[ Recognition is powerful. Of all the vulnerabilities inherent in free-thinking entities, loneliness is the easiest by far to identify; isolation on its own is unbearable to most, but being an island in a crowd can feel like digging into half-healed wounds and tearing them open, again and again.

In life, Douman has felt both: the agony of being more talented than most, and the soul-rending torture of exile, of being banal. He's burned himself to ashes too many times not to know.

So. He feigns delight. The act comes easyー this is what "Ashiya Douman" would do or say, after all. "Limbo" sits under "Douman's" skin, wondering what it'd take for such a beautiful creature like Hayame to break. ]

Mmmmmm, yes! So you're aware of Hinomoto-no-kuni! [ A purposefully antiquated way to refer to the country of his origin. ] Though you might come from a slightly different variation of it, as even our illustrious Heian-kyo, boasting its abundances, wasn't home to those as yourself while I was still in it.

How interesting, how interesting.