[ Maruki levels a long look at Dolph. Quiet, evaluating, appreciative – and vulnerable. Open. The walls he keeps up as a counselor are all but entirely dropped away, but he doesn't feel as terrified as he once expected to. He's almost getting used to it. Being honest with people. Being himself.

And this is–

Uncanny, honestly. It sinks to the pit of his stomach like a lead weight, a virtual reality haven, so similar to the very thing that he was on the precipice of creating before arriving here. And Dolph rejected it. Continued down a path that he chose, instead of one chosen for him, even though it led to his death in the end.

It is willpower. It's something else, too.

Maruki blinks, the motion feeling somewhat slowed by the drink buzzing through his blood. What does he have to hide anymore, really?

He raises his left hand, snaps his fingers.

The barren, monastic castle living room shimmers briefly with an aurora that shifts through deep greens, blues, purples. As it wavers in and out of existence, Azathoth appears within it – scaled down when indoors, the top of its golden chassis grazes the ceiling and the mass of tentacles seem to rise out of the stone floor beneath it.

Maruki lows that hand, rubs it over his face tiredly. ]

I felt so much anger and resentment toward the injustices of my own reality that my determination to rebel against it manifested in Azathoth.

[ The persona is massive, but entirely docile. It knows friend from foe as well as Maruki does, and Dolph is firmly in the friend category. It simply looks at him with its glowing neon eyes, tentacles swaying gently in the air. ]

I will stop at nothing to help others. To my own detriment. And I won't ever accept defeat. That's my own willpower.

[ Exhausted, but entirely honest. Congrats, Dolph. Now you know him. ]