if this guy turns out to have anything to do with Akechi, he's in for a wild ride
Dio has no idea what to make of this guy. Akira is consistently kind. He sees injustice, he fights it. He says working together is the best way. He even checked in on Dio during the investigation of Wake's death, a human contact that unsettled him greatly in light of committing the crime and fully detaching himself. If more people were like Akira, maybe Free the Soul never would have existed in the first place.
And yet, every person like Akira was murdered. All the warm people who loved their friends but never thought to hurt strangers for their sake—they were murdered. The only thing saving Akira from a similar fate was Dio bumping into Wake's trust, and the personal bias of Akechi and Kurama. That a good person could love anyone like them is staggering. He sees Akira putting his life on the line for them and not getting the same love back, and he feels negative emotion. In his bitterness it mostly comes out as contempt for all three of them. Akira is the one from whom Dio stole a jacket, though. Deep down, he wants Akira to flourish, as his ally.
He approached Dio with an offer of a burger, even though this was secretly a plan to check for poison. While theoretically cynical about the sincerity of strangers and their kindness, Dio has very little experience in the face of kindness when practiced, so his emotional reaction was to quickly develop moderate feelings of friendship. As two men of about the same age and comparable coarse sensibilities, not to mention a resentment of certain older men in their lives, they can converse pretty freely, as "bros" if you will. Dio thinks it is pretty silly to name favorites in a situation like this but his favorite would easily be Britt.
Takes Dio back to the good old days of sharing a drink with a business associate. Didn't have a stick up his ass about the crime despite his heroic tendencies; they agreed about the necessity of condemning the Fabricator.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡
Dio felt pretty bad that Britt got shit from Akechi for having an actual sense of justice. He never really dwelt on it, though. Like his past business associates, they parted ways after his mission. Chilling out somewhat in the wake of his job change, Dio has warmed up to the idea of a friendly visit.
A woman with whom he had not yet spoken directly, Dio's impression of her at the meeting was an absurdly serious person focused on magical loopholes and communal living. While falling short of actively irritated, Dio is not currently intrigued by Croix at all.
Dio thought about her very little at first; like Ursula but with slightly less noisy optimism, not in his face so much, and of his ardent critics the one who incorporated logic the best. Dio still hated her for opposing him at all, though.
Her logical approach caught Dio by surprise once the second trial came around. Croix expressed an internally consistent point of view. Activity is often better than passivity. The perception of defending a person other than oneself is good. Child abuse is a mitigating factor in juvenile convictions. Dio's handlers warned him that outsiders believe these kind of things about the glorious industrious Myrmidons.
But she corporally punished Helena just for verbal disagreement. Dio believes deep down that senseless prosecution of the innocent is bad. He lost all faith in humanity at large upon learning Croix acted as Fabricator to help Ursula. Why didn't she give him back the gold chain? It was the only reason he was even found guilty. For those few days he felt deeply prosecuted by everyone but Helena in the world.
At the same time Croix was the Titled who worked hardest on finding a peaceful way out. Helena openly called her labile, cementing Dio's skepticism for a long time yet, but Dio has stopped openly deeming her an obstacle.
Dio is currently very unhappy with this individual. The self-styled detective appears familiar with international customs in a way that chafes at Dio, whose own travels have inculcated far less information into him. On a more serious note, Akechi preaches the virtues of sharing personal information and taking solidarity in less murderous "well-known acquaintances". Even if Dio did not have robust rhetorical objections to this mindset, he happens to have strong personal reasons for not being forthcoming, and he is in a weak position with no preexisting friendships and little interest in forming new ones, so he attempts to tear down Akechi's higher status.
From the word go, Akechi rubbed Dio the wrong way. He was nosing around for information that Dio wouldn't want to divulge under the best of circumstances, and once Dio set his heart on activating Rule Seven, Akechi the busybody was actively detrimental. Akechi also made a show of his cosmopolitan qualities. This really irked Dio who had never travele the world, eaten nice food, or studied the arts. He perceived Akechi as exactly the sort of spoiled little police brat who would have been bribed to exonerate the murderer of his ancestor Left. Dio has been thoroughly indoctrinated to consider these people as corrupted puppets instead of trustworthy righters of wrongs in mainstream society.
Dio was distressed when Akechi condemned him but mostly because his own life was in danger. Akechi had never been an ally and wasn't betraying him, per se. When Dio recognized there was no digging himself out of this hole, he took a petty delight in dragging Akechi down with him as much as possible. Akechi was the symbol of what Dio really thought was killing him: A filthy world Dio had to risk his life fighting. He even speculated Akechi was just sucking up to cover his tracks for a future crime of his own.
The trial and execution of Goro Akechi changed Dio's life forever. For the first time Dio fully experienced the pain of his unfair circumstances. He heard that young men taking murder orders from old men were abuse suriors, and instructions to trust no outsiders were a manipulation tactic. But these sweet words weren't directed at Dio. No, they were talking to Akechi. The detective who told Dio that his mission in life was bringing harmers of innocents to justice, Dio's mission be damned? No, he murdered two completely innocent people because the only innocents he actually cared about avenging were himself and his mother, and he was going to achieve this goal somehow by murdering people to benefit his Japan-governing biological father!
Dio had been raised for murder-suicide missions his entire life. When he came into contact with a corrupted woman, he survived harsh punishment. That Akechi would not accept the risk of death for stoppng Shido's ongoing crimes, that he wanted to live to see the look on Shido's face, that he thought protecting his beloved Akira outweighed his principles of not killing innocent people—Dio saw greed that went far beyond his own execution of orders.
And everyone loved him. Akechi in his last minutes thought he had more dignity than Dio. Three people risked their whole-ass lives for him. The only person with serious concerns was slapped. Dio learned that love really existed, but it wasn't for him. Wanting love was unreasonable and painful, so Dio channeled his negative emotions into his preexisting dislike of his adversaries. And in the graveyard the only adversary available on such short notice was Akechi himself.
Underneath all his pettiness and immaturity Dio is an adult. He can sometimes follow the principles of not making things awkward. When he first saw Akechi again he made a cold but sincere inquiry into tactics. When Akechi revealed his notions of giving up, Dio really lost it—even now Akechi was not conducting himself in a heroic manner and yet acted like he had a leg to stand on next to Dio. This was the best Dio could do at trying to make peace, and he sank back into potshots at Akechi's hypocrisy instead of getting vulnerable with his true grievances. Good or evil, Dio wrote off Akechi as an unlikeable snob. And yet without comparing himself to Akechi, his master to Shido, he never would have become the good person he is today.
A girl so little that Dio almost finds it distracting. Almost.
A kid but as far as Dio is concerned the most level-headed civilian among them, even if the prospect of a comrade's guilt fills her little stomach with bile. Dio got a rise out of her discomfort when he praised her before his execution.
While as melancholy for Akechi and Kurama as anyone, she most fully reversed course that Dio was also "just a dumb boy who made a mistake". Joey has great commentary in RFA. Dio never spares a thought for her, though.
Another teenager, apparently not ridiculously reluctant to say the K word.
A young assassin, but not the type who has to hide it? Dio doesn't really get it, this line between smug judgment and pragmatism. He feels a little bad for Karma getting suspected in the second trial, though, and their RFA conversations have been amicable enough.
A man of few words, he was brusque with Dio at the trial. Dio appreciates the bluntness to an extent but is rather annoyed that nobody seems to mind bluntness and a bloody career when Loewe does it. That doesn't say much about Loewe himself, and credit is due for a sacrifice.
A snappy dresser, Dio will give him that. They haven't actually spoken, but Dio has jumped to conclusions based on his complicated experiences with paternalistic/authoritarian figures, and his opinion is already in the negatives.
Dio hated Ren the instant he learned the man's age. Though a lecherous man who annoyed him with a smoking habit, Ren modified his behavior whenever Dio called him out. He was much less forceful in accusations at the trial. Dio was too busy being a dick to appreciate any of this.
In the kill or be killed game, Ren was one to just be killed. Dio had to acknowledge that Ren was putting it all aside to support their efforts at rebellion. He still never got attached to Ren, though.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡ Eventually Ren posted to the chatroom right when Dio experienced stress in his life, and Dio took it out on him. Ren reacted calmly enough that Dio tried to recruit him into his religion, which he finally let slip was a cult that ordered him to murder. Ren acknowledged point blank that Dio was an abuse survivor under duress no less than Goro and apologized for any earlier misgivings. Dio was not ready to cut off the cult then and there but he briskly forgave Ren.
The debt Dio owes Ren is rather large. He thought nobody but Helena and Seven would ever accept him anywhere in the world. When Dio left the cult and Seven could not accommodate him on his couch anymore, Dio crashed with Ren for several months.
Interesting philosophical guy, though still "shonen" enough to rub Dio the wrong way. Wiser than his years - maybe that's what the "1000+" thing is about?
Dio tolerated this guy at first. While he rarely connects with jokesters, Kurama was at least consistently benevolent and therefore could get his intelligence through to Dio. In the trial he was adversarial but much more focused on the detriment to his own group than condemnation of Dio himself. Kurama earned himself a nod for his concerns about the Fabricator.
When Kurama first displayed empathy for Akechi, all the shouting melted together. The consensus was clearly that Dio had made a worse impression than Akechi, so Dio paid little mind to the question of why Kurama particularly cared. Kurama became openly attached to the idea of an arrangement between himself, Akira, and the late Akechi. This was a little morbid but none of Dio's business.
Then Kurama committed murder because according to his spiritual beliefs the possible benefits vastly outweighed the drawbacks. He confessed this motive precisely as he refused to become a shattered jewel with the others. Instead he reverted to casualty minimization reasoning and shot himself. He was particularly concerned about personally witnessing the deaths of people close to him. Dio was appalled. Kurama was seen as sacrificing himself in that moment instead of condemned for already committing a heinous crime, and evidently he valued Ren's life less than the others. Akechi at least believed when he killed that he could protect himself and Akira. Kurama seemed to perform love however benefited his goals at the time, and Dio has no doubt himself about getting the long end of his whip.
A cute girl who has problems with religion and relationships and independence. Relatable. Weird.
Dio ordinarily has no patience for youths because he was always forced into adult responsibilities and judges everyone accordingly. Torri has such an unusual affect that she piqued his concern anyway. For example, when she "flew", the resulting commotion drew his alarm. Torri was ultimately the only person who bought Dio's ringmaster cover hook, line, and sinker. Applause like Torri provided him is all Dio has ever wanted. Which is why her tears at his trial made him so uncomfortable. He could ignore it at first. Torri got to him when she sincerely suspected that he was guilty and yet still defended Helena "because you would protect a friend". Through continued references to their past conversations, Torri got her point across. "Dio was a bad person."
Dio felt very strange as a ghost watching Torri fall into catatonic depression. From a higher perspective she was obviously the exact kind of innocent person he supposedly fought to protect. Her attachment to Wake was dragging her down but only because Dio acted in the first place. With encouragement from Wake, Dio recalibrated his allegiances and saw Torri as a fallen ally. He got the impression that she is still not completely undamaged. His debt to Wake extends to Torri by association and he is a little relieved that there's no sign of her collecting any time soon.
Strict woman. She's irritated Dio a little but doesn't seem actively harmful. Ursula's special treatment of children is a red flag for him.
Dio never had a mother and resented any woman passing herself off as one. Authority figures usually have a problem with him anyway, so he saw no reason to smooth things over with her. She was the first to make the gold chain into a big deal and the most insistent that his insouciant demeanor was corroborating evidence. His only regret was not more thoroughly framing her for tripping over the wire.
When Ursula first balked at mounting evidence of Akechi's guilt, Dio felt schadenfreude, thinking she was about to learn the shortcomings of character evidence in the most painful way possible. This didn't happen. Instead, Ursula found even more courage and reflected that she had been too quick to judge Dio. Still hurting from the difference between himself and Akechi, Dio saw this change of heart as mostly just evidence of lability. However he has accepted her as an earnest ally.
Torri's classmate or something. Intriguing combination of "shonen" ideals with a genuinely sunny omnibenevolent mood.
Though Dio is predisposed to scorn lovebirds, Wake approached his bond with Torri in a completely unselfish manner. He even left room for positive remarks towards Dio himself. They worked together on the scavenger hunt. Unfortunately for Wake, Dio took the results as metaphysical proof that Wake trusted him. The ensuing murder involved no animosity, more a twisted sense of gratitude for the opportunity. Wake struggled enough to stir a little reflexive guilt in Dio, and the accessories dislodged in this commotion were all that the mob mentality required to turn on Dio. Although Dio went to his execution with no doubts about the sanctity of his mission, it started to seem like a shame that he took down Wake instead of one of the more irritating Titled.
Upon regaining memories in the Reaper's Game, Dio came to view the slaying as an incorrect decision from a tactical perspective. Wake deserved his deference. Which made the thrust of their reunion (Dio had procrastinated on this) all the more unexpected Wake had no pressing resentment of Dio but was furious at Akechi for his audacious lies and guilt trips. Dio already had enough ego that remorse did not disable him. Wake really planted the seed for Dio to grow a prosocial identity as an honest, helpful person different from Akechi. Wake and Dio never grew close. To Dio, the distance between them includes respect.
Dio did not meet him during the first week, precisely because he is shy.
This shy man never met Dio before the trial and never directly addressed him until suspicion already drowned him. Yuuri came off very pathetic, shedding even more tears than Torri after knowing Wake for much less time. "Money or a need to escape at the expense of everyone else here doesn't matter. It's still greed. We should've all worked together to find another way out, one where no one had to die!" Dio was pretty used to such contempt and completely dismissed Yuuri's accusation of greed.
Then something unthinkable happened. Another greedy person acted, felling Yuuri... and Yuuri completely forgave him. Dio could have let this slide as a private matter between Yuuri and Akechi, but Yuuri went on to repeatedly insult Helena for not pitying Akechi, saying "You don't know what his real intentions were" when he was perfectly happy to see no good in Dio with no knowledge of his past at all. This man accused Helena, the only person who lay down her life helping the Titled, of having a crooked spine. Dio is staying in his own lane but if Yuuri ever puts a toe over the line, he would beat him with a tire iron.
SHE IS WRONG! DIO WOULD NOT WALK INTO THIS MURDERGAME ON PURPOSE! Dio hates her and hates the people who would excuse her youth even more. The concept that she has orders from superiors, though, gets her a pass almost.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠: Unmitigated personal hatred. ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡: Complete dyssocial disregard. ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡: A toleration of temporary coexistence. ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡: Medium term acknowledgment. ☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡: Active promotion of their welfare for his own sake. ☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡: Active help for its own sake; pity. ☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡: Positive regard of specific attributes. ☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Desire to be around more often. ☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Love where coexistence is a comfort. ☠♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Love where being alone is not an option. ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Love where the self becomes zero.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Akira
if this guy turns out to have anything to do with Akechi, he's in for a wild rideDio has no idea what to make of this guy. Akira is consistently kind. He sees injustice, he fights it. He says working together is the best way. He even checked in on Dio during the investigation of Wake's death, a human contact that unsettled him greatly in light of committing the crime and fully detaching himself. If more people were like Akira, maybe Free the Soul never would have existed in the first place.
And yet, every person like Akira was murdered. All the warm people who loved their friends but never thought to hurt strangers for their sake—they were murdered. The only thing saving Akira from a similar fate was Dio bumping into Wake's trust, and the personal bias of Akechi and Kurama. That a good person could love anyone like them is staggering. He sees Akira putting his life on the line for them and not getting the same love back, and he feels negative emotion. In his bitterness it mostly comes out as contempt for all three of them. Akira is the one from whom Dio stole a jacket, though. Deep down, he wants Akira to flourish, as his ally.
Britt
Takes Dio back to the good old days of sharing a drink with a business associate. Didn't have a stick up his ass about the crime despite his heroic tendencies; they agreed about the necessity of condemning the Fabricator.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡
Dio felt pretty bad that Britt got shit from Akechi for having an actual sense of justice. He never really dwelt on it, though. Like his past business associates, they parted ways after his mission. Chilling out somewhat in the wake of his job change, Dio has warmed up to the idea of a friendly visit.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡
Croix
Dio thought about her very little at first; like Ursula but with slightly less noisy optimism, not in his face so much, and of his ardent critics the one who incorporated logic the best. Dio still hated her for opposing him at all, though.
Her logical approach caught Dio by surprise once the second trial came around. Croix expressed an internally consistent point of view. Activity is often better than passivity. The perception of defending a person other than oneself is good. Child abuse is a mitigating factor in juvenile convictions. Dio's handlers warned him that outsiders believe these kind of things about the glorious industrious Myrmidons.
But she corporally punished Helena just for verbal disagreement. Dio believes deep down that senseless prosecution of the innocent is bad. He lost all faith in humanity at large upon learning Croix acted as Fabricator to help Ursula. Why didn't she give him back the gold chain? It was the only reason he was even found guilty. For those few days he felt deeply prosecuted by everyone but Helena in the world.
At the same time Croix was the Titled who worked hardest on finding a peaceful way out. Helena openly called her labile, cementing Dio's skepticism for a long time yet, but Dio has stopped openly deeming her an obstacle.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡
Goro
From the word go, Akechi rubbed Dio the wrong way. He was nosing around for information that Dio wouldn't want to divulge under the best of circumstances, and once Dio set his heart on activating Rule Seven, Akechi the busybody was actively detrimental. Akechi also made a show of his cosmopolitan qualities. This really irked Dio who had never travele the world, eaten nice food, or studied the arts. He perceived Akechi as exactly the sort of spoiled little police brat who would have been bribed to exonerate the murderer of his ancestor Left. Dio has been thoroughly indoctrinated to consider these people as corrupted puppets instead of trustworthy righters of wrongs in mainstream society.
Dio was distressed when Akechi condemned him but mostly because his own life was in danger. Akechi had never been an ally and wasn't betraying him, per se. When Dio recognized there was no digging himself out of this hole, he took a petty delight in dragging Akechi down with him as much as possible. Akechi was the symbol of what Dio really thought was killing him: A filthy world Dio had to risk his life fighting. He even speculated Akechi was just sucking up to cover his tracks for a future crime of his own.
The trial and execution of Goro Akechi changed Dio's life forever. For the first time Dio fully experienced the pain of his unfair circumstances. He heard that young men taking murder orders from old men were abuse suriors, and instructions to trust no outsiders were a manipulation tactic. But these sweet words weren't directed at Dio. No, they were talking to Akechi. The detective who told Dio that his mission in life was bringing harmers of innocents to justice, Dio's mission be damned? No, he murdered two completely innocent people because the only innocents he actually cared about avenging were himself and his mother, and he was going to achieve this goal somehow by murdering people to benefit his Japan-governing biological father!
Dio had been raised for murder-suicide missions his entire life. When he came into contact with a corrupted woman, he survived harsh punishment. That Akechi would not accept the risk of death for stoppng Shido's ongoing crimes, that he wanted to live to see the look on Shido's face, that he thought protecting his beloved Akira outweighed his principles of not killing innocent people—Dio saw greed that went far beyond his own execution of orders.
And everyone loved him. Akechi in his last minutes thought he had more dignity than Dio. Three people risked their whole-ass lives for him. The only person with serious concerns was slapped. Dio learned that love really existed, but it wasn't for him. Wanting love was unreasonable and painful, so Dio channeled his negative emotions into his preexisting dislike of his adversaries. And in the graveyard the only adversary available on such short notice was Akechi himself.
Underneath all his pettiness and immaturity Dio is an adult. He can sometimes follow the principles of not making things awkward. When he first saw Akechi again he made a cold but sincere inquiry into tactics. When Akechi revealed his notions of giving up, Dio really lost it—even now Akechi was not conducting himself in a heroic manner and yet acted like he had a leg to stand on next to Dio. This was the best Dio could do at trying to make peace, and he sank back into potshots at Akechi's hypocrisy instead of getting vulnerable with his true grievances. Good or evil, Dio wrote off Akechi as an unlikeable snob. And yet without comparing himself to Akechi, his master to Shido, he never would have become the good person he is today.
Helena
Joey
A kid but as far as Dio is concerned the most level-headed civilian among them, even if the prospect of a comrade's guilt fills her little stomach with bile. Dio got a rise out of her discomfort when he praised her before his execution.
While as melancholy for Akechi and Kurama as anyone, she most fully reversed course that Dio was also "just a dumb boy who made a mistake". Joey has great commentary in RFA. Dio never spares a thought for her, though.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡
Karma
A young assassin, but not the type who has to hide it? Dio doesn't really get it, this line between smug judgment and pragmatism. He feels a little bad for Karma getting suspected in the second trial, though, and their RFA conversations have been amicable enough.
Leonhardt
A man of few words, he was brusque with Dio at the trial. Dio appreciates the bluntness to an extent but is rather annoyed that nobody seems to mind bluntness and a bloody career when Loewe does it. That doesn't say much about Loewe himself, and credit is due for a sacrifice.
Sanzashi
Dio hated Ren the instant he learned the man's age. Though a lecherous man who annoyed him with a smoking habit, Ren modified his behavior whenever Dio called him out. He was much less forceful in accusations at the trial. Dio was too busy being a dick to appreciate any of this.
In the kill or be killed game, Ren was one to just be killed. Dio had to acknowledge that Ren was putting it all aside to support their efforts at rebellion. He still never got attached to Ren, though.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡
Eventually Ren posted to the chatroom right when Dio experienced stress in his life, and Dio took it out on him. Ren reacted calmly enough that Dio tried to recruit him into his religion, which he finally let slip was a cult that ordered him to murder. Ren acknowledged point blank that Dio was an abuse survivor under duress no less than Goro and apologized for any earlier misgivings. Dio was not ready to cut off the cult then and there but he briskly forgave Ren.
The debt Dio owes Ren is rather large. He thought nobody but Helena and Seven would ever accept him anywhere in the world. When Dio left the cult and Seven could not accommodate him on his couch anymore, Dio crashed with Ren for several months.
☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡
Shuuichi
Dio tolerated this guy at first. While he rarely connects with jokesters, Kurama was at least consistently benevolent and therefore could get his intelligence through to Dio. In the trial he was adversarial but much more focused on the detriment to his own group than condemnation of Dio himself. Kurama earned himself a nod for his concerns about the Fabricator.
When Kurama first displayed empathy for Akechi, all the shouting melted together. The consensus was clearly that Dio had made a worse impression than Akechi, so Dio paid little mind to the question of why Kurama particularly cared. Kurama became openly attached to the idea of an arrangement between himself, Akira, and the late Akechi. This was a little morbid but none of Dio's business.
Then Kurama committed murder because according to his spiritual beliefs the possible benefits vastly outweighed the drawbacks. He confessed this motive precisely as he refused to become a shattered jewel with the others. Instead he reverted to casualty minimization reasoning and shot himself. He was particularly concerned about personally witnessing the deaths of people close to him. Dio was appalled. Kurama was seen as sacrificing himself in that moment instead of condemned for already committing a heinous crime, and evidently he valued Ren's life less than the others. Akechi at least believed when he killed that he could protect himself and Akira. Kurama seemed to perform love however benefited his goals at the time, and Dio has no doubt himself about getting the long end of his whip.
Torri
Dio ordinarily has no patience for youths because he was always forced into adult responsibilities and judges everyone accordingly. Torri has such an unusual affect that she piqued his concern anyway. For example, when she "flew", the resulting commotion drew his alarm. Torri was ultimately the only person who bought Dio's ringmaster cover hook, line, and sinker. Applause like Torri provided him is all Dio has ever wanted. Which is why her tears at his trial made him so uncomfortable. He could ignore it at first. Torri got to him when she sincerely suspected that he was guilty and yet still defended Helena "because you would protect a friend". Through continued references to their past conversations, Torri got her point across. "Dio was a bad person."
Dio felt very strange as a ghost watching Torri fall into catatonic depression. From a higher perspective she was obviously the exact kind of innocent person he supposedly fought to protect. Her attachment to Wake was dragging her down but only because Dio acted in the first place. With encouragement from Wake, Dio recalibrated his allegiances and saw Torri as a fallen ally. He got the impression that she is still not completely undamaged. His debt to Wake extends to Torri by association and he is a little relieved that there's no sign of her collecting any time soon.
☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡
Ursula
Dio never had a mother and resented any woman passing herself off as one. Authority figures usually have a problem with him anyway, so he saw no reason to smooth things over with her. She was the first to make the gold chain into a big deal and the most insistent that his insouciant demeanor was corroborating evidence. His only regret was not more thoroughly framing her for tripping over the wire.
When Ursula first balked at mounting evidence of Akechi's guilt, Dio felt schadenfreude, thinking she was about to learn the shortcomings of character evidence in the most painful way possible. This didn't happen. Instead, Ursula found even more courage and reflected that she had been too quick to judge Dio. Still hurting from the difference between himself and Akechi, Dio saw this change of heart as mostly just evidence of lability. However he has accepted her as an earnest ally.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡
Wake
Though Dio is predisposed to scorn lovebirds, Wake approached his bond with Torri in a completely unselfish manner. He even left room for positive remarks towards Dio himself. They worked together on the scavenger hunt. Unfortunately for Wake, Dio took the results as metaphysical proof that Wake trusted him. The ensuing murder involved no animosity, more a twisted sense of gratitude for the opportunity. Wake struggled enough to stir a little reflexive guilt in Dio, and the accessories dislodged in this commotion were all that the mob mentality required to turn on Dio. Although Dio went to his execution with no doubts about the sanctity of his mission, it started to seem like a shame that he took down Wake instead of one of the more irritating Titled.
Upon regaining memories in the Reaper's Game, Dio came to view the slaying as an incorrect decision from a tactical perspective. Wake deserved his deference. Which made the thrust of their reunion (Dio had procrastinated on this) all the more unexpected Wake had no pressing resentment of Dio but was furious at Akechi for his audacious lies and guilt trips. Dio already had enough ego that remorse did not disable him. Wake really planted the seed for Dio to grow a prosocial identity as an honest, helpful person different from Akechi. Wake and Dio never grew close. To Dio, the distance between them includes respect.
☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡
Yuuri
This shy man never met Dio before the trial and never directly addressed him until suspicion already drowned him. Yuuri came off very pathetic, shedding even more tears than Torri after knowing Wake for much less time. "Money or a need to escape at the expense of everyone else here doesn't matter. It's still greed. We should've all worked together to find another way out, one where no one had to die!" Dio was pretty used to such contempt and completely dismissed Yuuri's accusation of greed.
Then something unthinkable happened. Another greedy person acted, felling Yuuri... and Yuuri completely forgave him. Dio could have let this slide as a private matter between Yuuri and Akechi, but Yuuri went on to repeatedly insult Helena for not pitying Akechi, saying "You don't know what his real intentions were" when he was perfectly happy to see no good in Dio with no knowledge of his past at all. This man accused Helena, the only person who lay down her life helping the Titled, of having a crooked spine. Dio is staying in his own lane but if Yuuri ever puts a toe over the line, he would beat him with a tire iron.
Elsie
Zero Escape Characters
Key
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡: Complete dyssocial disregard.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡: A toleration of temporary coexistence.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡: Medium term acknowledgment.
☠☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡: Active promotion of their welfare for his own sake.
☠☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡: Active help for its own sake; pity.
☠☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡: Positive regard of specific attributes.
☠☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Desire to be around more often.
☠☠♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Love where coexistence is a comfort.
☠♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Love where being alone is not an option.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡: Love where the self becomes zero.