#dark wants to be daisuke wants to be one with the niwa he loathes his name as the kokuyoku

[dnangelic]

in my mind it's not necessarily that dark was ever completely 'innocent' because even at first conception, he was still bound to a thief; the very first niwa ancestor. but if you met him when he was only a (technical) newborn, he didn't have a lot of personality. he was quiet, steady, calm, very oblivious and just a little curious, the kind of bodiless voice to ask 'what's that?' every once in a while and to not say much. he didn't have the same intense gravitas or pronounced arrogance and pride, he hadn't quite devoted himself to thieving yet which is why so many years of his go unnoticed. the same puzzling confusion that daisuke often expresses also was dark's once upon a time before the manisumea incident and the first niwa's death. 'dark' wasn't 'dark' until those things happened, and for as much as he hates his own birth and wretched existence, the matter of the fact is he still genuinely loved the first niwa who acted as his mentor, his wiser 'other half' before dark ever even properly found himself and decided to carry on the og dark's legacy.

[dnangelic]

' --- ! ' too close , too suddenly , too soon ! he shuts his eyes and leans away with a deep flush , small hands gripping into little fists , unable to bear any stare , just barely managing to make out the sound of diamont's voice over the senseless roar and noise of what felt like an electric shock and the steaming rush of his blood . there is , of course , the immediate understanding that if he allowed his heart to simply pound and pound , then he wouldn't have to struggle with things like words anymore .

his body would change on the spot , and diamont's proclamations would thusly be tested ; philosophies , too . what did any of that mean to someone like the niwa ? they were questions that he still loathed , queries he wasn't sure he was worthy of answering to or not . who was he in his own mind ? who was he in others ? and dark , who should have been one and the same as him , yet was perpetually described by the rest as being completely different --- what about him ?

diamont sits , and the boy wants to flee . instinct spurs tensed muscles , his limbs as taut as a pulled rubber band , stretched to its limit just seconds before the snap . he thinks that he should say something , but instead he only hugs his knees . the other looks upwards and yet the niwa only continues to curl over and downwards around himself , already feeling the dull ache of his limbs being rolled out like soft dough , and the horrible , but fantastically freeing sensation of his shoulders splitting and his wings stretching out from them , catching cool winds against soft feathers .

there were certain things that felt wrong to say with dark's voice , and yet --- he says it anyways . lets it slip out from the bury of his head into his arms , the small , timid tone unmistakably still daisuke's . ' because ... it's lonely . ' the secrets , the self , everything unique that others never understood , and far too often he imagined demanding impossible explanation for , or worse . ' you aren't human , so maybe it's different for you , but back at home --- where i'm from , there's nothing but humans . and everyone knows i'm breaking the rules . '

and so , each sentence became twofold . ' if i'm not a monster ... then i'm a criminal . if i'm not a criminal , then i'm a monster . i can't let anyone know , i don't want to , ' his hands lift and run themselves through his hair ; the long , feathery nocturnal violet of it , his wretched face still kept hidden . ' i don't know what they'll do . i don't want to hurt anyone , but i don't want to be hated . ' and he couldn't stop stealing , either , which made itself the guiltiest , most inexcusable blow . ' ... maybe it's just me that's wrong . for being a bad person . '

"Why would I lie?" The reply from Diamont comes immediately, as if asking the obvious. To prove his point, the young dragon makes his way towards the thief. Too close for comfort. He stares, unblinking. "I am no stranger to secrets." He adds, somewhat wearily. It is true. Diamont is in the center of his own web of contradiction and deceit. Of evils that run deeper than many harrowing tales, of evil old as the world itself.

"What would you be, then? If you were someone else, then you would not be yourself. You have your strengths, and if you had different strengths... would that still be 'you'?" For a moment, Diamont tries to imagine himself without his magic. Being someone else. The idea is ridiculous, and he shakes his head to shoo these silly thoughts away. "I have no reason to think differently of you, no matter what - or who - you are." Words that would be reassuring, if the person saying them did not say it with such bluntness. To the soft Daisuke, Diamont is a sharp object.

Still.

Still, he decides to sit next to the phantom thief. Decides to look up at the ceiling, weirdly giving time for the other party to rearrange his thoughts. "Some people do not have the luxury to be. What is wrong with being different? I am different too. There is nobody who could be even remotely similar to me, anywhere else. In this world or the next, the past universe and the one that shall unveil itself after this one unravels. I am unique. And so are you.

What is so wrong about that?"

[dnangelic]

me and the small crowd of ppl tht go 'wait dark isn't dark's real name?' anytime i bring the fact up

[dnangelic]

// WHO WOULD BE ON DARK AND DAISUKE'S POKETEAMSSSSS ive always thought daisuke would have a smeargle (art moment) an eevee (wiz moment) (also normal types bc hes So Normal and Regular and Unassuming) annnd zorua (edgy red moment) while dark has shiny zororak (edgy purple moment) and. idk. maybe an umbreon to mirror daisuke's eevee. blinks

@zenigatakeibu

HARVEY AUGHHHHHH UR SO SMART!!!!!!! honestly dai wouldn't be a hardcore pokemon trainer (he's here to steal hearts not to win fights or become champion^tm) so he wouldn't have a fully decked out party. dai would LOATHE battling, he'd never want to do it, even if given dark's reputation he'd probably get flamethrowers and lightning bolts fired his way every other day or night. it's hard being dark. he'll still use his abilities to save other people because that's his whole thing but whatever.

in my head it was like - hilariously enough dark and wiz would be daisuke's only 'pokemon' and this was an immutable concept in my Brain, if i didn't go the legendary/fragment of giratina route then dark just would've been a gengar possessing the niwa line (to mirror the way dark's sometimes described as the infinitely repeating 'ghost' of the original niwa/ancestor) or a nightmare-curse from darkrai that bled into reality (not biblical/'creation' focused enough, esp on the hikari side of things.)

dark's not allowed to be human, ever, so why not make him just the weird human-infused product of the equivalent of vaguely-pokemon-satan already who has weird dimension hopping powers(dai n dark can already do that normally) and a cool edgelord aesthetic that has a gold torque just like one of their outfits. and wings. and territorial behavior with a sensitive side lmao or everybody wanting to 'seal' and lock them away for being chaotic/trouble makers aldkjaldkjf - anyways you get it! wiz and dark even within dnangel canon are supposed to be pretty unique weirdos already, wiz is more like shaymin status (a la there's only ever like One Around) which i also think suits him a little better than an eevee would too -

^ you can see what i mean right. KDSJLDKJG GOTH SHAYMIN TO CANON'S PASTEL. these small transformers mammals can kick it into FLIGHT MODE. but i can still totally see dai loving normal types overall like smeargle and eevee!!

in canon the way that artworks fill up dai's house as dark collects them i can see him basically filling up his mansion with all sorts of pokemon that are only 'his' in a kind of a distant and territorial, royal sense- canonically he gets artworks that are / can turn into a small bird (towa, maybe a natu given the psychic/supernatural 'guide to eternity' thing she has going on, or a swablu/altaria since it fits her aesthetic more?) a snake, (or a gecko, that's argentine, there's plenty of pokemon for that,' and a whole ass dreameater-tapir for baku, (drowzee and musharna are both RIGHT THERE) so if we're going canon-wise, i'd give him those!!! i love him slowly building up his found family of little weird guys who he loves and who love HIM very much, + again it elevates the whole giratina fragment/noble ruler of another realm/burdened boyking bit. otherwise, i've always used a clefairy(not a clefable! not! a! clefable!) to represent daisuke and still a gengar to represent dark. dai just has a fairy type affinity in general alongside his normal type behavior since he's a fragmented fairy tale mc. give him a mimikyu or impidmp or something. if anything i think the ghost types as a whole fit dark very well too - mostly in lore.

banette being thrown away and haunted inanimate dolls??? sinistea being just a lonely lil guy in a cuppy?? sableye?? LITWICK???

^ 'SPEND LESS ON LITWICK.' 'NO.'

[dnangelic]

why was being in daisuke's arms always so comfortable ? so safe , lending the other his warmth while remaining tucked away from the rest of the world — sleep never came easy to mafuyu , if not preoccupied with his own thoughts for long hours , then it'd be working into the earlier morning(s) to get work finished ; for school or for niigo . " .. and so , the white bunny helped the black bunny sneak out of their house , then .. "

and then what .. ? mafuyu's still drawing blanks , unable to recall its story properly . " i don't know .. " what was the point of telling daisuke an incomplete story ? a frown forms on his lips over such a careless action . " maybe they fled off together , never to be seen again . " but would that be a satisfactory ending ? for the mafuyu back then , they wouldn't care ; but for the mafuyu now , who's found so many precious things to come back to , he would hope there'd be something of a happy ending . ( was it just the bunnies he had in mind for this ? )

" no , that's not right ... niwa-san , what do you think ..? "

@1amsong

what does he think ? that they're safe here , their bodies blending so well into the jet black around them that even their silhouettes were swallowed up . here , the niwa wouldn't have to worry over his form ; his voice's belonging . nor would mafuyu have to fret over being alone and left lost to wander the dark blindly , cradled as small and warm as an egg in the nest of a thief's arms and embrace . the thick curtain of obsidian forbids even moonlight amidst them , but it only seems to further culminate and cultivate each other's presence . this is why he can tell the other's pause before it even happens , razor reflex stirring him out of any reverie the moment he feels the slightest subtle tense and shift in his grasp .

for him , it had been enough to merely listen to the soft , melodic lull of mafuyu's voice ... but he can feel his spirits sink and dampen as the sound of a frown twinges the other's chords . the suggestion is not all too convincing of an ending , either --- an open cliffhanger in its own right . why end at what should have been just the beginning ? perhaps even the best of the two little rabbits' lives . for just a moment , the niwa dwells in his silence and considers it . ( was there happiness , further struggle waiting ahead in the future for them ? disagreement and compromise , devotion or abandonment ? )

if anything , he was absolutely certain that there was no turning back .

what he thinks , then , is what he feels . what would bring him the most relief ? the most joy and full , sated pleasure to dream of ? he imagines a town , one much like azumano ; imagines the two rabbits racing through it , cuddling up into baroque-art burrows and hopping after each other's tails along renaissance park-grasses . he imagines their wild bliss and their stabbing loneliness , all too familiar with with the perverse delights and crashing despair of fleeing himself from those who loathed him , those who wanted to love him , and those whom he wanted to love , yet couldn't . even so , he clutches mafuyu a little tighter in his arms .

' maybe that's how it starts , ' he whispers , soft and gentle . ' maybe they start off not knowing . maybe they're scared and they have to try to keep everything a secret ... but having each other makes them feel braver . ' like this , like the two of them , tucked away from the world and its relentlessly prying eyes into a burrow of their own , every daylight nightmare and struggle temporarily subdued . ' but maybe ... somewhere out there are other , even more rabbits who understand the two . or , even if they don't understand , then they still care ... with all their might . maybe everyone finds their place even though they , and each of their problems are completely different . maybe it ends up being everything they ever hoped and even more than they ever imagined . '

he smiles , and he wonders if mafuyu can see --- hear , feel it . ' even if a rabbit sneaks out and runs away from home , there are still other homes . ' such as the entirety of the world , a blooming garden ; or the soft , tender embrace of someone else's arms . ' there has to be a way for everyone to have their happily ever after . that's what i want to believe . but if it's really impossible ... then at the very least , whatever happiness , no matter how how big or little it is , as long as it's in the present , should still ... count . ' as something infinitely precious , finer than any glimmering jewel ; shining just as strongly as stars in the night sky . ' i think --- whatever happens to them , even if there's hardship in the future , as long as the rabbits are willing to look out for each other and try to take care of one another , they'll be alright . for them , any kind of ending is possible . '

even in the pitch dark , he laughs --- light and hopeful .

' ... when it's told like that , it really makes me want to believe in them . '

[dnangelic]

god's least favorite sure but daisuke will always be n25's favorite

mafu vc i think that matters more. bc i said so

@1amsong

if god really exists ... then he wouldn't want to be an enemy . but maybe , nigh inevitably , it would have been something similar to the way that mafuyu didn't want to hate his mother despite such rigid bind and strict expectation , or maybe faith was something more like a distant father , one that tried and tried and bore every good intention ... yet still failed to appear during the most important moments .

all the niwa knows is his own lack of penance and repentance ; the memory of a snarl-tooth grin pushing open the heavy , old doors of a church in order to steal from the inside of it . had long had it already been since then ? feeling dark speak and his own throat lowly recite the words : i don't have anything to apologize for .

in the midst of his own recollections , the dawnheaded boy smiles --- and then he can't help but laugh . ' ... i can't say no then , right ? ' if there was anything that truly made him feel like a secret celebrity , endlessly lavished and beloved , then it was something like this --- being declared the favorite of far more impressive secret celebrities , who had somehow became an entire precious ring of good friends of his .

' it's nice . ' the rest of the world could already recognize his other self as something bizarre and criminal . it wouldn't have been entirely wrong to loathe him , or to rebuke him for his mistakes and sins . yet he still takes gentle hold of mafuyu's hand , and clutches it firmly . ' when i feel like this , i can't help but think i still might be the luckiest person in the whole entire world . '

no matter his curse or the difficulty of his daily life or the cold-hot sensation as he transforms with mafuyu still in his touch . ' i think your own feelings matter more too ... ' though he's never quite imagined that mafuyu would ever feel this strongly about something ; about him . ' we're both still here . we were born with our own wills , so we can think and feel whatever we want . ' nothing and no one could take that from them .

' and i --- trust you . so ... thank you , asahina-san . i'll have to thank everyone else when i have the time , too . '

[dnangelic]

" Nini.. " A gentle tug at the end of his sleeve for his attention. Fyuga's eyes sparkled with curiosity.

" .. Are there others like Nini? Like Nini and Dadark? Together? " She points both fingers to each other, indicating a 'merge.'

@paraleech

at first , he isn't sure what to say . emotions flash across daisuke's face in gradual succession : surprise , sorrow , a silent resignation . yes , there were others . or at least , there had been . he doesn't know if he could tell the various stories , even if he might have been the only one left to tell them . it would have been nice to leave this sort of thing to dark , who could have selected what truths to reveal and obscure with a masterful tongue , always cautious of his words and considerate of fyuga's apparent youth . but fyuga asks him first , points her fingers together , and his own palms slowly close over her hands , trying hard to keep from any tremble . ' i met ... a girl , once . '

not someone he had fallen love with , at least not beyond a work of art ; a human being that he had wanted to save . ' she ... was like me . she merged with an artwork , and that extended both of their lives , but when i wanted to save her and bring her back home ... some things happened , and in the end , i was --- too slow , i think . ' too stupid . too inept , too incapable , too damn useless ... ! he had promised himself that he wouldn't cry over them anymore , but knowing that somewhere in the mansion's halls was a portrait he had personally painted of the two of them , happy even after death --- he shuts his eyes and the memory still stings and burns at the corners .

a burning throat as he kicked and screamed in dark's arms , then shocked silence as a sword , the chock of time and princess freedert's lover soared through the air before running her right through , blood like velvety petals spilling red over white until there was nothing , nothing but the world outside of his depressingly dead portrait left and a horrible razor burn at his shoulder . daisuke snaps out of his reverie at the thought , and takes a step backwards to quietly begin to remove his shirt . once revealed , one finger points quietly to the deep scar gouged across his shoulder , the line of it thick and gnarled and ugly enough that it was a wonder the entirety of his arm hadn't been outright severed . ' ... this is from that time . but , it wasn't her that did any of this to me . or this . '

right hand shifts to grip at the left's wrists , and with a small turn and shift of his shoulder , he tries to draw attention to the rest of the jagged , healed-over lacerations racing up across his arm . without his shirt and sleeves to cover them , the expanses of his skin felt like a hideous disaster , secrets in their own right , but nothing , not even falling into his family traps had hurt worse than deep and gushing wounds being plunged into seawater , the pain of it so severe at the time , that he had blacked out the instant he had safely made it to shore . ' hiwatari-kun , my friend ... ' azumano's special commander , the cold boy at school whom he had dared to grow closer to , despite opposing destinies , longstanding family feuds and loathing , and every terrifying , desperate incident between them --- ' he has ... another , too . but that one isn't ... anything like dark . he was the one who gave me these . '

hideous marks that the white half-wing would have called suitable and well-deserved for him , if not beautifully merciless and cruel , the perfect work of art . no heart seemed to be colder or more unreachable , no sight made the niwa more terrified , especially after everything , from asphyxiation to gunshot accompanying infinitely polite greetings that had all been committed with the intention of killing him , the sole heir and tamer of the hikari artworks . even now , he can too readily imagine fyuga , like wiz , being declared a despicable , lesser creature and mercilessly beat aside . he imagines hiwatari's suffering and agony as he struggled for control over his own body , how miserable it must have been to never allow anything to grow close to him . he considers , feeling a hollow pain in the deep halls of his heart , his own inevitable , ever-repeating sense of loss , and with it --- an unbearably intense grief and loneliness .

' so ... maybe , it really is just me and dark right now . forty years ago , grandpa used to be dark , but he isn't anymore ... ' his secret , his family curse , and his own timid , unconfident personality ... everything created the same spell of isolation that set him alone from the rest of the world , though never utterly , only beyond the confines of his mansion . here , there was still fyuga , who even if simple , might have yet understood the solemn sobriety of the boy's expression , or the lift of his arms beckoning her into an embrace , as well . ' ... me and dark , and you , and mom and dad and grandpa , and towa and argentine , ' as long as they loved him , and he could always count on and trust in them in his mind , then even if they didn't know entirely what it was like to be him , wasn't it still fine ?

' whether or not there are others , fyuga ... i'm here for you . ' he knew there were times were fyuga must have considered her own state of being ; the idea of others , perhaps a proper family , a proper home for whatever it was that she was , beyond and aside from just fyuga . even so , she still had a place here , and the likes of his own family and its employed , similarly-adopted artworks had never treated her anything less than their very own . he swears his own promises as well to her , offering fyuga a bright , gentle smile . ' i'll always be here for you , okay ? so i hope ... i really do hope that you never feel too alone . '

[dnangelic]

@puppetmuseum asked: (hiwatari time) "Careful." Satoshi said out of the blue, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. He had been in the school library working through a heavy book when Daisuke decided to join him. But he was reading something far more....whimsical and clearly emotional as he could hear Daisuke sniff and rub at his eyes. "You wouldn't want to change now, would you?" No one was in the library besides them, so it was fine to speak on more secretive matters, but he still left it somewhat vague, just in case.

and he doesn't mean to cry , but his tender heart could never resist even the slightest tug at every one of its delicate strings . weepy and struck , cherub tears spilling from the corners of covetous crimsons ---「 le cœur humain ... ne peut contenir qu'une certaine quantité de désespoir. quand l'éponge est imbibée, la mer peut passer dessus sans y faire entrer une larme de plus .」

it was a moving , but tragic love story he was reading .

' i ... s-sorry , hiwatari-kun . ' the book whose pages he's nearly stained and gotten wet with tears is shut and pushed away by a careful , considerate hand . daisuke hurries to clear his mien , a little more than surprised himself that he could end up so enraptured by a novel even beside the other like this . should it have been a testament to the artistry of it , or to his and hiwatari's own growing-comfortable relationship ?

if he were to try at being honest , sitting beside the other made him feel a little dumb . inept and over-sensitive , just like it might have from the start --- no , that was wrong . even from the beginning , before his fourteenth birthday and his very first transformation , the other had still been kind to him without any sort of conceit . from offering a handkerchief to even warning him now , it was clear that satoshi loathed the sight of anybody's tears --- even a would-be enemy's .

so daisuke brightens . smiles and nods his head , laughing and sputtering awkwardly a little at first . ' th-thank you . i didn't even realize anything . it's ... a really good story . ' one that even might have been worth changing for . were he at home , free to be whoever both his thrumming heart and cursed genes forced him to be , then there was no doubt that even the coldest , wintry impression of the 'great phantom thief dark' would have been dissolved by these reverent , innocent tears ; the fallen angel weeping over beautiful works of art .

instead the niwa takes in a deep , steady breath . with his gaze removed from his own pastime , he can't help but peek over at the other's own apparent literary endeavor . ' um , if you don't mind me asking ... what are you reading ? ' he can't help but already make a few guesses : maybe it was something dry like a calculus book ( is that the sort of level hiwatari was at , or was he even beyond it ... ? ) maybe it was even something like a thick detective novel ... ah , but he doesn't want to assume .

instead , just as innocently , and without much thought to it beyond the warmth loitering in the dull thuds of his heart , he asks --- ' is it fun ? '

do you like it ?

[dnangelic]

@guhamun asked: 🕯️ [ neuvi ] // // send me 🕯️ to hear my character's inner thoughts about your character.

( you shouldn't get too close to someone like him . )

hasn't he heard all of this before ? over and over , whether it was with the guards , the melusines , even ordinary citizens ... anybody who could become a potential threat to an infamous phantom thief . the less anyone could recognize you or your face and the fewer that ever learned your name , the better . the safer ...

yet still daisuke had watched as the members of fontaine often did all that they could to help one another , more than once assisted himself in matters of direction or familiarizing advice , despite his being both a stranger and a foreigner . the guards were dutiful in ways that seemed far more benevolent and accepting than the likes of inazuma's , the shogunate's members always seizing , decreeing , and stubbornly demanding --- much like their distant leader . the differences between the two nations were perpetually astounding --- and mesmerizing .

' ... i just can't help it , dark . he's too kind . '

would something like that have made the monsieur himself happy to hear ? in daisuke's own opinion , the judge bore an incredible resemblance to his own grandfather . a gentle , albeit somewhat stoic man of resolutely handled duty ; if only their roles didn't place them at such opposite ends . of course , daisuke himself could have simply told the truth . but what , then ... ? would it not have been the judge's duty to immediately seize , pass judgement upon , and imprison him ? was dark not already loathed for his defiance and brazen , criminal antics across the entirety of teyvat ? would the iudex of fontaine have been able to understand the likes of a family curse and expected inheritance , or would simply nothing have been able to save him ?

... having to lie like this to someone is so painful .

' dark , do you ... maybe not want us to get any closer because you can tell how much it hurts ? '

no answer .

whatever happened in the future , and whoever was in the wrong here in the present , it wasn't neuvillette . it was daisuke's own grandfather too who had told him that a phantom thief's duty was sometimes to protect other's dreams and feelings through means of falsity like this . magic remained for so long as no one dispelled an illusion . but this ... it didn't feel right . ' i just hope ... i'm not hurting him too much , either . ' or maybe the niwa didn't even have the right to feel sorry and guilty , laying his hands on things that didn't belong to him , feeling awful only after he had already seized and taken whatever dark , if not his own family had desired for themselves , then half-playing pretend .

if those eyes , clear and gentle as fontaine's own lively seas iced over and bore at him , would he have been able to bear it ? or , if they turned stormy , if they plainly wanted to weep , what would have been left but to flee , and never show his face again ? from his windy perch he murmurs an apology to the tame waters --- ' i'm sorry . i'm not trying to take advantage of you . i really do want to be able to talk to you , and be your friend ... ' but one's great influence and rigid position as a judge could be as immutable as a legendary phantom thief's .

' ... even if turns out someday that you can't forgive me , maybe you can at least understand . '