't count for company. they add extra stress in his life.]

Make room to have some time to sleep this week. [her voice turns sharper. oh, she can read between the lines.] I won't carry an exhausted demon to our shopping journey.  

[fellfurthest]

So they always tell me.

Or else I'll make them so. [Delusions of grandeur, like he can just kick someone into competency despite that clearly never having worked on Mammon so far.]

[They reaaaaaally do stress him out, but he honestly thinks this is normal, that all people are stressful. Diavolo alleviates some but also does stress him out so.]

Yes, ma'am. The General likes listening to animal podcasts. Like I showed you the books end up too vivid otherwise. I should ask Satan for good ideas too maybe?

What did you read to Kurai, if anything?

[againstgod]

[ she wonders if he'll have that effect. a curse usually causes the opposite reaction. a negative one?

her eyes narrow. he says yes, but she isn't sure he'll remember to sleep daily. ]

Perhaps of animals exclusive to the Devildom? [ it's her idea. no cats, or something that he'll surely find where he comes from. ]

I didn't read her anything, but I told her about humans, and sometimes about Heaven.
I wanted her to stop resenting humanity and someday work toward a path of coexistence with them.
[ beat. at that time. ]
"Evil," I said, is an anagram humans gave her people under the jealous watch of Heaven. It truly means: "Live."

[fellfurthest]

We have... so many. But most are more colorful than peacocks.

Maybe... Cerberus???? They're always using him in Devildom media. Is that too intimate? Should I at least have him meet the real one first? See if Cerberus doesn't try to eat him?

[Quietly. Thinking.] Why did she and Gehenna resent humans?

Tch... on that she's polar opposite Lord Diavolo. He loves humans. He loves everything about them. Drives me mental sometimes. Well, it works for dealing with human governments. He plays nice cop all friendly and enthusiastic. [He says that like, "Ew gross!" As if it hasn't very very very visibly and obviously to everyone who has ever known Lucifer before OR after; rubbed off onto him too.] And I get to be sadistic evil incarnate enforcer.

[But again.... anyone who gets to know them, either one... will point out under Lucifer's sadism is the heart of an angel who fell from loving too much. And like an apple, under the skin-thin surface of Diavolo's friendliness and loving overtures is an extremely powerful and sharp negotiator who will use everyone and anything at his disposal, whether it's politics or kidnapping, and there's a different kind of callousness children have that isn't innocence at all.]

I like that though. Live is just evil backwards.

[againstgod]

Mm. What kind of animals does he like? Purchase the closest version in your kingdom.
You can introduce him to Cerberus later.

[she thinks it's better to start with general and local wildlife.] 

She was a child who lost most of her family, and her kingdom was in ruins when I rescued her. [she frowns, trying to compare her to an adult is unfair.] 
Gehenna is at the limit of Assiah as the top layer of Hell.
And this means it receives all Assiah's pollution. This made life harder for those who lived there.
While I stayed, I cleared the atmosphere, water, and soil, but that contamination returned after I was cursed.

[she lowers her eyelids. and since it's not necessarily running on the same timeflow, it meant the pollution came from the past and future too.] 
...
For a long time, she also thought that was the reason why the barriers of her kingdom collapsed and permitted angels to massacre her people, including her parents.
That is in the past now. Kurai has truly matured in kindness and wisdom. And she finally embraced what I taught her.

[she's proud of her, and of setsuna and his, friends to make her realize that they could all live together. she can be temperamental, but that girl has a pure soul and a good heart.]

1/2

[fellfurthest]

You mean a plushie, right?

He's stationed on Earth, he doesn't have a live panda.

Devildom has a lot. So many unique monsters. He likes greyscale. Pandas and raccoons. Bears in general. Psychologically, that speaks to someone overwhelmed by the chaos in their life and needing a break from external stimuli. [You can see where that appeals to Lucifer.]

[But the explanation of Kurai....]

[Yeah. Yeah. He feels that in the marrow of all his bones.]

[It explains why she could handle his temper tantrums about humanity so easily.] You'd like him. The General. He's way more like me than you... but he's kind. Even though he can see the youkai, the bad things of humans, he doesn't feel more loyalty to demons like me. He purposely surrounds himself with humans, and tells me their good points... e-even more than Lord Diavolo... [He FEELS traitorous for saying that. Thinking, feeling, knowing it's true, but allowing himself to acknowledge it, as if denying it would make it go away. Politically, he knows he can get away with it, because Mephisto and others would love nothing more than to have Lucifer date someone in the human realm, especially as it strengthens DEVILDOM proper not exclusively Lord Diavolo.]

2/2

[fellfurthest]

Why are we always giving heaven a free pass?!

Not you, everyone else, all other timelines. Like they just are natural consequences and are powerless to change it?! Such crap.

[Kicks nothing.]

[againstgod]

Plu...shie? [she doesn't immediately recognize the word. ah. "stuffed toy?"] those dolls modeled after animals with synthetic fur?
I mean, in general, which animals does he like?

You could purchase books or videos of the wildlife in the Devildom.

[those human's nature documentaries, do they have those in there? she doesn't know.]

...

[this is the second time morningstar is trying to advertise his partner-to-be. he doesn't need her approval. ]
I don't have to like him.
You're the one who is interested in him.

[her brows crease when he makes his point about giving heaven as a pass. she terrorized heaven enough to become their bogeywoman.]

Good.
[he was on thin ice if he included her.]
I thought your Celestial Realm wasn't as bad.

Had lost this somehow

[fellfurthest]

Yes. Like I said, pandas, bears, probably black and white rabbits. [Chinhand thought.]

I'll look. Maybe a field guide of flowers. [THE GENERAL IS THAT MOE.]

Have to isn't it. You're family. It's only natural I'd want you to get along. Ah. Perhaps it's also... watching after Sheep-Chan I've learned that people need a solid support network, not one-sided. [Shakes a hand through his hair.] Sorry.

Heaven's not that bad, especially compared to all the others I've heard about, but it's -- When Lilith fell, we all just blamed ourselves, Belphie lashed out at humanity, I still don't know how much Adam knew or understood, and I don't get why Father was so angry. What is it about humanity that would have been destroyed that she was risking even if she was just oblivious??? I don't get it.

[Both hands up in exasperation.] And humans. They always act like heaven is absolutely correct, always. At least in ours, in my experience -- and I'm jaded, and it's self-selection bias. I still don't get it.

[againstgod]

He enjoys flowers, too? [why not give him a potted plant? a plastic one if the genuine article can't grow outside that realm.]

Hah. I wouldn't say we must get along just because we're family. [she murmurs, thinking about her father. her family has always been god, rosiel and the adam kadmon, and they have all hurt each other. mostly unwillingly, except for him.]

That little lamb is sharp and clever to teach you that lesson.

[she adds warmly, voice full of approval.]

Mm.
You don't have to agree with every decision, Morningstar.
But you have spread your arms in cooperation with both realms. Mistakes and flaws are different from corruption.

[fellfurthest]

Yes. We have so many in Devildom. 500 types of Hellroses alone. In the earliest days before demon lands absorbed everything that was what was really left of the faerie lands. But it actually got a lot more incredible with the demons spread. Better adapting and morphing to harsh environments, rather than needing so much pampering. Well I guess that's why the hell roses. They bloom more the more they're cut.

Not must, just that I want you to.

Hah, you like her before meeting her. Your Lilith bias is showing. [But that's fine, he's glad.]

I can accept mistakes. I can't accept that heaven is supposed to be an embodiment of the absolute good if it ignores innocents suffering it could save just doesn't "for free will." Whose will is it? [His?? But why?]

[Ugh.] Ugh. Don't mind me. This gives me migraines every time. So I guess the answer is I'm suffering of my own stupid choices, and real question is who the hell is it helping?

[againstgod]

What else do they do? [his favorites apples are poisonous, she has to ask the difference between those and the ones humans grow.] Are they safe for you to give him some to plant in his home?
Not must, just that I want you to.

Human bias. [ she corrects with a shrug.] I never met the pair in the shadow replica of God's garden. They had already passed when I visited Assiah.

[she does agree with him. that contradiction is difficult to handle. wordlessly, she reaches to touch his arm; a mere brush to offer silent comfort as he struggles to reconcile that. then, she retracts her hand to speak.]

The citizens of Devilmdom seem happy, from what I've observed in my brief visit.
Sometimes, being a 'home' is good enough. There's no need for a greater purpose.

[fellfurthest]

Hell no.

Every single flower variant in all of Hell runs a risk of doing something freaky and disturbing. And that's not even counting the effects it has on humans which we're only BARELY beginning to understand. Uncontrollable laughter for 500 years, way too many weird aphrodisiac drug plants, all sorts of weird poisons. I can't even just tell what will be dangerous until we try, because he's not human, he's something else entirely.

[A small tight smile.] Thank you, Alexiel. [It helps. A lot.]

[againstgod]

Mm. But consider all those hypothetical catastrophes and the environmental hazards drawbacks can be balanced by the impact of that romantic gesture.

[she's mostly jesting. what a pity.]

[fellfurthest]

[ads;lasjkdalkjds:ASLKJd]

[He loves this, but that's HIS JOKES TO MAKE GOSH!]

Oi oi...

[PFFFFT. He can't help laughing.] I told him I would take him to see them, but not to go alone. Or with my brothers.

[againstgod]

Hah.
Is that a subtle request to keep an eye on them again while you entertain your guest?

[fellfurthest]

[Blushes.]

[Nods.]

It wasn't. But now that you mention it, I'd appreciate it. Though if they were really as docile as you say, maybe it's unnecessary?

[againstgod]

Oh? Would you like to gamble your evening?

[he can test waters and find out.]

[fellfurthest]

Nope! Thank you very much cousin! I'm in your debt!

[...............] Why the fuck did I sound like Mammon there?

[againstgod]

Mm.
Natural behavior toward an elder.

[fellfurthest]

You are not! Stop that!

[againstgod]

Too late- [she laughs and reaches out to ruffle his hair. she has to tiptoe because why he's so tall.] Little Cousin.

[fellfurthest]

No! I will bite your hand. You can claim to be the oldest of yours, but I'm still the oldest here.