songerein | [Open] Sometimes Everything Is Wrong

Who: Demyx & Visitors
Which: Open Log
Where: Demyx's Treehouse
What: Demyx has been missing in action since the Story Eater has left. He also hasn't been particularly responsive, and people can confirm he hasn't been seen since, although every so often there is sitar music on the wind.
Warnings: Xehanort's bullshit, frankly, amnesia, & mind control

Demyx had been nowhere to be seen. It wasn't an accident, he wasn't sneaking around under the cover of night, he was just hiding out in his tree house. The only real indication was the muffled sitar music on the wind and that was about it. For a guy who wasn't supposed to have emotions according to the Superior Windbag, he sure as heck felt wrecked after the experience.

His treehouse sat upon a particularly thick tree, and the door was actually at the base. Knocking would yield little by way of results, but trying the door was easy - it was unlocked. It was meant to give the perception that Demyx was open and transparent. Inside the trunk was a staircase that led all the way up into a living room area. There was a table with two chairs, a kitchenette on the back wall with an icebox. Somewhere comfortable to lounge, and he'd been hooked up to lights. There was a lot of natural light, and one small door at on an angle, and then big glass doors to a balcony. Trying the door would yield a mostly empty pantry.

It was a perfectly nice, comfortable home rich in blues and purples - only there was no indication where Demyx was, or even where he would sleep. There was a decent likelihood that one could hear the sitar, but not see it. There's only one real exit and it's the balcony.

The balcony appeared pretty normal, seeming to end a little randomly just past the door. There's a trick, though, it's a light illusion, an additional step off that edge yielded more balcony and another glass door. That was the entrance to Demyx's inner sanctum as it were. His bedroom, bathroom and his music room were all back there.

Confused guests might be guided by his little snowman named Mezzo who seems a bit stressed. He's dropping a bit more snow than usual puttering around with worry.

The third door was actually locked. Mezzo couldn't open it for a visitor, but it was a lot more likely that knocking here would catch the musician's attention.

There was only one way to find Demyx and get a proper answer out of him and that was to barge into his home uninvited, and find where he was actually hiding.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If there's one thing Flowey's capable of doing, it's finding people. More specifically, stalking them. It was even listed as a crime on Flowey's billboard back when he was kidnapped in Kansai. But Flowey should find Demyx easily enough.

When he does. he hides, silently, for a while, just taking in the music. It really is enjoyable. Eventually, when a song ends, Flowey does reveal himself.

"Golly, I never pegged you for a good magician. And with a sitar, no less. Don't usually see people playing sitar. It's usually always a guitar or flute or piano. Booooring!"

He was startled, clearly not aware he had an audience. Thanks Mezzo, he thought and he turned around to look over his shoulder at Flowey.

"Yeah..." Demyx murmured. His music room has comfortable furniture, cool blues and purples, so he had a theme going, and huge windows that overlooked the area on one wall.

"It's different, I guess. I haven't really met anyone else who plays it, most people don't even know what it sounds like." He sounded like he was trying to cover for his surprise.

"I've been playing a long time, but you have to keep practicing."

"It really is a shame so may instruments just get left by the wayside simply because they're different... I, for one, would greatly enjoy hearing someone play the didgeridoo or the koto or the hurdy gurdy... hell, even the yaybahar."

Practice. Flowey understands all too well what practice is. He's had tens of thousands of years of practice of a large multitude of things. He's a master at so many things now.

"Yes, practice is good. Practice makes perfect and people should be grateful for opportunities to practice... just as long as they don't make themselves too scarce."

Flowey wants the unsaid question to be subtle but not so subtle that it gets missed.

"Can't really practice too much." Demyx mused thoughtfully.

He smiled ever so slightly, continuing with the music as they spoke. "No one's going to miss me anyway...and it's for the best."

It was for the best. He attacked his tentative allies. He's not an idiot. They're probably going to be out for his blood, just like Vanitas and Alastor threatened.

Flowey doesn't show any concern, not really. From the way Demyx was talking, it sounds like it got really bad.

It's time for Flowey to reveal what went on with his own time during that battle.

"I... had to face myself. Literally. My enemy was me from a point in my past... See, I can absorb SOULs, and the more I absorb, the stronger I get to the point of being a God and the 'me' I faced had six human SOULs...

I just... didn't know what to do. The only person I knew capable of defeating me when I was like that wasn't and still isn't here... So the only choice I felt I could make was to join that 'me'..."

Flowey paused for a moment to let that all sink in.

"...I was lucky to be proven wrong."

Demyx sighed a little bit. That did sound pretty bad. "....Sorry, that sounds pretty awful." He murmured a little bit.

He was trying. He wasn't the best at expressing empathy. He was trying to manage emotions while his own were somewhat muted.

"It's good you got out of it, I guess."

He was accepting Flowey's words as a subject change, not so much as an invitation to discuss what happened, but more to avoid it further.

"Logically speaking, it was the best decision I could have made, teaming up with the other me. Sure, I'm very determined, but someone who was more determined, someone whose determination overwrote mine, had beaten me. And then I manipulated them into gathering all the monsters in a single place, which totalled the equivalent of one human SOUL. In effect, I had seven human SOULs in me.

And then they beat me again."

Another pause to let it sink in. And then comes Flowey's next move.

"And then I had gotten kidnapped. Everyone knew of what heinous crimes I did. But... I had still managed to make friends. I still worked for redemption. I was the only Zendama, good person, there, amongst a group of other criminals. My point is even if you do horrible things, the worst atrocities... you can also be a Zendama if you just choose to try."

Flowey extends a vine toward Demyx.

"So what do you say, Demyx? Even not knowing what you've done, I forgive you."

Ah, it didn't look like he was getting out of it. He wasn't a Zendama, that much he knew. He didn't think he was positively evil, he felt more like he was trapped. A cornered animal.

That was just in general, at the moment though he was touched by Flowey's kindness.

"I don't know if I need to be forgiven." He really hadn't given it enough thought, even when Vexen was going on about atonement. Demyx did hesitantly reach out for the vine, giving him his hand.

"It's not what I've done. I'm dangerous. Cursed. He used me against them...after I said I'd stay out of trouble. Not just because I want to, but because I know when I'm outmatched."

That gets a small chuckle out of Flowey.

"I once thought self-isolation was the only way, too. My Golden Ending... Monsters and humans living together peacefully, no barrier trapping anyone underground anymore... after all the things I've done, I thought that I wouldn't be able to control myself up on the surface.

And I could still ruin that Golden Ending. But the only thing holding me back from ruining it is myself. So! Even though you're dangerous, do you want to act out all those dangerous thoughts you believe yourself to be? Do you want your player 1 to succeed against your evil player two?

Because if not..."

Flowey retracts his vine and sports a face that's a mix of smug and amusement.

"You'd only be a coward. And you'd just be condemned a lot more excessively than if you worked at proving to yourself that you can be safe to others."

"I am...kind of notoriously a coward." Demyx joked lightly, trying to back away from the intense and heavy emotions he felt.

"So that's not- no one would be surprised."

That was him. A coward. Useless. Unimportant.

"I see what you're saying, but if that can happen, I'm a bigger danger than I probably understand and I already know it's not great."

"Alright then."

Flowey will go along with this. STATE 01 SAVED

"Just how big of a danger are you? What can you do that makes hiding away better than being happy?"

Manipulative words, but Flowey is curious enough to want to get to the bottom of this.

"Tell little old me everything."

"It's not what I can do that's the problem, not entirely." Demyx answered softly, sighing a little bit. Although he could see the interest, but he wasn't one to give his secrets away that easily.

"It's more like I'm cursed." Demyx explained. "He left behind something inside of me that is...I guess, asleep right now. And he could activate it at any time and I lost all rational thought. I attacked my friend and allies, ruthlessly."

He remembered Ienzo running from him, which was probably the best move at the time.

[Open] Sometimes Everything Is Wrong

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