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Darkness.
Golden eyes blinked dimly in the darkness, peering from side to side. For some reason there was a great sense of lethargy that had overtaken his body, so moving his head slightly was all that he could manage to do.
It was dark and cold.
"Where am I?" The young boy spoke, and his voice seemed to echo in the vast emptiness. Naturally, there was no answer, and the young boy frowned, feeling a faint throbbing in his head. For some reason, he felt strangely at peace, though, as if a huge burden had just been lifted off of him.
What was it?
The young boy's eyes narrowed, and he found it in himself to lift a hand, placing it lightly on his forehead. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't recall what this burden was, or where he might be.
For that matter...
"Who am I?"
This time, the darkness answered, with a booming voice that seemed to fill the entire dark void.
"You are my servant." The voice said, and the young boy became alert, the batwings that grew from behind his ears perking up in response. For a brief second, he questioned if he had always had them, before the thought slipped away from his mind, as the voice spoke again. "You are a Selfish, my servant."
"Who are you?" The young boy asked, glancing around him, as if trying to tell where the voice was coming from. "What is this place?"
"I am the Proto Selfishness, your master." The voice spoke again. "This place is no matter. Soon you will be in a different place, with my other servants."
Other servants? Proto Selfishness? Even as there was a slight pain in the young boy's heart that told him something about this was wrong, it lost out to the overpowering darkness. That was right, he was a servant of the Proto Selfishness, wasn't he? He was...
"Don't come over here, you monster!"
For a moment the young boy flinched, his golden eyes going wide. A pain spiked in his heart, and he found himself crying out, placing a hand over his chest. A woman's voice, filled with disdain and horror, one he didn't know... but for some reason, it was also painfully familiar. The scorn the voice carried caused him great pain, but he could not remember why.
"You are a Selfish." The voice spoke again, drowning out all of the young boy's thoughts. "You need not remember anything else."
There was a small hesitation, before the young boy relaxed, his hand slowly dropping from his chest. "That's... right." He said, the memory of the voice growing small, before it faded from his mind completely. His expression gradually began to change, a human-like light seeming to fade from his eyes. "I am a Selfish."
"That's correct." The voice spoke again, and for a moment, it seemed pleased with itself- but perhaps the young boy had only imagined that. "Your name is..."
And for a brief moment, the young boy could hear the vaguest hint of something echoing in his head, something he just couldn't quite make out. Someone was affectionately calling out a name, several people were... but what was that name? For a brief moment, a human-like light resurfaced in his eyes.
"Your name is Ira."
And then the echo of memory was gone, and the humanity with it.
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"What are you so excited about, Marmo? You've been doing and redoing your makeup since this morning." Bel observed, finally asking the question that had been on his mind since he had first woken up. Marmo had been bustling about since then, doing this and that.
Ever since the Proto Selfishness had regained enough power to wake up slightly, after thousands of years of being sealed, his servants had awakened from their slumber as well. Although they could not yet leave the boundaries of the seal, it seemed that the Proto Selfishness had plans that would release them all soon from their prison.
"But, we're getting a new Selfish today." Marmo said, carefully finishing applying her eyeliner yet again. "I want to make a good impression."
"Who cares about that?" Bel muttered, glancing over towards the woman. "It's just some brat. What good could a kid possibly do anyways? It would have been better if the Proto Selfishness had managed to find someone a little older to fill Wrath's shoes."
"A child is fine! Especially compared to all these annoying old men I'm surrounded with. Honestly, if it's not you, it's Riva or Gula or that awful Goma." Marmo huffed, glaring back towards him. "You don't understand how I feel at all, Bel."
"Of course I don't. There's no way I would want to either." Bel observed, heaving an exhausted sigh. He couldn't take much more of this- he hoped that either this newcomer provided him someone interesting to talk to (of which he was doubtful), or that the Proto Selfishness would break the seal soon.
"Hmph. Well, perhaps the new Selfish will understand me better." Marmo pouted a little, closing her makeup bag. "Ahhh~ I can't wait until we're free again. Just think of all the wonderful new makeup that will exist. And I haven't had a spa treatment in forever."
"Hmph. What exactly do you think we were created to do?" Bel scoffed. "Well, it doesn't matter. As long as you follow the Selfishness' orders, what you do in your spare time doesn't concern me."
"As always, you're such a bore." Marmo heaved a sigh. Getting to her feet, she checked over her appearance again, making sure that everything was perfect. Of course, she couldn't help but be excited about the birth of a new Selfish. It had been so long since there had been a new one! And what's more, it was a child as well!
Ahhh, she could see it already! A cute child to call her an older sister, to follow after her every word and heap her with adoring praise. Boy or girl, it didn't even matter!
They both could feel it when there was a brief shift in the seal. Letting things out was one matter, but bringing things in was something that the Proto Selfishness had gotten quite good at. Especially something that the seal would have already recognized as belonging to it in the first place- such as one of his servants.
Well, for all that he claimed he wasn't interested, he was still somewhat curious, and as such, Bel found himself getting to his feet to greet the newcomer as well. He blinked in surprise when he first laid eyes on the... there was a pause for a moment, as if Bel was working something out.
The boy. Yes, the boy was shorter than he expected, even if he was anticipating a child. His facial features... were almost delicate, he noted, with long eyelashes. His short, rather messy looking hair was a shade or two darker than Marmo's, with a strand of hair poking straight up from his head. Like the rest of the Selfish, his eyes were golden, and there were a pair of tiny batwings sprouting from behind his ears.
He gave off a slender and tiny impression, and Bel had difficulty imagining that he would be of much use to him. At the same time, he couldn't help but find himself wonder for a moment- Exactly what had this child experienced that had lead the Proto Selfishness to be able to turn him into a Selfish so easily?
For a moment, there was a brief feeling of something inside the old man's black heart- but it quickly faded away when Marmo made a small noise of excitement, cupping her hands around her chin, her eyes almost glittering.
"Amazing! I've never seen a child so cute before! Hey, what's your name?" She asked, dropping her hands and quickly closing the distance between the two, cupping the young boy's much smaller hands in her own.
"Ira." The boy finally spoke, and his voice sounded a bit hesitant. Still a child after all, Bel supposed, his voice hadn't even cracked yet.
"It's nice to meet you, Ira! I'm Marmo!" The Selfish woman enthusiastically introduced herself. "But it's alright if you want to call me something like onee-san! I'll be here to guide you and everything!"
Something in the young boy's expression shifted, and he locked eyes with the Selfish woman. "Onee-san? Don't you mean something more like old hag?"
With that, the Selfish woman released the young boy's hands in shock, her own golden eyes going wide in shock- before they very quickly narrowed in anger. Bel didn't even attempt to conceal his laughter, which only seemed to make matters worse. "Old hag!?" She sputtered, standing up straight. "And here I thought you would be some cute kid, but you're just some brat! I'm nowhere near a grandmother's age, and I'm not a hag either!"
"An old hag is an old hag." Ira said simply, smirking as he folded his hands behind his head, before glancing over towards Bel. "And? What are you laughing at, old geezer?"
"Ge-geezer!?" Bel sputtered himself, and now it was Marmo's turn to snort. "I'm not that old yet!"
"I don't know about that. Are you even sure that you're still young enough for this line of work anyways, old man? Shouldn't you be planning your retirement or something? Be careful you don't throw out your hip or anything." Ira quipped, his grin growing wider as he noticed Bel's anger levels rising. "Well, you two should be glad to have someone like me around. After all, adults like you are completely useless."
"Hah?" Marmo spoke up, quirking an eyebrow. "If anything, it's children like you who can't do anything. Honestly, what's with your attitude? I thought children were supposed to be taught to respect their elders by their parents. What was your mother even doing?"
"Don't come over here, you monster!"
This time, the voice that rang out in his head vanished almost the instant it emerged from the void of his memories, being pulled back into the darkness without much note. However, for a long moment, there was an image that lingered- a locked door, the inhabitant of the room rendered inaccessible of their own will.
But that too, faded into the void of his memory, becoming forgotten as well.
"Mother?" Ira asked, quirking an eyebrow, scoffing at the notion. "I didn't ever have something like that in the first place."