āāāāāā :Ā ā Hmm... I guess I should be sayinā congratulations or whatever... ? Wouldāve helped if youād gotten us outta here before I kicked it but whatever, right? ā
She was sharp and she didnāt take any of his bullshit. Not to mention her relationship with Julia wasnāt exactly subtle.āObnoxiousā is a word which came to mind, but it wasnāt the right one. There was just something about Koharu that almost mandated that he wasnāt allowed to look down his nose at her. Maybe it was because sheād demonstrated her intelligence right off the bat, made it clear that she was one of his least favorite types of people, the kind who were able to genuinely go about completely unbothered by his antics (not that he wanted to make a huge effort to annoy her in the first place... ...though if heād figured sheād murdered Rie heād kick himself for not taking Julia hostage instead!!)Ā
He knows she probably doesnāt have a lot of respect for him... well, alright, so the fact that sheād stabbed his corpse with the stake sort of elicited that lack of fondness but even before then it was very obvious that Koharu was more interested in getting out alive than taking a few seconds to pay attention to him which is... partially the reason why he did something so drastic during Rieās trial.Ā
Admittedly, by that point Malachi was so sick of Murder Boat that he wanted out. As soon as possible. And as soon as Koharu brought up the possibility of pointing out the mastermind and escaping he... got. A little too enthusiastic and hence opted to take whatever means necessaryĀ to extract the information from her (way to be subtle about it right ha ha) but of course they couldnāt just ignore Rieās case so the whole... Hiyuu thing happened. And it didnāt even work to his advantage considering the killer was the very same person who had that Vital Information (alright fine he didnāt knowĀ that but- ).
Honestly the whole stunt put a huge damper on his mood (and the fact that theyād gotten it wrong made matters worse) and afterwards he was feeling. Very (unfairly) negatively towards Koharu because sheād gotten his hopes up and then they were wrong and basically he was a huge baby about it but his overall opinion on her at the present is pretty neutral because on one hand, yeah, he found that her ability to just ignore him was a little infuriating (bc he sucks and wants to make everyone suffer at least once) but on the other he couldnāt fault her for wanting to leave the ship in one piece (and hey, she did help immensely!!).Ā
For real, did these two even talk to each other at all?Ā
Okay, more realistically:
Bina seriously thinks bullshit of Malachi. A aspect of her that never came up too much especially once she died was the fact that she was, you know, pretty religious. Sheās Jewish by nature and everything else (part of her family), and while her family is pretty chill about religion in nature, Bina wasnāt quite so. So to see someone who was reputedly such a figure of a religious nature be such a ā¦ well, to be more frank (as she has been lately), a asshole, one canāt help but think badly of him for marring such a thing.Ā
She doesnāt actually really hate him though, just you know, has the super ironic thought of the fact that he could go back onto Godās path. Yeah, Binaās kind of a hypocrite.
Soā¦ yeahā¦ that and thereās the whole Itsuki thing. Letās not go there. Tis a silly place.
Lucian had a pretty negative idea of Malachi, honestly. There were some things at the beginning where they maybe could have been friends if the cards played right? But Lucian was #wary about the whole exorcism thing. (Lucian was raised Romanian Orthodox which might have some bearing on his opinion? but I digress). Basically, anyone that he was half worried might try to stake him or throw holy water on him would not exactly be someone heād want to let his guard down around.
Honestly between these two and all of the bullshit they pulled in trials Iām surprised these kids got ANYWHERE because lets face it, both of them are full of s h i t.Ā
Butā¦ even if Lucian didnāt particularly like him, Lucian felt bad for Malachi when he was randomly chosen to be punishedā¦ and he felt guilty for not helping.Ā
Granted. All of that guilty went away the second that Malachi lost his shit and grabbed Hiyuu. I canāt explain how upset that made Lucian he was SO NOT OKAY with that likeā¦. It sent him into a panic because he knew Malachi was probably crazy enough to do it, too. Of course he wasnāt expecting to be asked to prove his guilt so that kind of threw him for a loop, but at least he triedā¦
And at least he got Malachi to let Hiyuu go. But as Lucian panicked becauseĀ āHoly shit I could have gotten myself killedā he was also definitely building up a grudge against Malachi.
He was 100% not okay with Malachi. He didnāt trust him, didnāt want him anywhere near Hiyuu or Julia, he wanted Malachi out of the picture. And then that motive came up, which really bothered Lucian for reasons talked about in the spoiler essay, and it was only natural who heād choose.Ā
Malachi, the one who no one liked. Malachi, who was a loose cannon. Malachi, who had threatened Hiyuu.Ā
The choice was easy. Now the method, not so much. I donāt know why Lucian thought Malachi would be stupid enough to answer an unsigned note while a motive was active that saidĀ āMeet me at 3amā but God Malachi actually did it (and then no one even checked Ā his pocket to find the noteā¦). So the question really isĀ āwhich one of the two made the dumber decisionā there.Ā
Lucian REALLY didnāt think the whole thing out though because well, he hadnāt wanted to do anything that drew blood. It was kind of just aĀ ājust in caseā sort of thing that he ended up glad he hadā¦ And to be quite honest he vented a little bit of panic and frustration into Malachiās head there. Sorry Malachi (but Lucian wasnāt).Ā
When he died, he was still not actually sorry. Like, he knew he did a bad thing, but he still Did Not Like Malachi, so it was frankly a lot closer toĀ āIām sorry I got caught.ā But goodnessā¦. their conversation outside of Hiyuuās room, with Malachi taunting him and just generally being an ass, it wasā¦ Well, Lucian at that point was low enough feeling that his dislike for Malachi wasnāt enough to make him not listen to what the exorcist was saying, but rather it fueled him to thinkĀ āMalachi is right.ā Itāsā¦ probably largely Malachi that convinced Lucian that everyone hated him TBH. If Malachi hadnāt been saying the things he had, who knows, maybe Lucian wouldnāt have hit rock bottom like he did. But then again Lucian did kill him so Iād say it was justified.Ā
That was probably the lowest that Lucianās opinion of Malachi was, in the time from Hiyuu getting threatened to sometime during chapter 8. Currently, heā¦ well, he certainly still dislikes Malachi, that much is certain. But in this mastermind trial, instead of getting mad about Malachi voting for him, he actually was slightly relieved (slightly) that Malachi was at least not just blindly doing what everyone else was doing, because Lucian was definitely freaking out about the fact that this was their last chance and no one was questioning it. So, I guess that shows that his view of Malachi isā¦ not quite so abysmal anymore???
Then Malachi ended up being the only wrong vote anyways tfw.
tl;dr: Lucian really doesnāt like Malachi, like Malachi is literally the person Lucian likes least. Probably even under Ichigo for putting them through all of this to be honest. -9/10 would kill again.
For the first few trials, she didnāt think anything bad of him, though she did get disturbed when he suggested eating bodies bc ā??? DUDE No???ā but she figured he just wanted to lighten up the trial with some dark humor, so she never held that against him much.
Her dislike started to form a little after dying, when he mispronounced her name and then kept making leg puns. Okay, sheā¦ really the name thing just kinda confused her, but the leg puns got to her because it felt like he was just making a joke out of it? And putting too much attention on something she didnāt want people paying attention to.
It got worse after he admitted he made himself suspicious BECAUSE he wanted everyone to fuck up and wanted to see how theyād react, because in bird culture that is considered: a dick move. after that, it became a pretty decent hatred, where she didnāt actually want him to die so she wouldnāt have to deal with him, but she also preferred he died above anyone else. At that point, she disliked him more than Itsuki, because then it was only mild salt.
At trial 5, she could sympathize a bit with him losing a close friend, btu honestly she DIDNāTā¦ REALLY CARE MUCHā¦..
And holy shit after trial 6 she WAS SO INCREDIBLY SALTY AT HIM FOR THE STUNT WITH HIYUU. that was pretty much what got her the saltiest at him, and she wanted so little to do with him. she appreciated him revealing Itsuki had killed her, but otherwise he was a Giant Shit in her eyes.
And as I mentioned in the chat, she felt nothing when he died, aside from envy that Itsuki had gotten their friend back while she still felt overall very alone. But after PUNCHING MALACHI IN THE FACE IM SO SORRY, a lot of her anger at him kinda ebbed? She still hates him and wants nothing to do with him, though. She did also suspect him for mastermind (and secretly hoped he was so Itsuki would be upset), but once he was confirmed Pure she stopped caring about that.
At this point, she doesnāt feel any extreme anger at Malachi, and by now sheād probably say sheād prefer to be in a room with Malachi than Itsuki, but she also wants nothing to do with Malachi if she can help it. To her, heās just far too insensitive and even cruel, and while she doesnāt believe heās as bad as Itsuki, she just plain feels unpleasant around him.
(TL;DR malachi is my son and noelle is a salty french baby)
alternatively titled why cant i just paste the entirety of the devilma n manga under the cut while im waiting for my lp to refill itself and b4 i do stars i figure i should probably explain a few things about malachi;; !!!
(cw; LOTS of paranormal stuff getting discussed if youāre uncomfy w/ that iād ,, opt out since his backstory is chock full of the stuff!!)
the short version: shigeru natadama was possessed by a spirit who called themself malachi. possibly. the entire possession thing is ambiguousĀ and there are several things about shigeru that imply that maybe he wasnāt even possessed at all (but iām getting ahead of myself,,!)
the long version starts w/ shigeru natadama growing up in the united states (specifically hawaii like most of his waves although this time instead of growing up in hilo he grew up in kohala in hawaiāi and eventually moved to pearl city in oahu but thatās.. not...entirely important. sort of? I mean the fact that he grew up in hawaii specifically does have a purpose but ANYWAY) raised by both his mother and father (who are Good People and never asked for any of this. actually??? they dont even know about the wholeĀ āpossessed by a spiritā thing if im being honest but im jumping ahead again).Ā
hawaii is known for having lots of strange, paranormal happenings -- lots of urban legends (night marchers, menehune, the green lady, tHE THING ABOUT NOT TAKING LAVA ROCKS I S2FG IF YOU DO IT -- and my personal favorite are noppera-bo/mujina... the most famous of which was, incidentally, named kozo) and shigeru was basically a magnetĀ for those things tho he never thought anything of it when he was younger thinking it was just his imagination (lmfao @ him tho like i see u starin at ur shoes when the night marchers walk by ur not fooling anyone, fucker, )
it wasnāt until middle school that he really got into it when he actually had a very close encounter w/ a noppera-bo which basically went down like thisĀ im not even joking.
and thus began shigeru natadamaās fascination with the paranormal. if you want the truth a lot of the scars (especially those on his arms and legs) were caused by things like broken glass and loose nails -- he had one hell of a time deliberately enteringĀ āhauntedā zones trying to provoke spirits and shit, yāknow, just for giggles.
the typical obake is fun and all but because most of the spirits werenāt exactly.. malevolent enough for his taste, he started delving further and further into the more gruesome and detrimental entities and, understandably, his parents got a little (read: very) concerned for his wellbeing and shipped him off to japan to study under an uncle who was a highly esteemed professor who his parents trusted wouldnāt put up w/ the spoopy bullshit.Ā
his uncle... actually... didnāt care whether shigeru went around getting his kicks by hanging out with ghosts (āis that what u call ur friends nowadays???ā) as long as he did his work and studied thus shigeru -- now in japan where there were more myths to be explored -- continued as he always had until one day he went... a little too far.
iām pretty sure a majority of you have heard of hitori kakurenbo/hide and seek by yourself but if youāre unfamiliar with the game the basic gist of it is that you summon a spirit and give it a temporary physical form (typically a stuffed animal you do NOT want to host the spirit in a fukcing,, HUMAN..) so it can play this sort of uh. violent tag game (w/ the hiding element of course... nad by violent i mean you have to stab the thing w/ like. a pencil or smthn in order to tag it and if it finds u itāll do the same so most people suggest not using like. a knife when u play bc thingsāll get Messy if u do,).Ā
SO BASICALLY
shigeru read an article online about a haunted train station and bc i didnāt mention the specifics of the incident on his app (i didnāt think it too important to the overall outcome of his history riP;; ) so iāll,, take time to talk about it here,,!!!
itās basically malachiās history though the future ghost in question wasnāt named... malachi the name was given later (and also one of the reasons why the possession thing shouldnāt be taken as definite) though for simplicityās sake iāll refer to the individual as malachi anyway;;!!
SO . Ā youāll recall that shigeru could see/communicate w/ spirits and what he got out of malachi was that they were the ghost of someone whoād gotten shoved in front of a moving train by a group of friends. why anyone would want to that is...well, if you know what malachi is likeĀ -- ... which is actually difficult to ascertain given that after meeting malachi, it became nearly impossible to figure out where they and shigeru differed bUT AGAIN IM GETTING.. .AHEAD.. GOD... I SHOULDāVE PLANNED THIS OUT BUT UH
so shigeru wanted to trap the spirit (āmalachiā) haunting the train station in the little stuffed animal during his playthrough of hitori kakurenbo (which might be kind of fun to imagine given how he had to improvise w/ the whole bathtub thing) MOSTLY because he wanted some kicks and nothing else. seriously. enough already get a better hobby.
needless to say shigeru succeeded in contacting the spirit and arrived home the next day telling his uncle that he made a pact with a spirit who said. in exchange of letting them roam around in his body every once in awhile (never a good sign) theyād help him contact spirits better and heād never be bored again and since shigeru natadama fears nothing more than leading a boring existenceĀ of course he struck up the deal and his uncle (obviously) didnāt believe him.
and then things got a little weird.
shigeruās mannerisms changed dramatically after the whole train station thing. the once geeky but otherwise quiet shigeru natadama was suddenly??? talkative. loud. charming too but not in a good way.Ā
if heād been around people long enough for them to call him a friend theyād be unsettled and confused by his sudden changes but considering how little his uncle knew him he simply attributed the shift to the change of environment, like shigeru was finally used to him/japan. his parents thought the same thing too when they visited and overall absolutely no one questioned it. lucky for him huh?
it wasnāt until shigeru got into exorcism that he fully embraced the fact that he was (supposedly) no longer shigeru and went by the name malachi after the (supposed) prophet who wrote about the end of the world much like john in revelations (though what he wrote is less important than the whole debate over whether the prophet himself actually existed which is the allusion i was trying for,,, also the fact thatĀ āmalachiā translates intoĀ āmy messengerā and, well,... considering howĀ āmalachiā functions...) which also went unquestioned because people figured it was just the name he chose to use for the job.
as for religion? natadama was raised a Roman CatholicĀ however it should be noted (as it was in his public biography) that under his uncle he studied lotsĀ of other belief systems. of courseĀ āmalachiā wasnāt catholic so (whether he was actually malachi or not) there wasnāt much of a need for him to put up the whole Good and Saintly Individual act (he didnāt necessarily need it for his job considering his successes hint heavily at the fact that -- while he may not be possessed -- he can still communicate with spirits... that said his exorcisms arenāt exactly conventional).
IN ADDITION.
a running theme with all of malachiās waves (sans the first im sorry he doesnāt count like,, ever bc he was just a [yuri lowenthal voice] persona) is that he tends to take certain concepts to extremes. in the case of his w2 (who iāll try not to talk about too much bc i might use him one day?? maybe.), he takes the idea ofĀ āsurviving as a humanā a little tooĀ far and in this case shigeruās own fear of living a boring life drives a lot of his actions. the reason why he cracked jokes, made himself out to look suspicious during noelleās trial, threatened hiyuu, answered lucianās note -- none of that was out of actual malevolence or genuine desire to get hurt for the sake of getting hurt, but rather a sense of wanting to escape boredom. itās, of course, a not very ah... safe. way to live. itās not healthy, and, yeah, itās really stupid but unfortunately thatās his constant mentality. itās the reason why he wasnāt really?? bothered. by the fact that this was life or death and was actually kind of excited during the first few deaths because he wasnāt bored.
thereās a lot more i could say on malachiās state of mind but go d iād start talking in circles and this post is already long enough SO. iām leaving it as thi s..!!!
H*KC ALRIGHT I GOTTA
sleep
soon . but .. feel free to send me aĀ ā for opinions??? iāll definitely b hoppin on those tomorrow in addition to malachiās spoilers,,!! probably wonāt be posting his app considering itās really dated (tho i might share some prompts who knowS,,!!) but i will be covering a few things concerning his spoilers regardless s o welcome to HELL ,,,!!
uuUHHH,, also ,!!! it might b 2 early to talk abt this but iāll probably forget if i dont say smthn now aA;;!
iām planning on apping to,,!! sod2,,!! my hopefulās over at shslpoolshark so feel free to hmu if u wanna pregame or anything >:ā0,, !!! kaname is... a breath of fresh air after This Guy >:ā|
Long stretches of silence were hardly new to him, but the sheer boredom was something heād never really had to deal with before. Even the smallest scrap of paper could provide a couple minutes of entertainment if he had a pencil on him.
(ā¦ Heā¦ he was never going to be able to make another game again, was he.)
(Fuuuuuck.)
Sure, it wasā¦ reassuring, as revolting as the word was, to have someone else in the room with him. Yuu was his most frequent guest ā Mitsuru didnāt know if the guy had a complex or what the hell his reason could possibly be for volunteering so much of his time to tend to him, but the guyās presence was something he was just starting to get used to. However incompetent he was ā however annoyingĀ he was, acting like he was his goddamn babysitter ā it was reassuring. Which was precisely why Mitsuru preferred to be left alone.
Normally heād just sleep, but right now he didnāt feel particularly tired at all. Maybe he couldCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG
āā thā FUCKāā
Deep in the hours of the night, when Yuu had fallen asleep and the only danger was some otherĀ kind of unwelcome visitor, heād practiced. The motions were far from fluid, since he hadnāt done it enough for muscle memory to set in, but once he realized that someone was fucking shaking the bedĀ his hand flew to his pillow and found what he had carefully stowed away underneath.
He didnāt think to scream or curse. But just as that unknown hand clamped down on his shoulder, Mitsuru swung with as much force as he could muster andā
Well, he couldnāt exactly aim, but the feeling of flesh and fabric giving beneath the scalpel blade was good enough for him.
On a list ofĀ āThings Malachi was notĀ expectingā getting stabbed by Mitsuru Kouzo was...definitely one of them.
āhHGh --!ā
It was the first sound heās uttered in agesĀ born entirely out of shock and not anything comprehensible past noise. Thereās the clattering of things falling to the floor as he stumbles backwards, the feeling of blood -- his blood -- soaking through his shirt. Shit, shit, sHIT -- !!!!!Ā
Well, okay, he was overreacting, it actually wasnāt that badĀ considering heād managed to very unsuccessfully dodge the blade enough to get away with a shallow, but still open wound. Thanks for ruining my shirt, asshole -Ā
Clearing his throat the exorcist marches past Mitsuruās bed, retrieving a bandage for himself before the rabbit (seemingly finally) appears behind him.
Monothea: Malachi | THEREāS ONLY ONE OTHER FUCKINā THING NEEDED FOR THE SABBATH ANā THATāS PLENTY OF BLOOD HYAAAAAAAAHHHHHG | RE: Execution
He watched the entire thing ā of course he did. There was no way heĀ wasnātĀ going to watch, not when he told himself he wasnāt going to be disappointed when he died and there was no one else on this ship that he had a significant opinion on (that werenāt those fleeting flashes of irritation whichā¦were starting to become more frequent? Yikes!).Ā
And thenā¦ it was overā¦sort of? Mitsuru Kouzo is probably dead, most likely, but thenā¦ Why is he so uncertain? Is the exorcist feelingĀ hopefulĀ that Mitsuru isnāt actually dead or -Ā No, thatāsā¦wrong. His expression takes on that insufferable grin again as he exits the room. Is he actually going to help look for him? If asked, of course, heād simply chock it up to the fact that he wants to laugh at his remains ā and why wouldnāt he? The exorcist has already done a number of tasteless things in front of the bodies of his dead companions, telling ill-timed jokes or merely shrugging it off; like human lives meant so little to him.
He supposes, in his heart, thereās a little annoyance. Annoyance that they didnāt get to fully witness Mitsuruās painful ordeal, but hey - he suffered regardless, right? And that was all that mattered.Ā
Exiting the courtroom he felt as if this particular trial wasā¦ well, it was upsetting, yes, but something else too. Had he been that desperate to escape that heād lost himself during the moments heād taken Hiyuu hostage? And in the endā¦ itā¦ hadnāt paid off, had it? Though he had little right to point fingers at people for their failure, and if it was some sort of consolation, at least one person wasĀ definitelyĀ not the mastermind.
I just wantĀ offĀ this fuckinā boat already, he thinks to himself heading out to the third deck, not wanting to follow the others he knew were going to investigate elsewhere.Ā Wouldnāt wanna impose, right?Ā
