knifemonopoly | IC inbox

[Yesss, nailed it. Picking up that local slang.

Anyway--]

You know what you are when you're in some of the worst circumstances anyone can imagine, [he amends.]

Now that you're not...it's not the same, is it? If you were deciding on your own to kill by the classroomful, I doubt we would be friends! But what you're choosing to do, now that you can make the choice for yourself...none of it's seemed bad to me.

[He doesnt have a problem with any of Mukuro's current choices. Not going after Danny, or the bombing, or even how she chooses her feeding targets. That's something about this place that Atem has trouble swallowing, in any form but demon; he has to live with the fact that they're all bullies unless they're terribly careful, putting work into hunting that a lot aren't willing or able to do, using their strength and power that makes them all almost untouchable to do whatever they want, without consequences.

But trying to police that....that way lies madness. It's better to accept that it's none of his business. That what matters is that they eat at all, instead of going on a starvation rampage. Everyone has to find a way to eat that they can live with. Atem can't choose it for them, not any more than he can achieve anyone's win conditions for them either.

As a demon, it just doesn't seem important. All monster murders are the Fog's fault anyway. She put them in the conductor's seat, set the trolley schedule, and tied the victims to the track. No point getting mad at the conductor about picking a different route than Atem would have.]

What you're capable of in your worst moments, when the world around you's pushed you, hurt you, scared you...that's never all you are.

[Which is why his tests have to be fair. Now that he's actively hunting, Atem has to be sure the vice is hurtful, not just a response to hurt. It has to be present when the person is comfortable and confident. And, ugh, it is so much work! Taako was right.]

[If it was anyone else, Giorno would doubt that. But Atem, of all people . . . he believes that Atem does understand. In some ways, they're very similar. He can trust Atem to keep him from doing any real damage, because he can imagine Atem asking him to do the same.]

if it wouldn't be intrusive or strange, i can come over to you so you don't have to transport the equipment. otherwise, i'm fine with anywhere.

[Um.]

[Hm.]

[A long pause before the next message.]

also, this is a strange question, but it's important that i ask. i need to know how to do it the other way safely, in case it ends up being necessary, but i know i won't want to ask when i see you. i will still try, but could you please tell me, even if i don't ask?

[Atem suspects, a little, from this conversation and others, that many people in Giorno's life are dazzled by him. (He has no idea how funny this observation is, given Giorno's current monster type, because he still has not read Twilight.) This might have, in the past, led to people ignoring his wishes in order to protect him -- behavior comparable to giving him a dangerous amount of their blood, instead of teleporting away to protect themselves.

Atem isn't. Giorno's a miracle healer, so Atem can kind of see where people would get weird about that, but Giorno doesn't symbolize anything at all to Atem. He's a person. A big snake nerd, someone who gets really, really excited about nature facts and natural science. Sometimes, he asks too much. But he means well. Atem likes him a perfectly normal amount. And right now, Giorno's uncomfortable and in trouble. This isn't even payback for help with Atem's shed in September. It's just something you do for a friend. Friends are people you can count on.]

All right. I'll tell you all about it, whether you ask me to or not!

As for where it'd be most convenient...meet me at the corner of Fleet Road and 4th street. I can be there in an hour.

["What you're capable of in your worst moments...that's never all you are."

A soft, slow blink.

He's - right. She'd say the same thing if it were someone else, if it were Riley, but - that is all Mukuro's ever been. Her entire life was nothing but worst moments. And she'd been thinking of it as - proof, that she was destined to be this. That she'd survived because she was always a monster, and that maybe it wouldn't have awoken in her if not for circumstance, but it was always, always there.

Komaeda had said they had to try to do better. Even if they were what they were. And Mukuro hadn't thought she could, but do better isn't the same as be better, so at least it had felt possible. And Atem's saying he sees it. That she has been.

That they're friends.

It takes a second for her to be able to speak again, to swallow down the tightness in her throat and blink away the stinging in her eyes.]

...Yeah.
I've been - trying.

[Very, very quietly. It's not something she likes to admit, it's not safe to make yourself so vulnerable. Trying just means it's going to hurt worse when you inevitably fail, that's what she's always known, and it definitely had felt like that after the bombing. When she'd tried so hard to be careful, despite the maddening pain and how easy it would've been not to, and was still decried as nothing more than a violent, mindless servant of the Fog. But some people had seen otherwise, and not just fellow monsters like her. Maya. Horatio. Atem, apparently.

So maybe it's okay to say so, to him.]

[She wonders if it's a important to reiterate that it's specifically her second death here? Would dying back home count? It would really just be another memory to lose, so it shouldn't... Atem would know, as a ghost living in someone else's soul, wouldn't he?]

Hm...

[Well. Anyway.]

I should use this month to write down my important memories, too... My muzooum exhibit only displays some of them. It should be easier, since I probably write faster. I definitely think faster...though not as fast as when I was a demon.

[On Nattensfest Eve, Steve delivers the following to 806:

A board game called Betrayal at Manor in the Mist. It's a bit on the nose subject matter-wise, considering some of the "haunts" are obviously based off of the monsters that they are, but the attendant that helped him pick it out insisted that the gameplay is still very fun.

A deck of nicely-illustrated tarot cards. They're dark fantasy themed, featuring things like knights and wizards on them. And skulls. And blood. Lots of skulls and blood. He definitely mistook these as another game when he bought them.

A donut for Tybolt.]

[Good news for Steve: Atem's 100% aware that tarot is a game! These may never be used for fortunetelling but they will definitely get played.

Also, if Steve is around the 38-8 on boxing day or the day after, that board game is getting played too, with any interested neighbors.

Tybolt loves his donut and at least 1 pixellated blurry proud-dad photo is sent over the network to Steve's laptop, probably with a dumb joke about how ryou is never getting his pastry back or something.]

On the 26th, on Atem's doorstep, will arrive an actually decently wrapped (he put effort into this one!) and rather decently sized present. Inside the present Atem will a two fold gift.

One well made, intricate japanese-styled (or well, "Bavan"-styled) puzzle box, that, should Atem figure out how to open the main box, will contain another puzzle. This one is a series of lightly molded pieces that once Atem figures out how it all goes, resembles a Lion.

A note attached to the present top says:

"Hope you enjoy and have a Happy Nattenfest that isn't filled with bugs and eggs why is this place so weird

-- Be Your Secret Santa."

((ooc: ignore that's a link to a horse they didn't have a lion how could they but you get the gist with that.))

[!!!!! why is everyone being so kind to him this is lovely, ryou will have to compete with it for attention for a little while after christmas]

[ Like Ryou? Atem is getting books for Christmas. Annie found a beautifully inked graphic novel of the first Vampire story ever written in Ryslig. It's fictional, but Annie thought the artwork was amazing. She also included a few business cards for bookshops just in case this wasn't to his taste.

She also did a gingerbread house for him. It seemed fun at the time. ]

[On the night of December 24 Atem will find a a neatly wrapped package by his door with a small card that simply reads:]

Happy Nattensfest Atem,
Altair

[Inside is a nice wooden box with a painted chess set inside. Atem’s board and pieces are brightly painted like a board game and it has an ancient Egyptian theme with sand like squares for the white squares. Woven among the sandy squares in a way that looks like it is coming out of the sand is the body of a giant pale white sand serpent with feathery like spikes. Atem wanted to know what the sand monsters in his world looked like. The edge of the chessboard is painted to look like a stylized stone tablet with hieroglyphics. (the hieroglyphics are not accurate at all, sorry Atem. Altair doesn’t know ancient Egyptian so he based it on artistic look instead. He did change the symbols enough that they look similar to hieroglyphics but different enough to save him from any embarrassing mistakes. Just think of it as a game background, not a real language.)]

[ Before she departs for Hill House early Christmas morning, Riley delivers a tin of gingersnaps to Atem and Ryou.

For a slightly more personalized gift, there’s also a wrapped board game, known as Settlers of Cætån. Riley may not like…most kinds of games, let’s be honest, but Atem seemed really into them at the teen party. He likes all sorts of them, doesn’t he? It’ll be fun for him to play together. ]

Dearest Atem, May we never forget again. Celestia

[Of course, for one of Celeste's three favorite people, she's gone all out.

It's a personalized set of playing cards. Very personalized. As Atem opens the deck and spreads the suits out, he would see a myriad of tiny, hand painted familiar faces. Celeste herself is no artist, but she has an eye for talent, and the cardmaker she'd commissioned has done spectacular work.

Ryou and the pharaoh himself star as the King and 'Queen' of hearts. Celestia and Five rule the diamonds, Komaeda and Lila are spades, and Giorno and Steve are clubs. There’s illustrations of his little tiger, of the pound-mates, Grand Bois, even other Rylsig residents as well. Each assignment done with the utmost care.

He told her once that he played for his friends most of all, and she wanted to show him she remembered.]

[Arriving at Atem's home this holiday season is a box with several plush toys that have obviously been frankenstein'd together from many different sources. With her degenerating memory at the time she'd seen them, the likenesses of the creatures that had surrounded young Atem as he was dying aren't perfect, but she did her best to approximate them. There's a little pouch in there, too, so that the pairs of human teeth earrings -- one studs, one dangling -- wouldn't get lost.]

[He eats it up -- both the gingerbread house and the vampire story!]

[that's so cool]

[He doesn't think he's seen her exhibit, and the bit about thinking faster is definitely interesting, because slime's psych changes are definitely something Atem has no interest in experiencing, but frankly, the bit that catches his attention most immediately is--]

"Muzooum"?

Ah --

[She perks up a bit, ears flicking forward and tail wagging despite her expression staying neutral. She supposes she doesn't really talk about it much anymore, since it isn't new.]

Because the exhibits are people. When it first showed up, there were even people inside the glass that had to be broken out. You learn about living things and items and history. It's a muzooum.

[from lila, atem receives a wide gold cuff bangle. embossed on the inside, where the letters will be tangible against the skin, is a single word: SERENITY. also, a very good quality bottle of vodka with a note:]

Tell your boyfriend to loosen up.

[from giorno, atem receives gold gloves (to match his apartment's decor), with hand warmers inside; wing earrings; an unintentionally menacing card that contains an IOU one blood snack coupon; and a double tin of struffoli, to share with ryou.]

...

...heh heh heh!

[Judging by how Atem's face lights up, he likes it.]

Muzooum it is! I guess that means it was an entry point for new arrivals?

...

...ah, what am I talking about, asking you about ancient history! [He waves a hand, dismissively.] What we should be doing is something fun. Like I promised!

[Demons just wanna, they just wanna, demons just wanna have fun, and aren't quite as worried about figuring the world out as quickly as possible as vampires are.]

[Atem is on Trish's list automatically – although he's a tough one to buy for, if only because he seems fairly pragmatic. But he's been to every party she has...so she thinks he ought to have something fun, and something for good luck. He'll find a gift wrapped in frankly awful looking wrapping paper, which contains a box tied shut with red string that also fixes a card in place. The card itself has two sides, one adorned with a design of various cats, and the other side normally blank but now adorned with neat, tightly written cursive from La Befana, which to the Italians of the peninsula is a familiar holiday figure. There's no guarantee he'll be able to read Italian or English should they go home, and assuming he'll keep the card is terribly optimistic. Cards are ephemeral, but the meaning should stay regardless.

As such, like every card before, there is a message. For Atem, it reads:

Atem, I've thought a lot recently about that week you came to me as a little boy who proudly declared himself a young pharaoh. If I remember right, pharaohs were closely associated with the sun, and I think that suits you just as well. Not in the sense you're unreachable, but rather the opposite: like a sunbeam, you're down to earth, warm.

When I see you, I think "il sole sorge – e sorge per tutti". (The sun rises -- and rises for everyone.)

Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo. To you and yours.

Inside the box, which is actually kind of big, Atem will find a quaint red puzzle box that is rather simple, but comes with a key if he really wants to lock it and...a telescope! This little man has her thinking about the sky often, apparently. But he seems like someone who would enjoy the night sky. And if not him, then Ryou. It's something they can share.]

[ It's easiest to do this over text first. So she can take some time to choose her words. ]

Hey
Are you still doing that thing where you're watching people in Bavan?
Like, trying to find the bad ones?

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<harmonia>

<Player1>

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Christmas

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nattenfest

Nattenfest

holiday gift.

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nattensfest 2021.

nattensfest 2021.

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a nattensfest letter to you

late december/early january? | <CheeryCherry>

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, PLAYER1. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 10.11.0.0.01 * PLAYER1 has joined 10.11.0.0.01 <PLAYER1>** If you're looking for someone you knew as Yugi before June, you've found him! It's Atem, leave a message.