(you can pm me here or on plurk if you'd like to beforehand, but also if you'd just like to drop something at my doorstep with no preamble please do!!)
[ Ah, Abby. If only you could have met him when he was his old dorky self. He has become more shrewd since the new year, no less genuinely empathetic but far less prone to self-deprecation and jokes. Calm in the way of self-assurance rather than a means to set others at ease.
Then again, if they had met before, he would have been openly terrified of this approximation of Ábramar's true form. As it stands, Maruki only surveys him with curiosity and a gentle sort of appreciation. He has had time to become used to creatures whose forms are outside of his human comprehension, and the scientist in him finds them utterly fascinating. He lets Ábramar drape over the balcony without complaint and stands placidly before him, observing him just as keenly in return.
This is– definitely still strange, but not unwelcome. Maruki hasn't stopped to consider his own feelings since the work began in earnest on Christmas Eve, but if he did, he would likely recognize a deepening loneliness. It's necessary for his plan to succeed, but even in the slow ascent to godhood he is still all too human, and his isolation from everyone but the Shadows and Azathoth has been difficult. In the past month, his only interaction with other humans has been in opposition.
Ábramar isn't human, of course, but he is a friend. That scratches the itch that Maruki barely realized was so painful.
The question makes him laugh again, just loudly enough to bounce off the cavernous room's white walls. ]
A lot, to say the least. I'd like to tell you about it – but perhaps not here.
[ The last thing he needs is for the Phantom Thieves to reenter and continue their plundering of the place, and immediately come face to face with Maruki and an all knowing, all seeing, lobster-snake god.
His mouth twists thoughtfully, unsure if Ábramar could move to a different part of the Palace while retaining this form – nothing against the golden-eyed human, of course, but he's always more comfortable seeing someone for who they truly are. ]
There's a garden that's better suited for conversation, if you can find a way to join me.
[ It's stated as a friendly challenge as much as it is an invitation. Show him what you can do, Abby. ]
Edited (wow my brain is soup what are words) 2024-05-03 06:35 (UTC)
[ Being feared, admired, or appreciated are all tastes the Behemoth enjoys, depending on his current whim; currently he's not quite preening under the (now) unflinching eyes of his friend. Yes, Behold Me. The center eye in his forehead blinks-- or does it wink?
Watching his companion as he is watched, Ábramar can't help but recall his previous assessment of the man. 'A Martyr with the Ego of a God.' Certainly still fits... and Maruki wears it well. Yanking his favorite element more or less out of the cosmic equation would not have been the Behemoth's first choice of Flavor of Havoc-- but that's part of what makes it all so interesting.
Honestly, the good Doctor is far much more colorful and fascinating than the typical mortal thread of 'money and power, bitch'. No wonder his own mysterious Wish Granter saw fit to comply. If changing the course of History is a 'decent project' for a Behemoth, creating and alchemizing realities that defy Cosmic Physics is really something to brag about. Just grandiosity, such greatness of ego!
But, Oops, Abby is starring (with less gentle appreciation) and his smile widens when Maruki's agreement to chat gently brings him back to the moment. The Behemoth tips his head in agreement, not quite genteel, and shifts through the air like it's water. He turns, offers a hand that seems to shimmer less and less, approaching an odd dusty-purple shade of nebula. Ábramar's human form steps onto the waiting palm, elegantly grasping the claw off the Persona's thumb like it's nothing more than an accommodating handlebar.
He then carries himself up over the railing of the balcony, and deposits himself neatly beside his friend. Just as it seems to be taking solid shape, the massive Behemoth Form dissolves into little motes of sooty darkness (through that golden grin is last to go).
When Ábramar's human form turns a placidly expectant look to his host, the third golden eye remains visible on his forehead. He's got to look up at Maruki, by the just the slightest inclining tip of his jaw, but he still wears the much smaller body like he's larger than life.]
Then I'll defer to the master of the domain [ One hand gives a smooth, inviting wave for Maruki to show him where to go. ] Shall we?
don't mind me handwaving his palace's bitch of a layout
[ For a moment he thinks – hopes, with the sick thrill of a man who has come to appreciate unknowable beasts – that the colossal Behemoth will solidify, and then he's gone, golden Cheshire grin lingering in the air just long enough for Maruki to wonder if this has happened before. Not this, exactly, this type of full blown manifestation. But if there have been other times that signs of Ábramar have blinked in and out of his reality.
His old reality.
There is so much to explain. ]
Come, this way.
[ The Palace is massive, sprawling and pristine. It has taken the Phantom Thieves several visits and a tremendous amount of painful work to manage to fight their way into the garden – hours spent winding up spiral staircases, through exam rooms, into the tight and dark corridors behind the scenes, pawing through boxes of his own memories, arguing with each other over puzzles, consulting maps, doubling back, leaving and returning again and again.
But this is, for all intents and purposes, Maruki's home. He has not left the Metaverse since Christmas Eve. Outside of one trip that he knows he needs to make, to pay a visit to that humble cafe, he doesn't intend to leave until the fusion of Mementos and the real world is complete – and even then, even after his new world is born, he can't imagine he'll leave more than occasionally.
It is of his design, and he has come to know every inch of it as if it were his own flesh and blood. Even the parts that he had let mutate to better suit Yoshizawa still belong to him. Ábramar is right in calling him the master of the domain, and the master of the domain has special privileges.
He leads Ábramar through the lobby doors and into the entrance hall, with its great swaths of golden cables and its cognitions puttering around, and speaks as they walk purposefully up toward the center of the room. ]
I did wonder if you would still be able to contact me after I began to change this reality. I should have known that a little thing like that wouldn't stop you – in fact, it seems that it's only made it easier for you to make yourself known. That was an unintended effect on my part, but I have to say it's a happy one– ah, here we are.
[ 'Here they are' is an elevator, like any other in the place. When the Phantom Thieves went through it, it took them to yet another level to weave around and battle Shadows.
Maruki presses a hand against the door, and that wave of iridescence returns, like the hazy mirage of a hot day. Azathoth has created these shortcuts for him, and there is none that he uses more often than this. When he is implored to step away from his work and rest, there is only one place that he wants to do it.
It doesn't take them to the next level. It transports them directly to the very heart of his psientific model Eden, sprawling and lush, teeming with wildflowers in all colors. The grand marble gazebo that they exit onto at one end, and the massive Tree of Knowledge at the other. His heart lifts to see it, shoulders untensing and breath coming easier.
Maruki smiles at Ábramar then, warm and wide. ]
Welcome to paradise, my friend. I really am so glad you could make it.
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no subject
Then again, if they had met before, he would have been openly terrified of this approximation of Ábramar's true form. As it stands, Maruki only surveys him with curiosity and a gentle sort of appreciation. He has had time to become used to creatures whose forms are outside of his human comprehension, and the scientist in him finds them utterly fascinating. He lets Ábramar drape over the balcony without complaint and stands placidly before him, observing him just as keenly in return.
This is– definitely still strange, but not unwelcome. Maruki hasn't stopped to consider his own feelings since the work began in earnest on Christmas Eve, but if he did, he would likely recognize a deepening loneliness. It's necessary for his plan to succeed, but even in the slow ascent to godhood he is still all too human, and his isolation from everyone but the Shadows and Azathoth has been difficult. In the past month, his only interaction with other humans has been in opposition.
Ábramar isn't human, of course, but he is a friend. That scratches the itch that Maruki barely realized was so painful.
The question makes him laugh again, just loudly enough to bounce off the cavernous room's white walls. ]
A lot, to say the least. I'd like to tell you about it – but perhaps not here.
[ The last thing he needs is for the Phantom Thieves to reenter and continue their plundering of the place, and immediately come face to face with Maruki and an all knowing, all seeing, lobster-snake god.
His mouth twists thoughtfully, unsure if Ábramar could move to a different part of the Palace while retaining this form – nothing against the golden-eyed human, of course, but he's always more comfortable seeing someone for who they truly are. ]
There's a garden that's better suited for conversation, if you can find a way to join me.
[ It's stated as a friendly challenge as much as it is an invitation. Show him what you can do, Abby. ]
no subject
Watching his companion as he is watched, Ábramar can't help but recall his previous assessment of the man. 'A Martyr with the Ego of a God.' Certainly still fits... and Maruki wears it well. Yanking his favorite element more or less out of the cosmic equation would not have been the Behemoth's first choice of Flavor of Havoc-- but that's part of what makes it all so interesting.
Honestly, the good Doctor is far much more colorful and fascinating than the typical mortal thread of 'money and power, bitch'. No wonder his own mysterious Wish Granter saw fit to comply. If changing the course of History is a 'decent project' for a Behemoth, creating and alchemizing realities that defy Cosmic Physics is really something to brag about. Just grandiosity, such greatness of ego!
But, Oops, Abby is starring (with less gentle appreciation) and his smile widens when Maruki's agreement to chat gently brings him back to the moment. The Behemoth tips his head in agreement, not quite genteel, and shifts through the air like it's water. He turns, offers a hand that seems to shimmer less and less, approaching an odd dusty-purple shade of nebula. Ábramar's human form steps onto the waiting palm, elegantly grasping the claw off the Persona's thumb like it's nothing more than an accommodating handlebar.
He then carries himself up over the railing of the balcony, and deposits himself neatly beside his friend. Just as it seems to be taking solid shape, the massive Behemoth Form dissolves into little motes of sooty darkness (through that golden grin is last to go).
When Ábramar's human form turns a placidly expectant look to his host, the third golden eye remains visible on his forehead. He's got to look up at Maruki, by the just the slightest inclining tip of his jaw, but he still wears the much smaller body like he's larger than life.]
Then I'll defer to the master of the domain [ One hand gives a smooth, inviting wave for Maruki to show him where to go. ] Shall we?
don't mind me handwaving his palace's bitch of a layout
His old reality.
There is so much to explain. ]
Come, this way.
[ The Palace is massive, sprawling and pristine. It has taken the Phantom Thieves several visits and a tremendous amount of painful work to manage to fight their way into the garden – hours spent winding up spiral staircases, through exam rooms, into the tight and dark corridors behind the scenes, pawing through boxes of his own memories, arguing with each other over puzzles, consulting maps, doubling back, leaving and returning again and again.
But this is, for all intents and purposes, Maruki's home. He has not left the Metaverse since Christmas Eve. Outside of one trip that he knows he needs to make, to pay a visit to that humble cafe, he doesn't intend to leave until the fusion of Mementos and the real world is complete – and even then, even after his new world is born, he can't imagine he'll leave more than occasionally.
It is of his design, and he has come to know every inch of it as if it were his own flesh and blood. Even the parts that he had let mutate to better suit Yoshizawa still belong to him. Ábramar is right in calling him the master of the domain, and the master of the domain has special privileges.
He leads Ábramar through the lobby doors and into the entrance hall, with its great swaths of golden cables and its cognitions puttering around, and speaks as they walk purposefully up toward the center of the room. ]
I did wonder if you would still be able to contact me after I began to change this reality. I should have known that a little thing like that wouldn't stop you – in fact, it seems that it's only made it easier for you to make yourself known. That was an unintended effect on my part, but I have to say it's a happy one– ah, here we are.
[ 'Here they are' is an elevator, like any other in the place. When the Phantom Thieves went through it, it took them to yet another level to weave around and battle Shadows.
Maruki presses a hand against the door, and that wave of iridescence returns, like the hazy mirage of a hot day. Azathoth has created these shortcuts for him, and there is none that he uses more often than this. When he is implored to step away from his work and rest, there is only one place that he wants to do it.
It doesn't take them to the next level. It transports them directly to the very heart of his psientific model Eden, sprawling and lush, teeming with wildflowers in all colors. The grand marble gazebo that they exit onto at one end, and the massive Tree of Knowledge at the other. His heart lifts to see it, shoulders untensing and breath coming easier.
Maruki smiles at Ábramar then, warm and wide. ]
Welcome to paradise, my friend. I really am so glad you could make it.