destinystrings | the emperor's omen

Who: Ideo Hazama and open!
Where: Sagittarius, generally
Summary: Ideo's a little frustrated after a certain network post went up. So, he's off to work off stress!
Warnings: Ideo being broody as usual...???

It had taken him a good ten minutes to literally pry himself from his computer in R&D. He'd left Ceu in charge of the lab, made his way through the building's fluorescent lights, and braced himself for the strong winds. The weather was predicting clouds tomorrow, and with how blustery it'd been, he could easily believe it.

He hadn't bothered to bundle himself up however, just stepped out on to the street with his lab coat flapping. If he got a cold, it'd sort of be a welcome relief- he hadn't realized how tense he'd been lately until that post. Maybe he was working too hard?

Or maybe he was just overly worried...it was sort of the season for him.

Ideo didn't really have a destination in mind; he just walked the streets with his shoulders hunched, waiting for his nerves to calm down enough that he could return to work. But he didn't realize how far he'd walked from the building...

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Naoya had been exploring the city more as he was responding to the post. He needed to see something new, and so he headed to the Sagittarius district, since he hadn't explored that district much.

... The boy in the labcoat caught his eye, and he followed along behind him. Not close enough to make him nervous, but not so far as to lose sight of him.

If nothing else, the reaction might be interesting.

It wasn't hard for one as paranoid as Ideo to notice someone persistently behind him for more than a block. Truthfully, he would have done this for anyone, but there was a familiar enough nagging in the back of his head to make him sure this was a persona-user.

Thus, Ideo only let the walk continue like that for about two blocks, before abruptly sighing and shaking his head as he stopped in the street.

"Do you have a question, or are you bored?"

"The latter, mostly. Though your Persona is... quite interesting. I wonder what could have caused that to be a reflection of your self."

'Demon King', indeed. The one who had a Persona like that with them was someone worth watching, for obvious reasons. As to how rude that statement probably was? He didn't care.

Ideo seemed to tense at that, hardening his face as much as he could. He was silent as he sized up Naoya, not moving aside from his eyes. He was probably scared, to be quite honest. Even if he were a stronger persona user than most guests...

"An old mistake that I would like to leave in the past." ...he knew the power of rumors. Not to its full depth, but more than most- and he couldn't risk one spreading about such things. "What does it mean to you?"

He could see that fear, and. Well. It was entertaining, to say the least. He'd had to push things so carefully at home - and it wasn't as if he wanted to cause so much chaos on a widespread scale, but pushing peoples' buttons was usually a good time. He grinned.

"Someone I know quite well has that title as well. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

That had an odd effect- Ideo both seemed to relax, and also grow more suspicious.

"Makai has taken a new "emperor", then? I'm surprised- I thought I would have heard about such sooner."

"Ah... perhaps not the one connected to your world. The one connected to mine, though... yes."

He'd gotten relatively comfortable with this multiple worlds thing pretty quickly.

"True enough." The tension didn't seem like it was going to stop any time soon- people in his experience became Demon anything through trauma, so he wasn't exactly eager to know how other people had "earned" the title. But, then again, scientific curiosity...

"And what is your world? Or, perhaps, when may be better."

"The year's 2009. As for yours?"

He was honestly curious. The idea of the War of Bel in other worlds... it had lots of possibilities.

"It's 1996."

Well. Give or take a few months, really. He's not sure how long he was in Makai for, or if that time even counted in normal time.

"...how did they come to lead the demons?"

"They defeated all of the other candidates for the throne of Bel and collected their power."

He shrugged. It sounded simple enough. Obviously not as simple to do, but the explanation was short at least.

...well, that seemed alarming, and Ideo only had a passing knowledge of the Bels.

"All of the Bels? Including Belial? I can't imagine the Baron would be happy to hear that." A pause, and Ideo pursed his lips. "Are they here?"

"The person who claimed their power? Yes. He's my brother, in fact." At the thought of Belial having an issue, he snorted. "Belial was an impulsive idiot. I'm not surprised he was almost a non-issue in terms of battles."

Granted, he hadn't been the one to fight him, but he'd watched of course. He was always watching.

"I suppose there is something of a family resemblance, then." Whatever that means, he'll leave up to you, Naoya.

However, it was Ideo's turn to snort at the latter comment. "Possibly in your world- but the Baron is quite an important figure here. Belial and Nebiros are some of the strongest demons in the city, up there with Nyx and Lilith. And that's ignoring their daughter's potential. You might be surprised by the differences therein."

Probably that he's somewhat of a demon himself, which isn't something he hasn't heard before. "Hm. Interesting. Well, we'll see. I have no intention of going after them in any case - they're not the ones from my world so it would be pointless to do so. Though... 'daughter'? Whom might that be?"

"Alice."

The word was almost a warning than a word.

"She has the most potential of any demon I have come across- I suppose it is likewise due to her once being human. That seems to be a fascinating consistency across multiple universes, in truth..."

Hold on he's theorizing internally.

He'll wait for a few moments. He knows that feel.

"It does seem to be that humans have the most potential for adapting to new situations and states of being. It's always been this way, from what I can tell."

the emperor's omen

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