mineo.

[enfangs]

Comments

[enfangs]

I'm pretty sure other people grant you with 'em! Like, when you become famous and shit!

[sengokus]

N-Not always, probably!

What - do you have any titles?

[enfangs]

Aside from job stuff? Not really.

[sengokus]

... you have a job....?

[WHY DID HE NOT REALIZE THIS]

[enfangs]

What did you think I did!?

[sengokus]

[he

goes quiet

he didn't think that far]

[enfangs]

[...

TRIES TO KICK HIM AGAIN]

[sengokus]

[it connects and he just makes a GUAGH noise]

It's not like you ever told me what you did!!

[enfangs]

So you just figured I was unemployed!?

[sengokus]

Don't say it like it's a bad word! Being between jobs is a normal thing that happens to people!

So what do you do...?!

[this is the most angrily he's ever asked this question]

[enfangs]

[there's








a long pause]

[sengokus]

[






matching long pause]

.... how illegal is it...

[enfangs]

... You know what? Pretty illegal! Yeah!

[he is jumping on this train so that he doesn't have to admit that's only 50% of the pause

and that the other 50% is because he realized hE'S TECHNICALLY UNEMPLOYED NOW AFTER ALL]

[sengokus]

[he's just

gonna roll over onto his stomach because apparently they're just

doing this on the floor

would this work for a sloth indulgence?]

So what is it?

[enfangs]

[he sits up, leaning back on his hands.]

... Well, whatever my higher-ups needed. Not like it came with a job description... If Lord Ares told you to jump, you asked, "How high?"

Usually, though, I did a lot of the public shit like recruiting.

[sengokus]

[ . . . . huh.]

What made it illegal?

[enfangs]

Oh, we killed people.

[blunt.]

[sengokus]

[ah.

it's hard to miss it - the way he freezes up a little.

and then, clipped:]

Why?

[enfangs]

[he just lets out a low scoff, looking away.

he's not ashamed of what he's done—why do them in the first place, if he was going to regret them?—but in moments like these, it almost stings, as a reminder of the life that never was.]

Are you asking that because you expect an actual reason?

[sengokus]

[ . . . . . . . .

he takes a second to respond, letting his head bow back down into his arms, hiding his expression for a second. it's hard.]

.... I don't know.

[his hand balls into a fist - and then relaxes.]

.... it's not like I haven't hurt people too. Gotten them killed indirectly, maybe.

[ . . . ]

I can't say it's okay, but it's... not like there's anyone here who's never hurt anybody else.

[enfangs]

[a snort.]

Yeah, this isn't me getting people killed out of carelessness or shooting someone who deserved it or whatever.

[ares may have had his grand cause he believed in, but past the propaganda, white wasn't that ambitious. deluded?]

You asked before if I lived in a dangerous neighbourhood. Yeah, 'cause we were the danger. We were a bunch of murderers who prettied it up with what amounted to a fucking cult, even if our god is real.

Still think I'm "fine however I am"?

[sengokus]

[ . . .

no.

and that's the thing - no, mineo's not going to be okay with a cult. it's obvious in the angry line of his shoulders, stiff and stubborn. his sense of justice is lost and wandering, but it reminds him so firmly of something that he can't just accept that he wants to fight it.

but.

but.]

... why're you talking in past tense?

[enfangs]

[of course mineo wouldn't be. it's why whites hates himself for getting even a little bit caught up in his compliments—because he's known all along that they were for a false image mineo had of him.

probably just thought he was some punk who at worst mugged people in an alleyway or something petty like that. not that white was a living nightmare for an entire island; or, if ares had had his way, the whole world.]

What do you think happens to the monsters in stories, o One-Eyed Dragon of Shinjuku?

[sengokus]

... They get—

[vanquished.

. . . .

and he stops short, because that's how long it takes him to realize that white isn't talking about any old monster. he's talking about himself. he's talking about himself like he's the demon lying in wait.

it's still tense, and a long moment passes, but he'll reach a hand out, curling it around white's forearm.]

... hey.

Don't say that shit about yourself.

[enfangs]

[when mineo reaches for him, white's head snaps towards him. he freezes, before all he can do is give an incredulous, mirthless smile.]

... Are you fucking stupid? I'm a Deman. People literally derived that from "demon". We're about as much of a textbook example as it gets.