What we behold [Maxsuz]

It wasn't often that that the thought crossed her mind--rarely ever in the moment--but Medusa couldn't help but wonder if this was a slightly bad idea. She felt Maxsuz's presence before he showed himself, yelping a little from their aura alone: the demon expected someone strong, but this dude was monstrous! 'No wonder Icicle almost sounded afraid talking about the guy,' they briefly mused. 'He could squash me like a bug! I mean, he's not gonna; I'm the Demon Queen. Plus it might not even be him! Could be any random strong guy--'

'--nope, that's him!'

Despite the Himônus's incredibly menacing descent, Medusa only moved back slightly, managing to twisted their shocked expression into something resembling a smile. That she'd actually found him, much less on her first try was nothing short of miraculous--but that just meant she was fated to come out on top here! Her nerves were not enough to stop her, and once Maxsuz had finally reached stopped moving, she...

...nodded. "Mhm!" they responded in their cheery, confident voice. "Glad I got your name right, Mr. Maxsuz; I was a little worried I'd mess it up." Despite her aloofness, Medusa had enough sense to not tell Maxsuz exactly where she got his name from, lest he went out to try and kill Sol and Icicle later. "I'm a demon, man! We see things, we know things. Not hard to figure out someone's name if you're paying attention," they said with a wink, flying around Maxsuz with a giggle amidst her explanation.

"I shoulda started by introducing myself, though. The name's Medus! Witch, Oni, budding mechanic. I do wanna be your apprentice," they said while pointing cheekily at him, "but not just 'cause I wanna get stronger. There's lots of strong guys hangin' around; I even know a few. I came to find you, specifically, because I wanted to ask..."

"What's up with the whole bounty hunter thing?"

Despite how ridiculous her question might have sounded, it was said with complete and utter sincerity. "No, seriously, I'm curious. I guess since you're like, the big bad Maxsuz, people either try to kill ya or try to work for ya. There's probably not a lot of personal introspection between that, is there?" She sat on the floor and looked up to the Himônus with a nervous smile. "Remember, you could get an apprentice if you answer my questions! An apprentice that was smart enough to track you down alllll by herself!" Medusa had the disposition of a clever, annoying puppy; even with the nervous sweat trickling down her face, she didn't stutter for a moment.

'Wait, this is actually gonna work?' she thought with a dumbfounded expression as Maxsuz went on with their backstory. 'Hell yeah--I knew he just needed a bit of poking!' The demon was somewhat dismayed by hearing that her sources weren't up-to-date, though she wasn't too bothered; it's not like Sol or Icicle knew him personally. More importantly, he was here: that was the only piece of information that mattered as far as Medusa was concerned.

With that internal spiel behind her, she listened closely to Maxsuz's speech, staring at him with a mix of intrigue, sympathy and, more than anything else, confusion. 'Why was he opening up so easily?' She'd expected someone of his reputation to have all the chattiness of a boulder. Was she simply that annoying? Did he just not care? 'Or,' Medusa concluded with glee, 'maybe I'm just THAT persuasive! Hahahaha! I wish I could see Icicle's face right now, but I gotta focus.'

After a few seconds of her pacing around, she snapped back to turn at Maxsuz with a thumbs-up, shaking off a lot of the nervousness that had defined her initial reaction. "That was wayy more than satisfying--thank you! Didn't expect ya to be so open. But to be serious for a moment..."

"That does sound awful." She sat down again. "I can't imagine what's it like to have to kill people just to avoid starvin' every day. And I'm guessing ya didn't have a lot of friends to rely on either, right? Otherwise you wouldn't have done all of that to begin with." Despite barely knowing Maxsuz, Medusa seemed to be genuinely sympathetic, perhaps even sad on their behalf; she was a bleeding heart through and through. "But that was a long time ago, right? I'm sure you've got loads of cash now! You could retire and get a new life now! Trust me--I've got a couple of friends that used to be bounty hunters, and once they put it aside, they got so much happier. I could even tell ya how!"

Despite how optimistic they were, she did allow herself to be a slight bit pragmatic. "Well, okay, ya probably can't just quit cold turkey like that. But talking about it's a good start!"

Though she was relived to see him relax a little, Medusa couldn't help but cringe in response to Maxsuz's laughter; even if it wasn't an outwardly malicious emotion, it was definitely not a sign of progress. This view was quickly vindicated by the Himonus's rebuttal to her words: he simply wasn't convinced--which really shouldn't have been shocking to Medusa.

'No DUH he's not on my side yet,' she thought while rolling her eyes, annoyed by their own naivety. 'It took like a year for my friends to turn around, and my mom even longer! Maxsuz has been a meanie for longer than both of 'em combined. But he hasn't tried to kill me, has he?' She smiled defiantly at Maxsuz, standing up to meet them at their eye level. 'That means I'm on the right track!'

"Ya know what? I actually agree with you somewhat; it's definitely not that simple. I read in a book somewhere that behavior change is like, super-duper difficult. Whatcha do for survival eventually becomes a habit, and then second nature. Isn't it? You used to kill for survival, but then since that's all you ever did, now it's just how you are. It's all you know."

"At least, all ya think you know," Medusa said while wagging her finger as if they were a professor. "If killing people was all you were capable of, I'd be dead, so we can throw that theory out easy! And you can cut out all that stupid crap about this being 'what you want'." the Oni retorted, putting--for the first time--legitimate force behind her words.

Her expression went from a sympathetic smile to an annoyed glare. "Seriously--I know it's super hard for you and all. But living like this is objectively terrible and you know it. I apologize for being mean, but I hate it when people hurt themselves and try to act like they're doin' okay. Whatever all of your vendettas might be, I'm pretty sure none of them are any actual fun. Or happy or cool or just...satisfying in literally any way! And that sucks! You deserve better than that!"

Though still frustrated, Medusa's expression softened a little. "Obviously you're not gonna become a teddy bear in a day, but it's not gonna be easy to be your apprentice if ya lie to yourself all the time."

Through some combination of incredible bravery and profound naivety, for a few seconds the demon wasn't even fazed by the death glare sent her way; to her, it was indistinguishable from the reactions that her mother had given when confronted with the same truths...then she remembered who she was talking to. While Medusa didn't run or even back away, her nerves got noticeably tighter. 'Gotta be real careful,' she reminded herself internally. 'If he snaps, I'll disappear the moment he tries to hit me, 'cause dying would be stupid!'

With a bit more confidence on her chances of surviving, Medusa was free to focus on what was important: Maxsuz's true-but-still-kinda-mean statements. She was visibly surprised by Maxsuz's deductions ('Woah! He's super smart!') and ended up sheepishly nodding, deciding that trying to push-back on his guesses wouldn't end particularly well. "Weeell, you're not wrong about us not being friends...but we could be! C'mon, would it really be so bad to have someone around whose not either a business partner or a target? And it's true that I don't know you personally, but I am well-acquainted with your 'type', I guess. Ya know: brooding, lonely, sad, angry, convinced that those things are actually super cool. Sound like anyone ya know, Maxsuz?" She said with a wink.

After teasing him a little, Medusa sighed a little. "I'm uh, sorry about those 'heroes'. Really. I'm sure they had their reasons, but people that'd stab their friends in the back aren't the type of guys I'd ever call good," the Oni said with a scowl. "That'd tick me off royally, too...but I dunno what revenge is gonna do about that. I mean, it makes sense; I'm sure a lotta the people that screwed ya over have it coming...but you've got better stuff to do!"

"Okay, look, take me for example," she began with an over-the-top gesture to herself, still putting flair into their actions even with the current circumstances. "The demon realm sucks! Almost every single person I know treated me terribly. I definitely wanted to give them a beating sometimes--and I did a few times, if I'm being honest! But instead of being all vengeance-y, I tried to become their friend. Everybody says that demons are evil incarnate but, like, I'm a demon, and I'm pretty damn cool, so they could be cool too! It took a while--some longer than others--but I've managed to make a lotta my former bullies come around! If I'd just beaten them up or, worse, killed them, my best friend woulda never existed and my mom would still hate me. And for what? Feeling a bit of satisfaction for a few seconds? Nah. I definitely made the right choice."

"Also!" Medusa added after sudden inspiration. "If ya keep doin' what you're doin', I don't think you'll ever find peace. Let's say you get rid of all the people that hurt ya--how many of those people have friends? Or parents, Or lovers or heck, children? By the time ya settle down for your retirement, you'll have more enemies than whatcha started with. What's the plan there, Maxsuz? They'll either kill you directly or kill you from stress. Tell me: would ya rather do all of that..."

"...or let me be your apprentice so that I can show you how to be a 'good guy'?" Despite her somewhat smug look, she was still genuinely concerned about his well-being, extending a hand towards him. "You're super-smart, so you'll make the right choice!"

Medusa couldn't help but pout in response to Maxsuz calling her a 'naive little thing'; it wasn't a new insult to her, but it was no less annoying--especially being called little. "Okay, I might not be the strongest guy around, but don't talk to me like that! I'm not even that short. And just 'cause I'm a demon doesn't mean I don't understand love--I'm full of love!" Medusa said proudly before realizing that Maxsuz was using a slightly different definition of love. "I-in the emotional sense. I'm not looking to be your girlfriend or something, hell no. I'm glad you've got a partner, though. Helps with being less lonely. That doesn't mean ya don't need other friends, though. Can't hang out with just them all the time, right?"

Seeing Maxsuz burst into laughter inspired a very concerned chuckle from Medusa. 'Oh gosh, I hope he's not gonna try and vaporize me,' she thought briefly, staying on their guard in case he'd decided she was no longer worth entertaining. As it happens, he had decided exactly that, but the object thrown her way wasn't an energy blast, but a...radio? Some pager looking thing? 'Shit, did I actually get to this guy? I can't believe it--they're keeping me around! I mean, of course he is, I'm awesome, but still!'

The immense shock on her face was followed with a somewhat smug, but ultimately delightful grin, giving Maxsuz an adorable thumbs-up before stuffing the communicator in her pocket. "This is freaking fantastic! I knew ya weren't as bad as everyone said! Still disagree on the whole 'this universe is endless suffering' bit, but we can work on that later down the line. I'm not tryin' to be ya therapist and I don't wanna be just a training partner. Whenever I call--or whenever you call--the demon queen," she began with an intentionally overdramatic gesture at herself, "will be there as a friend. Although, if I'm being honest, I'll probably show up whenever. I'm really good at tracking people down after I've seen 'em once," Medusa said, winking. "Not gonna leave ya alone until you become the best version of yourself, whether you like it or not!"