general overflow—

[truncation]

( image credit )

Comments

[truncation]

( it was a consequence of being mortal. the future was not an unbounded infinite for them — it was a set length of track that would one day dead end, and so they had to contend with the existential injury of trying to wring from that limited amount of time anything and everything they felt necessary to have lived a worthwhile life. this is one of the many things that aki doesn't think any devil or fiend would ever perfectly be able to comprehend; the configurations of their existences were simply too different to allow for it. they can only find fleeting understanding and agreeance by reaching blindly out at odd angles, often enough finding it slipping away just as soon as it had been grasped — and yet they still count themselves fortunate for having accomplished the impossible regardless.

aki has little to say about his own future. bizarrely enough, he views it largely like power does: there will come a day where he will be an absence where once was, and if there was anyone left to mourn him as he had mourned dozens throughout these last thirteen years, he would be blind and deaf to them. as soft-hearted as he really is, still able to feel the unfathomable shear of loss just as keenly now as he had felt it watching his childhood life scattered to the winds right in front of his eyes, he tries not to think of that part. perhaps aki withdraws because he doesn't want to leave behind pain like that; it had made sense for himeno (even if she had ended up going before him), but... with power, it's less of a concern. he couldn't believe that the fiend would mourn him.

oddly enough, that makes it easier.

there's something feline in the way she presses into the touch of his hand; it isn't the first and won't be the last similarity he can see between her and the familiar that she had brought along with her. he eases visibly at her agreement to his terms, lapsing into a momentary passivity that allows for her to take his hands and lead him slowly through the steps of an impromptu dance set to the music he can hear filtering in from somewhere outside; he doesn't feel cut out for something like this, but he at least tries to play along. aki moves with all the alacrity of a wooden toy soldier, creaking and sticking at the joints, but he does move. )

Absolutely not. ( as if his diction isn't enough to close that door, he clearly enunciates each syllable to punctuate it.

he allows her to bring their hands together into... what she must think is some sort of explanation, or example, but it does little to budge the frown etched nearly permanently into aki's expression. he grouses, ) Aren't we already enough like that? ( he feels like he lives with these two practically under his skin already, and besides, there's absolutely no way he can think of injecting denji into this situation that doesn't make it either exponentially more awkward, more difficult, or more stiflingly uncomfortable. this is already enough of an imposition as it is, having pried aki partially out of the bounds of what he feels is either permissible or safe or both. )

He's difficult enough as it is. ( power is as well, but her methods are seemingly more effective on him. )