character relationships;
Deidara || clayfireworks || tag: ally . . . mostly
When Pain first arrived in Kannagara, he and Deidara had a spat after Pain was surprised to witness two dreams of Deidara's in which Deidara tortured and killed children purely for sport. This uncomfortably made Nagato remember the atrocities he witnessed during his years living in a war zone, and he lashed out accordingly.
When Deidara later became taunting over Nagato's own dreams, Pain kicked him from the organization. However, Kisame's moderation soothed Nagato's frazzled nerves, and after speaking with Madara, he re-instated Deidara. Since the war plans began, Deidara and Pain have gotten along again. They even found something in common in terms of their mutual affinity for destructive power. With this in mind, any epic fights between Pain and Deidara should not be taken very seriously: probably, Pain is just stressed, and Deidara is just kind of ridiculous.
Or the reverse.
Cho Hakkai || monocled || tag: busybody
Pain wishes he could like Hakkai, given that Konan considers Hakkai a friend, and Pain is grateful that Konan is forming connections with other people. However, the fact of the matter is, Pain can't stand the guy. In fact, he probably dislikes Hakkai even more than he dislikes Konoha, since from where he's sitting, at least the anger of the Konoha shinobi feels as if it's simply a part of the natural order (Pain's actions and feelings, and theirs), but Hakkai is outside of all that. Therefore, to Pain, Hakkai seems to be a busybody who is involving himself in affairs that are of no concern to him. Pain hopes Konan's feelings aren't going to be too hurt when he kills this guy. Oh, well. Hakkai. You did not have to involve yourself, from Pain's perspective!
Haruno Sakura || ground_breaker || tag: obsessed?
Pain has encountered Sakura a few times, and they have had reasonably civil discussions. He has nothing personally against her, except that she's a Konoha ninja, and Konoha needs to be put in its place -- so by definition, she's the enemy.
On a personal level, Sakura makes Pain curious. He does not understand why she cultivates weakness. After all, he is aware of the deal she has made with Madara in order to pursue Uchiha Sasuke. Pain looks at her and he thinks he sees an almost patahological fear of physical and emotional weakness, and he wishes to tell her that this is itself a weakness, and she'd do best to purge herself of it.
(Uh, not that Pain personally cares or anything. Nope. Just his friendly observations.)
Hatake Kakashi || ura_no_ura || tag: smug
Generally, Pain forgets that Kakashi exists. Early on after Pain came to this world, however, Hatake Kakashi did try to speak with him and Konan. That displeased Pain, since as far as Pain is concerned, the Copy Ninja mostly wants to manipulate their feelings to force them into some kind of a surrender. He recounts all these sob stories to try to toy with their emotions and make them become submissive. Pain finds this to be a sneaky strategy, and it aggravated him enough into declaring war in the first place.
Pain does not like it when Konoha ninja attempt to find a point of empathy with him, because his belief is that this is nothing more than a ploy meant to force him into letting his guard down. Besides, they are enemies. Why should they have empathy? Pain suspects that Kakashi also participates in troublesome activities behind the scenes, but he cannot be sure, as they rarely encounter one another.
(Player note: Of course, if Pain were completely invulnerable to emotion, why would such things offend him so much? I choose to believe the fact that he does feel sympathy to a degree is precisely what makes him lash out so badly.)
Hoshigaki Kisame || seeingeyeshark || tag: friendly killer
Nagato has a favourable opinion of Kisame, as the man has been loyal and amicable throughout their years together in Akatsuki. He likes that Kisame is willing to listen to his opinions, and he appreciates the defense of Konan that Kisame has shown throughout the incidents with Konoha.
Additionally, having seen Kisame's dreams, Nagato is angry on behalf of the persecution Kisame has suffered for being different. As a physically disabled person himself, Nagato feels he is able to relate to some degree to the feeling of being physically different and feeling that this difference would make him ostacized. He hopes that Kisame feels he has a home in Akatsuki.
Hyuuga Neji || wingedascension || tag: what the hell?
Pain's interactions with Neji have been greatly limited, but he resents that the boy proceeded to show up on one of his dreams and pass judgment on him. This enraged Pain. It also made him feel validated in his opinion that the denizens of Konoha are vindictive, judgmental, and out for blood.
Konan || papercutrose || tag: <3
Nagato and Konan share a history. Having been together from the time they were about six years old, the two of them have experienced most of the same events in their lives, including the formation of Akatsuki and the loss of their mutual friend, Yahiko. As a consequence of this, Nagato and Konan have an unusually deep bond.
Konan seems to understand Nagato's moods and intentions better than anyone (perhaps even better than he understands himself), and she always seems to read his signals and understand what he's saying, and how best to console him (or how best to give him space, when he needs it, to drown his sorrows in). Her presence puts him at ease, and makes him feel comfortable.
At the same time, Konan is ironically often one of Nagato's major causes of anxiety, as he worries about the fact that her conscience is not always on the same page as his. He knows Konan is frankly a nicer and more forgiving person than he is, and he worries that Konan will be able to form other close relationships with more "normal" individuals, thereby causing her to leave Nagato. Or he worries that there will come a day during which Konan will find his actions so objectionable that she will hate him, and he lives in fear of that day -- which consequently can make him act like a bit of a control freak in running off those who have caused Konan to feel upset out of sympathy, or those who cause her to feel she has somehow been in the wrong for her actions.
The friendship between Nagato and Konan began when Nagato was dying of starvation, and Konan pulled him from a puddle, and gave him bread. Since then, they have experienced virtually everything together. Their relationship is unique due to how isolated the two of them have been for much of their lives. It can be assumed that they spend a great deal of off-screen time together talking, walking in the gardens, visiting the onsen, and making love, as well as other typical-married-couple activities. They are extremely domestic; they like to leave one another voicemails, and references can often be found in their conversations to cuddling, fixing one another food, and such things.
However, despite all this fluffiness, it should be noted that Pain views his relationship as a kind of luxury which he does not always have the time to devote all his attention to; while leading Amegakure and leading Akatsuki, much of his life has been preoccupied with war. Running a shinobi village (and, therefore, a country -- in essence) forces one to be very busy. Being brought to Kannagara has complicated Nagato's plans, his life -- and, therefore, his relationship with his wife. He does not understand why she will sometimes speak of happiness, and in fact, he is pathologically afraid of happiness*, as a particularly satisfied person has nowhere left to go in life, and so there are certainly dangers in being too satisfied.
It is unknown whether Nagato and Konan are legally married, or whether "wife" and "husband" are used to demonstrate their closeness. At any rate, they are married in spirit.
*Nagato is likely manic-depressive.
Mitarashi Anko || crazysnakelady || tag: needs to shut up
Nagato has not interacted with Anko much, but she has done more to fuel his rage than any of the other Konoha ninja -- as she left a series of very taunting responses to one of his dreams. He was pleased to inform her of Konoha's hypocrisy in how it tortured Itachi, and her reaction of horror gave him some satisfaction. He looks forward to getting rid of her in the upcoming war.
Uchiha Itachi || seeing_only_red || tag: torture victim
Nagato feels more innate sympathy for Itachi than he does for just about anyone else in the organization (sans, obviously, Konan) -- probably because Nagato is obsessed with pain, self-sacrifice, self-torture, and duty to causes, and Itachi embodies a lot of these qualities. Moreover, Nagato is aware of the fact that the Konoha higher-ups forced Itachi to massacre his own clan in the name of duty, and out of concern about Uchiha's activities; Nagato sees such a horrific incident (as well as the resulting trauma to the two brothers and their relationship) as symptomatic of the exact monstrosities of the shinobi system which he opposes.
Nagato has shown himself to have a fair amount of insight into Itachi's behaviour, and his sense of a need for a purpose, as well as his need to be hated -- mostly because Nagato has similar needs, although recognizing them in Itachi doesn't seem to make him any better at dealing with them in himself. Likewise, while Nagato is very concerned for Itachi and wants him to be happy, realizing that Itachi is like himself makes him realize Itachi probably can't be happy, and wouldn't want to be, anyway. Therefore, together, they go around in circles of Utter Fail.
Uchiha Madara || parousian || tag: damned Uchiha!
Pain has a love-hate relationship with Madara; he can appreciate what he's saying one moment and detest it the next. On the one hand, Pain is addicted to the hate Madara feeds him. On the other hand, he's sometimes self-aware enough to realize it's bad for him (not always, though, and often he's not), and he also is repulsed by the fact that Madara oozes condescension and insincerity towards everyone and everything -- always silky and laughing. As Nagato is neither silky nor (obviously) prone to laughter, he parses this as dismissive and insincere behaviour, and he is disgusted by it.
Still, he can't deny that Madara is a valuable ally and co-leader, and he likes many of his ideas. Often, Madara's support makes Pain feel validated and secure in his ideology (as does Konan's support), but Pain still resents that Madara has some authority over him, and Madara's overall atttiude towards other people grates him, so sometimes he feels the need to become somewhat passive-aggressive toward the man. In the end, their differences always pale before their mutual hatred of oppression.
Umino Iruka || smiling_umino || tag: pervert
Pain does not know this man, but he resents all his gross dreams. Pain is tired of Konoha pushing filth onto his consciousness.
Yakumo Yukari || necro_fantasia || tag: curious
Pain never really paid Yukari much mind for a while, until she invited him and Konan to a threesome, and they decided to oblige. Well, and before that, there was all the drinking.
Pain is fond of Yukari largely due to the fact that she was one of the few people crazy enough to actually side with Akatsuki (Pain has not had similar luck with Roy Mustang, or Cloud, or most of the other newcomers to this world), but beyond that, he finds her intriguing. He thinks there are deeper qualities about her. She and he have actually had some intelligent and even philosophical conversations here and there. He recognizes an element of cunning in her, and for all that she is apparently callous, she has actually been a helpful friend to himself and to Konan, so Pain doesn't think Yukari is necessarily always as bad as she thinks she is. (Of course, he also would not tell her that, because she'd probably say the same to him, and he doesn't want to hear it.)
He knows she's rather powerful, though he thinks probably not as much so as himself, and he respects her as an ally. (And it kind of makes her sexy to him, since he's never met a woman anywhere near his own level before.) For whatever it's saying -- if Yukari were a male, Pain would probably hate her for being so flippant, and he would feel threatened by her audacity. The fact that she's a female puts him somewhat more at ease, and actually makes her annoying qualities more endearing and attractive.
(Player's note: Okay, I never said Pain was totally progressive about gender, but at least in this case, it works in Yukari's favour. Basically, Pain just doesn't feel the need to get into pissing contests with attractive women who are on his side.)