A Proposition and a Project (Private)

[heyyew]

Capone didn’t have to be in the Dark Forest, but it had certain advantages over the daemonic realm that she had to appreciate. For one, the fact that there weren’t any other daemons around. She much preferred her own kind. But for what she was doing right now… Capone would rather them not take interest in what she was creating.

Mortal souls did not concern her in regards to her project. They would not know what it was, not try to devour it before it was completed. For some reason her Project simply wasn’t being very cohesive, so she’d resorted to keeping it in a box of sorts to hold it together. Parts of it were kind of sticking but… It needed tinkering.

"Theoretically this should have worked..." She muttered to herself. "All the individual components functioned just fine.."

[Dissonance Valerius]

The air was oppressively heavy here, the sensation almost palpable. It was almost electrifying, but if the dark-furred tom felt it, he sure didn't show it. Those expressive blue eyes held no emotion, his expression was blank and apathetic as he wandered through the forest. He was looking for something - or more accurately, someone, and he'd traced her here, finally, after all this time. He'd been looking for so long. At one point she had been integral to his plans, but those plans had changed so much over the years that it was no longer necessary. He couldn't rely on anyone but himself to achieve Daemonhood - in that, he was sure she'd agree.

What merit was there in achieving something great if you yourself didn't do it?

He stopped behind her, affixing that blank gaze upon the elite's patron goddess. He wasn't sure what to think of her at just a glance. She seemed sort of...short? But then, he supposed that wasn't surprising either. "Capone, I presume? I've been looking for you for quite a long time."

[heyyew]

Capone shut the lid of the box steadily, doing her best not to be too hasty in the motion. She wasn’t done with it yet. She didn’t want them to see what was inside. She turned around. “Oh yah? Well I’ve been looking at you for much longer, Diss.” She said with a bit of a wink. "You've finally come to the right place. Its me."

[Dissonance Valerius]

For a moment it looked as if the corners of his muzzle were about to twist up into the grin, but it was a fleeting ghost of an expression that was gone even more quickly than it had come. "Is that right?" He responded, sounding somewhat contemplative in his words, as if considering something of substantial significance. "I have to wonder why. Was it my proximity to Anthrax as her protege that caught your attention? Or my ambition? I didn't figure you'd be watching me when there are other promising candidates to draw your attention."

His attention turned towards the box, gaze lingering on it for a few moments before returning to Capone. No point in asking about that just yet. They weren't short on time.

[heyyew]

“Oh I’ve got plenty of time to stalk people.” Capone snickered. “Not like I need to sleep.”

Being dead had its advantages. In her latest life she’d been so obsessed with bloodlines it’d been funny… What she should have been more concerned with was making a spiritual successor. She wondered how Anthrax and her’s kits had turned out. She hadn’t paid that much attention for some reason or another.

[Dissonance Valerius]

'Dissonance' realized immediately that she hadn't really answered his question at all, but he didn't press it. He was sure he'd find out eventually one way or another. Few things stayed secret to him once he set his mind on uncovering the truth. "Right," He muttered after a few moments, flicking an ear and casually licking at a paw to idly smooth down a bit of fur that was out of place. "I suppose I should say it's a pleasure to meet you - but if I said that, I'd be lying. You are, in a way, my enemy by virtue of your very existence, after all." For a moment an impish, unnaturally toothy sort of grin spread across his muzzle, his paw coming up to rest in front of it as he snickered momentarily, those dull, lifeless eyes betraying no emotion on their own, a fact that made the whole gesture look acutely wrong.

"But I'm sure I'll quite enjoy your company in the meantime. The concept of 'frenemies' exists for a reason. Surely you'll offer me plenty of entertainment, won't you? It's a request from one Daemon to another." It was strange that he referred to himself as such; he showed none of the signs of actually being a Daemon at all. He gave a rolling shrug of his shoulders, his expression returning to that impassive mask. "For all of my wandering between Planes and Fragments, this is the first time we've actually spoken, at least directly. It's been a very long time coming." The tom still hadn't gotten to why exactly he was here now. It wasn't just for the sake of meeting Capone, that much was obvious.

[heyyew]

“If you’d been around during my time you’d know that time around me is never dull.”  She meowed in response to his question.

A single eyebrow quirked on Capone’s behalf in Dissonance calling her an enemy. Perhaps she had missed something in her watching of him. It was very possible. She may be able to see in many places, but that did not make her omnipresent or omnipotent by any means. But from what she had seen, she could not quite comprehend why he would consider her a rival. “Though I’m intrigued by your bold statement that you and I are enemies I must ask as to why. And why you refer to yourself as a daemon…”

So far as she could see, he was only one soul.

[Dissonance Valerius]

"Yes, I suppose that's true. Tales of your exploits are quite legendary. I remember I used to look up to you and aspire to that same level of greatness - but then I realized that was stupid. Why look up to someone when you can instead seek to surpass them in every way?" He spoke flatly, emotionless, but truthfully. Of course, everyone had their limits - even he didn't begin to claim that he could understand himself, mess that he was, but he could understand the piece which he lorded over as but a small fragment.

"My physical and basic spiritual self don't consider you an enemy, but an obstacle which to overcome. In his eyes, the only way for him to surpass the legacy of Capone is to become that legacy - and thus, consume you. He and a Daemonic fragment of the former leader Ecclesia both seek this and have united to achieve that goal. I can't speak for Ecclesia, but the Dissonance you're properly familiar with by observation looks at you somewhat fondly as something to be overcome. I don't see it the same way."

His eyes narrowed very slightly, and that toothy grin threatened for a moment to return, but didn't. "Of course, we're enemies because we're both Players, Daemons up high who have a stake in the success and-or failure of the Elite that you gave birth to. We're both inexorably linked to it by the very nature of its existence, and I'm sure you noticed that the foundations for its rebirth and return are being laid as we speak. Of course, time here doesn't mean much; our conversation now could be happening over an instant or an eternity, so in a technical sense the Elite might already be back - but since time here is not comparable to time in physical reality in the same way, we've not seen it bear fruit in that form yet."

Oh, he was a single soul alright - but when observed with True Sight, that aura of his burned with an ungodly fire, the energy of countless souls fueling the furnace that was this creature who called himself Dissonance. To a mortal it would be all but blinding - but to someone attuned to seeing such massive masses of blazing color in the form of Daemons, it was still more than manageable. "Of course, I still haven't fully answered your question, I know. I'm getting there, believe me. There is a purpose for my presence, I didn't just come for a chat."

He cleared his throat somewhat, tilting his head. "As for why I refer to myself as a Daemon...well. I can't give up all my secrets just yet, can I? I'm trying to forget. But assuming you accept my offer and win, I'm sure you'll figure it out." A small, almost condescending smirk spread across his muzzle for a moment, as if reprimanding her silently for thinking another Daemon would just give information freely to another. He didn't trust her enough for something like that - or perhaps it was just that reclusive, eccentric nature that Dissonance was known for shining through in some small way.

[heyyew]

“Honestly gotta say I’m glad you didn’t try and be just like me… Those people are just so dull. Always chasing the image of what they can never be. And just ending up as shallow imitations. Pitiful.” There was real disgust in Capone’s voice in even thinking of their like.

Capone could in part see Dissonance’s soul with her Sight, but it did not match up at all with what she considered to be a normal daemon. No. He was something else. And was speaking of himself in different aspects and in third person. She’d play along…

She frowned in hearing that Ecc and him had teamed up. He could do better than that weak daemon who had lost herself to a single soul. Not even a daemonic soul at that. That would be more understandable, even acceptable. As the fusion of two daemons wasn’t always something of hate, a fight for dominance. But at times love. A depth of love these mere mortals could never possibly comprehend. “Though it sounds like… your physical self has not fully quite onto what you have realized. If you ever want to surpass me you’ve simply got to give up becoming me. Which he would, if he ever consumed me.”

She was simply too large of a daemon to be easily swallowed by such a small soul… But this one… This one might be able to get a chomp in on her without loosing themselves in her mass. In fact Capone very well might not mind that. But not so long as their motives were the same as the physical planed Dissonance. This Dissonance shone with those aspects of him that had so fascinated her. And they were similar enough that she herself wouldn't be entirely washed away.

They'd become something new, something greater than the sum of their parts. Just the thought of it was enough to get her all twitterpatted. But she wasn't going to be making any hasty moves of course. When it came to daemonic courtship, it was reasonable to expect decades, not mere months, of interaction before such a drastic life change was made.

[Dissonance Valerius]

"What would be the point? Ambition if worthless if you won't take it to its furthest extreme. Why be a lord when you can be a king? Why be a king when you can be the king of kings? Why be that when you could become a daemon, or a god that surpasses daemons? You were admirable, but didn't shoot high enough. There is always more to do, always a way to be better, and failure to seek it out is just weakness. The only difference between a fool and a hero is whether they win or lose. Besides, while imitation might be the 'sincerest form of flattery', it's still just proof someone doesn't have the force of will to carve out their own place in the world."

He contemplated for a moment, uncaring of her apparent displeasure at hearing his physical self had made a pact of sorts with Ecclesia. She was another matter entirely, after all. "I believe his line of thought is that if he makes his singular soul potent enough, he can overcome the roiling, writhing mass of spirits that make up a Daemon all on his own through raw power and force of will - or it was, until Ecclesia came along. The plan seems to have changed somewhat, now. They don't care so much about that as they do sharing a thousand year feast of your daemonic essence, pausing only to lustfully writhe and roll about. I'm of the impression that he promised you to her almost as a form of nonphysical engagement with the intent of an eternity spent as Daemonic partners after the fact." The tom scoffed somewhat. "But that's his incentive and his own mistake to make...if he fails. If he succeeds, well...it doesn't matter either way. They're but tools for my amusement, and I can adjust his course as I please. To an extent."

His posture straightened up somewhat, and yet remained quite relaxed, as if this whole conversation was just a pleasant morning walk to him. "But that brings us to my proposal. I want to play a little game, with the bet on either side being our souls. The game is the new-Elite's success. Our roles are to play the pieces - the members - to the best of our ability, passively or actively, to try and make our chosen pieces succeed in eventually acting as leader and bringing the Elite to either a new era of greatness...or destruction." A grin, wide, predatory, sadistic.

"As for the pieces themselves, and how we can interact with them...we'll need to define what is and isn't acceptable under the rules, but we may each bring a custom piece of our own into the mix. Representatives of sorts. Champions. We'll have no direct control over them - after all, it's no fun if those pieces become literally us. We both already have confidence in our own greatness, this is a bit more like watching a horse-race. Of course, we can mix up the game a bit if you'd prefer. I don't mind how we do it either way, as long as it staves off my boredom."