[video] in before eeveelution jokes

[symmetrophile]

[It's late. Or too damn early. Somewhere in that ambiguous area, like 3:00 in the morning, just fine for certain parts of the alien population and a god-awful time for the rest. But here Kid is, addressing the network from the confines of a room in the island-side village.

One can just make out a few figures (Maka Albarn and Rin Okumura) behind him, sound asleep in their bed.]

I have a very important announcement to make, one that simply cannot wait until morning!

[The grim reaper, looking more lively than he has since... well, since the bubble cracked, stoops out of sight of the SFC, and reappears with an Umbreon in his arms. Beaming with the pride perhaps only a father might have for their child, he declares:]

This is Pip, and he's become even more beautiful than ever!

[It is indeed Pip, recently evolved, and he is still fat. He is also a she, but Kid never investigated that closely. Promptly forgetting about the SFC in his eagerness, Kid retreats with Pip in his arms to bend over Maka.]

Maka, Maka! Wake up! I don't want you to miss this!

Comments

[paladaddy]

[See now that's the spirit Kid. Go kick his ass.]

You'll do fine. I can't imagine you would lose to something as terrible as that, hope has a way of overcoming those kinds of things.

[symmetrophile]

I appreciate the vote of confidence.

In addition, I understand your misgivings about gods better now.

[Free will is part of what makes humans so unique. They have a choice in the decisions they make, those decisions shape their fates, and while many of them choose to embrace a life under his father's "Order", those who don't are free to choose "Madness".

And are free to taste the consequences. Still, that is not the tyranny his brother promises to spread across the world.]

But doesn't the order worship one such god? Why, then, did you choose to be an exorcist?

[paladaddy]

[He hesitates there for a second, not sure if he should tell Kid the real reason or not.]

...You're right, I'm not much of a religious person. It's fortunate that the Order is willing to be lax about that, if an exorcist is talented.

[Except that doesn't answer the question, does it?

After a long pause, Shiro finally gives an abridged version of what happened.]

Just before I started high school, my father was killed by a demon. It tried to kill me too, but I got away with only an injured arm. But this demon, it was a nasty one. It chased me for over a month, trying at every turn to kill me.

In my world, only humans who have been injured by demons can see demons. So when I tried to tell people about it, they thought I was going crazy. Hell, I thought I was going crazy for a while. It scared off pretty much anyone I could have counted on to help me, and by the end of that month I was left alone with nothing to protect myself. But eventually an exorcist came and killed the demon.

I had no family, no friends, and no prospects for my future. Who was going to help a kid with a record of 'psychotic episodes' and 'destructive behavior'? So I begged that exorcist to take me with him, to teach me how to do what he did, so I would never be so helpless again. The actual religious part was more of an afterthought.

[Damn. Thirty-five years later, and it still brings up bad memories and horrible feelings within him. He's really itching for a cigarette, and he has to fight to keep the urge down.]

[symmetrophile]

I see. So you saw yourself as having no other choice than to become an exorcist.

[Rin wants to overcome what he was born with, wants to face and take down Satan himself. Shiro had his whole life practically taken away from him. Left with no option for a normal life, he took up that path.]

Then, you aren't a very religious person yourself, I presume.

[paladaddy]

I've been re-evaluating my opinions on that.

[Meeting Gods in-person tends to make someone do that.]

[symmetrophile]

I can't say that I understand the appeal of the institutions that form religious beliefs around my Honorable Father, but as mystifying as I find it, it nevertheless exists.

[In other words, Kid isn't really all that interested in religion. Neither does it stroke his ego.

Other things do. The sight of a splendidly arranged room he's appointed himself, for example. Or people complimenting his totally adorable Pokemon, or the noises Rin makes sometimes that he insists are absolutely not a purr, or those times when Maka hugs him with a ferocity that might make his ribs creak if he wasn't so durable.

Those things make him feel on top of the world. Religious worship? ...Meh.]

As you re-evaluate it, what has changed about your opinion?