31 days theme exchange: "To feed such hunger"

[tarigwaemir]

To feed such hunger

As he feels the tentacles of the stone mask sinking through his scalp, burrowing through his skull, and piercing into his brain, he wonders why he feels no pain. Surely it can't be this easy.

Then he does feel pain, a sort of gnawing beneath his flesh, itching and crawling through his mouth and eyes and ears. A vast emptiness that threatens to bubble inside of him, which he needs to fill at all costs. Hungry, he thinks, half-dazed, as he feels his body heal from the bullet wounds.

He staggers to his feet and focuses on Jojo, his honest face and stalwart form. More than ever, he wants to devour it until there's nothing left.

END

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

BETTER AND BETTER. Every line of this is awesome. I especially like "A vast emptiness that threatens to bubble inside of him, which he needs to fill at all costs."

I wonder, was there something in the mask that might have driven Dio to radically re-evaluate his goals? No longer content with obtaining the Joestar fortune, now he must obtain THE WORLD.) Araki tends to write him as someone who's always had a lot of ambition, only now he actually has the power to rule humanity. But a partially biological explanation is really interesting to think about too.

[troisroyaumes]

I like ascribing pseudo-biological explanations to everything! XD My pet theory is that Dio did have the endless ambition from the beginning, but the mask turned it into a kind of uncontrollable need. ^_^ Yay, glad you liked this! Dio's hard to write because (as you've said before) it's not like there's a secretly redeemable side to him; he's just unabashedly evil and proud of it. I kind of want to know what's going on in his head, other than the "I want to rule the world" megalomania...then again, maybe I don't want to know. XD

warning: essay

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

The way I see it, Dio's will to power is the result of growing up powerless. He's a stronger person than his stupid, abusive, alcoholic father, and yet his father was still able to completely dominate his mother (and kid!Dio, though I think he would probably like to forget this). A situation like that, coupled with native ability and a HUGE ego, is like a recipe calling the assertion of dominance in an unjust world. I think in his head you'd see:

1. A lot about being THE smartest and strongest and most fabulous,
2. fondness for subordinates who accept the truth of #1,
3. distaste for weakness,
4. certainty that the world is unfair, and
5. nearly limitless drive for control, which he subconsciously equates with personal security.

3 gets made much of because it's sociopathic, but I think that what's driving Dio to act as he does is actually 5, with 4 justifying the means.

Some of this comes from secondhand reports of Diego (AU!Dio) in Steel Ball Run. XD; Diego is by no means pure evil. Charmian was saying that she thought the reason they were different was that Araki has become a better writer, which is true, but if your pet theory is right Diego's lack of mysterious Aztec vampire-creating mask might also be a reason.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The explanation doesn't even have to be biological - the fact of an immense supernatural power like the mask would be enough. At least, I always assumed that Dio meant to go as far as he could by unscrupulous worldly means: having obtained the Joestar fortune he would have aimed for a position of power in society, politically or otherwise, even if the path weren't clearly plotted in his head. (Given his pick of demands, Diego wanted the island of Manhattan ceded to him. XD) But as the rational atheist he probably was, it wouldn't have occurred to him to want to become a god-figure over humanity.

Then the power falls into his hands. In that sense he's very like Light, come to think of it. XD

(The drabble is lovely, Tari! Sorry for coopting the thread. XD)

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

(Ah, I really liked it... especially the last sentence, I think. Dio's hard to get a grip on, I think because empathy with at least one aspect of a character leads to writing that person more accurately and I think I would be frightened of anyone who empathized much with Dio... XD But this feels very strongly correct, and it grips the reader!! Aaaah you CLEARLY should write more!!! But I don't know what to say to make you write more!! I asked Sabinya but she didn't know! D: Thus I will fall back on how I always am. XD;;;)

MOAR >:O!!!!!!!!!!