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TEXT | BONUS XMAS MINGLE

[ The moment the clock strikes 12 midnight to usher in Christmas Day, a hoard of delivery drones will be activated throughout the base. They enter each Outsider's room or finds them where they might be and drops a gift off into their hands. Some Outsiders who have been gifted a paid subscription or virtual gift will receive this gift in their oculars instead.

Each gift was individually chosen. Please refer to this table to see what your character will receive! (If we have missed anyone, please contact us on the mod contact page.)

There's a brief note from Captain Yamakawa. ]

My Angels of LILITH,

I know we haven't made it easy on you during your stay here, but please know that we truly, genuinely appreciate your service and what you have done to protect our world from the impending threats. Please take this gift as a token of LILITH's appreciation.

Happy Holidays to you all. Let's hope for a peaceful and fruitful new year.

Sincerely,
Jun Yamakawa

[ Feel free to use this network post to chat about the gifts your characters received. Happy Holidays everyone!! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hehe, can't deny being stubborn myself, that's for sure. I don't think any of us like giving up or changing our ways without cause.

[His brows raise slightly behind his bangs and with an note of awe he nods.]

Oh? What'd you manage to teach them? Maybe it's something I could learn, too!

Hah. Well.

[ There's a shrug, like it's no big deal.

Silco looks far too pleased with himself though. ]

Mortality.

......

[That

sounds entirely too ominous for his liking. Because that tends to mean one thing and one thing only...]

You didn't bump 'em off, did you?

I did exactly that.

[ A beat. ]

To be fair, it was a war.

Can't blame you, then.

[For a moment he hesitates before adding:]

And it's not like I've got any room to talk, so...

One eyebrow lifts. The other, over that blackened eye, remains mostly inert. It's clearly drawn in. ]

Oh? Don't tell me you're a god killer too?

[Again, there's a definite gap between Silco's message and Yato's response, and when he does reply, it's firmly privated. He gets the feeling that if anyone might understand, it'd be him. Someone else who's killed gods.]

It's the reason I was born, actually.

Hm.

[ He leans forward, curious. Up closer, the area around his face is very obviously scarred, even if it's covered. ]

To kill a god? Quite the thing to be born into. Were you mortal, then? Like the rest of us?

[Thankfully talking like this makes it a little trickier to notice if one is staring, because he is. Those scars make him curious about what all Silco's been through, the kinds of fights he's had to endure. If Yato hadn't been a god, he'd have plenty of reminders of his injuries as well.]

Not so far as I know. From what my dad told me, I was always a god born from his wish, his strong desire to kill other gods - and the humans that worship them.

[ Ah, to be a child living out the promise of whatever their parents wanted. Not like Silco knows anything about that ~~he does he was that parent~~ ]

Huh, so you exist to live out your father's dreams? He wasn't able to do it himself, then?

[ Is that judgemental? Just a little bit. ]

Why did he want to kill them?

[Hopefully he wasn't as bad a parent as Yato's dad was/is. Tormenting your children is a rather rude thing to do, after all.]

Supposedly. I mean, if you ask him that, then the answer is yeah, that's my whole reason for being.

[A notion Yato firmly rejects. And he might just be scoffing a bit at that second question.]

Not even with a dozen lifetimes was he able to accomplish what he desired. I think that's partially why he wanted me. ...though I dunno what his reasons are aside from the fact he hates the gods and sees culling humanity as a way to get rid of them.

Something must have happened, though. Why else would he hold such hatred?

[ surprisingly? better than that. Which is a low bar to clear. ]

Hm. [ The low note says a lot with that small sound: pathetic is the implication. ]

Indeed. To want a child only for revenge that he couldn't complete himself?

Did you succeed? For him?

[ Even Silco, who is a violent, hateful man filled with thoughts of revenge and destruction, even a man like him, who had pushed and nudged his daughter into designing weapons purely to take revenge on topsiders...well. He can feel a modicum of hope that Yato took it out on him too.

Make a monster, and watch it go, after all. ]

[The bar was already in hell, but his father just kept fucking digging, honestly.]

Heh... [It might be out of view, but the way Yato's hands ball into fists shows throughout the rest of his posture going stiff and he smiles ruefully.]

One god can't get rid of the innumerable ones out there. It's impossible. But I did enough horrible things to carry with me for a lifetime. Massacred men, women, children... Decimated entire villages, killed other gods... Despite all that it was never enough for my old man. I think he wanted the queen of the gods' head in particular - Amaterasu.

[The worst part for Yato is that for a millennia he never dared stand up to his father, not for long, as the man always found a way of punishing him. And frankly that frightened him. What kind of god does that make him, cowering before a mere mortal? Pathetic, honestly.

But shortly before he came here, he finally did choose to part ways with his dad and not only that, but to kill him. To stop him from hurting people as well. So yeah, bastard's gonna reap what he's sown once their fight against the kaiju is over.]

[ you know what? good for him, it makes men like silco look better in comparison (no) ]

The queen? [ On the one hand, Silco can understand something about his father, just from what he's described.

He has a fight. He has some bone to pick. He understands this, because who is he, if not someone who has fully trashed and ruined his own people for it. But Silco fought the fight alongside them all. He sold his soul, instead of his daughter's (he would say, as if he didn't project everything onto Jinx as it was) to kill the god he'd so hated a world away. He'd even arranged for her safety.

To be fair, Silco would burn everyone else, for her. ]

Perhaps he should have been more clear then, hm? Or perhaps he should have learned to become the god-slayer himself. Why couldn't he do it?

[Ironic then that so far Yato's opinion of Silco is mostly good? Don't judge a book by its cover, etc.]

Well, not an actual queen, but the highest goddess in Heaven. The ruler to which all other gods pledge their allegiance. [The one you don't want to make an enemy of, truthfully, as Yato found out on accident.

As someone who has a two people he'd protect and value above all else, Yato knows what it's like to go against his own kind for them. He nearly became a raging calamity on their behalf several times when their lives were threatened. It's the kind of feeling he believes most people can understand.

Just not his father. Whatever compassion the man had is long gone, leaving only resentment and hatred in its wake.]

Heh, you'd think! But he's only mortal, despite his sneaky way of staying alive. Not that he hasn't killed plenty of gods himself over the years.

But I think he fell prey to statistics. Gods are born from the wishes of humans, and so the more faith people have, the more gods there are. Asking me to raze village after village only caused those who survived to turn towards believing in gods even more. Ironic, really.

Hah.

So he was a fool, then.

[ He says it blithely, despite the fact that he was clearly... immortal...ish? Able to supersede the ravages of time, at least. That's not something Silco has mastered, as is obvious. ]

Prosperity should have been his goal, it sounds like. Take away the need for gods, and they would fade with time, yes? When the people have nothing that makes them struggle, what good will praying to a god do?

[ Silco understood this. People needed something to look toward only when they had nothing. After all, that's what his people were like. It is why Shimmer was able to thrive in the undercity. ]

That I can't argue with. His goal was never to make people happy, but to have his revenge, I think. He's a bitter, angry man who thrives on hurting people. I don't know that he could even contemplate such a plan.

[Having mastered some kind of trick to remaining immortal doesn't make one smart, per se. Just clever. Yato would rather deal with someone like Silco who at least puts some thought behind his actions rather than just the end goal.]

In a way, I hope that perhaps someday there will be no need for gods. That humans will reach a level of understanding and compassion that renders us obsolete.

[Even if it means he'd fade away. But that's not likely to happen. People will always be human, and there's always natural disasters, health troubles, and the like that ravage their lives, providing a purpose for gods.]

[ silco over here like: 🧍‍♂️ ]

No? Being bent on revenge does not make one... blind to reality. That's foolishness.

[ Or maybe there's a reason why Silco thinks that. Hm! ]

Hm, well, there are some realities where it is not required, for gods to be obsolete. After all, my world cannot be seen as compassionate, and yet we have nothing that could be considered gods. Perhaps it is the way of some worlds, and the ways of others.

Perhaps your father would have been happier in my world, hm?

[ Or maybe he'd find something else to be angry about...? ]

At this point I would argue that he's a fool, but...

[He shrugs. It's just his opinion. Since his father does seem pretty willfully ignoring the reality of the situation.]

Yeah, I've heard of several people here who come from worlds without any discernible gods. I truly believe that the old man would've been more content in a place like that. Maybe then he would've been able to let go of whatever hatred he has and could have lived a normal life. In a way, I pity him holding onto those feelings for over a millennia. It must be tiring...

[Hell, he gets exhausted just being on the receiving end of them.]

It could be, but I hardly know him far enough to judge.

[ Silco, unfortunately, does not have the self-awareness to say: 'huh, maybe being hellbent on revenge hurts people.' So it's probably good he doesn't... ]

Perhaps it is tiring, but I know what it is to have a... goal, and never want to let go of it. Though I do not think my life will last quite as long as his. Perhaps I, too, would be tired after a millennia of failure instead of most of my life.

Honestly, I can't say I know him well enough, either.

[Which is sad, but the man never really opened up to his "children" so much as used them for his own means.]

It's good to have a goal, but not when it becomes all-consuming, I think. ....what's your goal, if you don't mind me asking?

[ Look up all-consuming in the dictionary, and it is Silco... ]

Ah. Freedom and liberation for my people, of course.

[ He makes it sound so noble. ]

To remove us from the boot on our necks, and to end our lives of profit in service of our supposed betters. Everything I've done is in service to that.

[Everybody's got to have a hobby...]

Pretty impressive, in that case.

[It does indeed sound noble, though Yato knows full well that oftentimes noble goals can have unsavory means used towards them. That's the only reason he doesn't feel entirely comfortable with what the man says.]

An admirable thing to strive for, I gotta say. Nobody should be mistreated or used by others, even - or especially - by gods. Or are they just collateral in your fight?

The god was a different fight entirely. [ A smile, then. It isn't pleasant. ] I was in a world before this one, and we were at war, for the very fate of our worlds. She was opposed to me, and had just... assisted in a deadly attack.

I retaliated. She underestimated me.

[ Had he been planning to kill her for months? Had he signed on with a demon to do it? Was the very side he was on the one of destruction? Yes to all. Don't worry about it. ]

There are no gods in my world, only people. There, it is only the force of our grit and mettle that finds our goals achieved. ]

Ah, I gotcha. [Mostly. He was somewhere else too, before this place, but it was a much more peaceful world. Sounds like Silco wasn't so lucky.] You gotta do what you gotta do to survive, especially if we're talking about the lives of millions or billions of people.

[Nodding, he hums thoughtfully. That's one reason he plans on killing his own father - because he wants to stop his old man from hurting more people. If only he knew Silco was more the destructive type...]

If that's the case, then I wish you the best of luck so you and your people can end up free. And while you may not have gods to help you back home, here you're always welcome to rely on me.

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🔒

private aaaaaall the way down now!

woooo private

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