[HAPPY HOLIDAYS ASSHOLES! ♥]

[screwreality]

[It's ten days before Christmas! Most stores and houses are already decorated with wreaths and candles and paper snowflakes other ridiculous signs of festivity that no one cares about. Obnoxious carrolers and sobbing homeless beggars lie in wait around every corner, ready to pounce you and suffocate you in holiday spirit. It is also snowing in that one happy speed, somewhere between flurries and goddamn blizzard. A consequence means it's also freezing out, but no one seems to care that much. Neither should you!

The only thing missing is one of those Santa cosplayers, two elven attendants at either side, with the long line of starry-eyed children and panicking parents waiting to speak with an overweight man in a suit. Everyone knows them. Make stores crowded and everyone too young/without kids/being grumpy jerks walking in a wide berth and glaring at the congregation. This particular moment of joy seems to be suspiciously missing.

Completely not-suspicious at all, one may find a teenager in the park juggling heads. Yes, heads. No, that is not a typo. The fact one is an old man with a beard is completely irrelevant. And also not suspicious. It's not his fault. He found them there! Stop judging!]

「AH, THIS IS TERRIBLE. I PROMISED ELIZABETH-SAN I'D BE NICER FOR THE HOLIDAYS. I GUESS I'M NOT NORMAL ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE HAPPY PEOPLE. ISN'T THAT RIGHT?」

[That last part is directed to Santa's head, caught in one hand while the other two are tossed around in the other. Then back to three in both hands and humming to 'Oh, Christmas Tree'. The lyrics are probably nothing anyone wants to hear.]

Comments

[screwreality]

[There is a beat of pointed silence here. The blank stare means Sei can take a point at catching him off-guard with something.

No! Game face! Two people being nice is already his limit. Get this fucker out of the apartment.]

「WHAT FOR? KILLING ME? HA HA! YOU'RE FAR FROM THE FIRST! GO STAND IN LINE WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD THAT HATES ME, DUMBASS!」

[leviathaned]

I made a mistake. It's manners to apologize, even if I hate you and the ground you walk on. [His voice is icy cold, so Kumagawa doesn't really have to worry about the nice but it...

carries a terrible sort of sincerity to it. It's not like Sei has any reason to know or care that actual niceness is your one weakness.]

[screwreality]

[Ew sincerity but it's done not from kindness and from "ooh I'm Sei bluh bluh I'm a jerk".

This is much safer and he approves! And thanks him by tossing one of the heads into his violin case. Payment!]

「WHAT WAS YOUR MISTAKE? BEATING ME UP, OR ME BEATING YOU UP?」

[It is an entirely honest question from a crazy person who legit does not get your apology.]

[leviathaned]

For trying to kill you. To be specific, attempting to crucify you with ice shards and then burn you as a witch, although I believe Leviticus would technically have you stoned.

[...quietly nudging the head out of the case with his foot this isn't even his, Kumagawa, that is gross.]

[screwreality]

「BUT I'M NOT A WITCH, I'M A MINUS. DON'T BLAME ME IF THE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD MAKE YOU THINK GOD'S REAL!」

[He can give negative shits, so there Sei, deal with the head, Santa loves you.]

[leviathaned]

[It's Michi's violin!]

All of you atheists...where do you even come from? You believe in Them just fine but God's hard to swallow?

[screwreality]

[Michi's already seen the heads! So there nyeh.]

「AROUND HERE, YOU CAN ARGUE THAT LOGIC! BUT BACK HOME, THEY WEREN'T AROUND. OR AT LEAST STILL SLEEPING. SO WHY WERE PEOPLE STILL JUST AS MISERABLE AS THEY ARE TODAY? IF YOU'RE GOD REALLY EXISTS, THEN EVERYTHING WRITTEN ABOUT HIM BEING LOVING AND CHERISHING HUMANS IS A TOTAL LIE.」

「I HATE LIARS, I HATE FALSE DEITIES, AND - IF HE WERE REAL - I WOULD HATE HIM EVEN MORE! BECAUSE SUCH A BEING IS THE ONE THAT DOOMED ALL OF MY ALLIES BACK HOME INTO THEIR TERRIBLE LIES. AND YOURS TOO, SEI-KUN.」

「YOU MIGHT NOT BELIEVE ME BECAUSE I'M A LIAR, BUT IF GOD IS REAL, HE DAMNED YOU TO YOUR LIFE TOO. AND I'LL KILL HIM FOR YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE HE'S DEALT A BAD SET OF CARDS FOR HIS OWN SICK AMUSEMENT.」

[Over the course of this statement, his voice has gone from amused to bland, and his aura from subdued to tangible. Totally serious.]

[leviathaned]

[...Sei is quiet for a while, genuinely listening...before he smiles. It's not sardonic or bitter or anything like that. It's a smile tinged with an anger so pure it should probably catalogued in a museum and it is not even 1/100th one of Kumagawa's sparkles but he's not a Minus, give him some credit.]

I never said I believed He was all-good. And you don't even know the half of it.

[Unless Michi, you know, tells you he's a nephilim or something.]

[screwreality]

[Awww, he's mad. Somewhere, deep down, he makes a note on his to-do list to teach him how to do it properly. He's not seen proper fury before.

That needs to get fixed.]

「I DON'T WANT TO AND I DON'T CARE EITHER! JUST KNOW IF HE'S REAL, I'M GOING TO DO HORRIBLE THINGS HIM. TONS OF THEM! YOU CAN JOIN IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT THAT SMILE.」

[Michi tells him nothing and he only knows what They sing to him in the voice of his excurrentgirlfriendabuser... thing. And if he does know - drumroll please

...

...

...

He doesn't give a shit!

Bracket-readers can all be surprised now!]

[leviathaned]

[Sei shrugs, and snorts, and rocks back on his heal before starting to play again, something deep and primal and haunting that has Them stirring, although not as much as his singing ever would.]

I don't care about Him in particular, just one of his little lackeys. And that one, you can't have.

[He's calm again, almost content when he plays, as if he's not even there.

Which is good because it means he's not quietly playing insults at Kumagawa today.]

The hell is a Minus, anyway?

[screwreality]

「SUIT YOURSELF! BUT DON'T COME CRYING TO ME ONCE YOU REALIZE YOU CAN'T KILL A GOD WITHOUT A GOD'S HELP.」

[There's something that wrenches internally at the question, both from it and the fact he's so content about asking it. There's no answer for the time it takes for him to stop jugging the heads and rise to a standing position. Tossing the two off right after.]

「WHAT? YOU WANT ME TO EXPLAIN AGAIN WHEN NOBODY LISTENS? I HATE REPEATING MYSELF!」

[leviathaned]

You're not a god. I don't know what a Minus is, but you're not a god...

[he does stop playing as Kumagawa approaches, prepared to listening. ]

You've never explained it before, so it's not repeating yourself, and I am listening. But the short answer is 'yes'.

[screwreality]

「OF COURSE I'M NOT. BUT I KNOW ONE. SHE HAS A HOBBY OF MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE. I THINK 'KILLING THE CHRISTIAN GOD' COUNTS AS IMPOSSIBLE.」

[The entire time, he's looking over Sei's shoulder at something else. Someone else. A glance through his peripherals gives a glimpse of school desks, dark brown hair, and the feeling of infinite power.

But it's gone after that fleeting glimpse. And the Minus sparkles at him from the short distance away. He doesn't advance.]

「I'VE REPEATED IT TO OTHER PEOPLE, NOT JUST YOU. DUH! BUT FIIINE FINE, SUIT YOURSELF. DO YOU WANT THE SHORT ANSWER OR THE SCIENCE-Y ONE.」

['Science-y' comes with the universal wiggling finger motions of ooooh magic bullshit. Shows how much he cares about scientists.]

[leviathaned]

Short answer. I don't have time for anything more incomprehensible.

[screwreality]

「THE PERSONALITY EFFECTS THE POWER. THE POWER EFFECTS THE PERSONALITY. POSITIVE POWERS BEGET POSITIVE PEOPLE. NEGATIVE POWERS BEGET NEGATIVE. BEING A 'MINUS' MEANS MY ABILITY IS BASED ON THE HATED. AND I'M THE MOST HATED THING IN EXISTENCE!」

[If he reads past the theatrics, it also means he's so shithive maggots because his power made him that way, but the source of all things hated just holds his hands out and sparkles.]

「THAT'S IT. THE MORE DISGUSTING AND UNWANTED I AM, THE STRONGER I GET. I CAN ACTUALLY DESTROY THE PLANET IF I'M NOT CAREFUL NOW! HA HA! IT'S SUCH A HASSLE!」

[#minusworld problems]

[leviathaned]

So your weakness is literally love and compassion?

[Sei, don't smirk like that.]

[screwreality]

「NO, BUT IT IS MY ENEMY. I'LL WIPE OUT THOSE FALSE EMOTIONS OF YOURS WHENEVER YOU WAVE THEM IN MY FACE, ASSHOLE!」

[~SPARKLE~! like hell he's getting the real answer, your social link is not high enough to select that option ~SPARKLE~]

[leviathaned]

No, I was just thinking, that was why you killed Michi, isn't it?

[screwreality]

「I DID WHAT NOW?」

[Headtilt. Guess on whether he really forgot or not, you have ten seconds.]

[leviathaned]

Nevermind. It's not information that's any use to me.

[screwreality]

[Smile~. Good Sei. You'll keep your life intact yet.]

「AND IT WON'T BE OF USE TO ANYONE ELSE. RIGHT?」