riley desmond's Links
riley and marie have come into contact a few times through marie’s work in the occult club. riley doesn’t particularly like marie, seeing as she is one of the people trying to capture him to be experimented on (although riley isn’t fully aware of the occult club’s full plans). he still tries to reach out to her whenever they cross paths, although he ducks out when the situation gets too hairy. he feels instinctively that out of the occult club members, she is one of the ones who could be reasoned with if they ever sat down and had a normal, peaceful talk.
marie and riley have come into contact a few times through marie’s work in the occult club. riley is currently the main target of the occult club, being the closest accessible man-made machine they are aware of. as such, marie views riley as mostly just a test subject to capture rather than a person. dehumanizing him is easy when she’s never really had a conversation with him, and marie is doing her best to not let herself feel guilty for her work.
riley and harmony have come into contact a few times through harmony’s work in the occult club. riley is honestly disgusted by harmony, having caught onto his “holier than thou” mentality early on, and also being aware that harmony hates him, below his polite mask. whenever he encounters harmony, riley tries to incite him to break his angelic facade, because at least that would be entertaining. most of the time, riley simply tries to leave as fast as possible.
riley is occult club’s primary target. harmony has come in contact with riley a few times during scouting missions around monstrucatus. since riley has continued to evade capture, harmony’s dislike of the cyborg has gradually crystallized into a deep hate. harmony views him as an unruly lab animal that needs to be put back in its cage, and perhaps put down.
riley and anachou are friends with benefits, and two of the leaders of the resistance group. at first, riley was simply trying to be polite to anachou in hopes that the eel would eventually stop being so prickly towards him, but eventually accepted that anachou is just Like That towards everyone. as they spent more time together, they eventually reached an alliance, both being against monstrucatus’s research methods. the benefits part of their relationship came about as riley (somewhat jokingly) suggesting it as a way for anachou to blow off steam. anachou took it seriously. riley isn’t mad about it.
riley thinks anachou is extensively guarded, and wishes he would relax more around others. he appreciates that anachou is determined to an almost dangerous edge, and when pointed in the right direction, is a veritable wrecking ball.
riley and anachou are friends with benefits, and two of the leaders of the resistance group. at first, anachou disliked riley, but still needed him to stay with him in order to make use of his translating abilities. so, he reeled back his violent tendencies just enough so that riley wasn't too repulsed. anachou isn't too enthusiastic about rileys continued attempts at a less superficial friendship, but maybe deep down he wishes that he could open up to someone again, so he never shuts down riley entirely. if nothing else, they are bonded together in their dislike of monstrucatus. anachou accepted rileys proposal of “benefits” to their relationship, viewing it as simply another way to blow off steam that isn't nearly as destructive as his usual habits.
anachou somewhat envies riley’s carefree attitude. he doesn't necessarily want to be as light and flippant himself, but on some level he wishes he could let go of caring about the constant running and hiding thats become a staple of his life. he wishes riley would take things just a bit more seriously at times, seeing as anachou feels like their plans to take down monstrucatus are advancing at a snails pace.
riley and seo-hyun are friends (at least according to riley), and two of the leaders of the resistance. they have a friendlier relationship than riley and anachou, but its still fairly detached. riley has tried to have conversations with seo-hyun before, but she has given him the cold shoulder enough times that he’s settled on simply trying to be friendly to her whenever he needs to talk to her for official business.
riley admires that seo-hyun can stay focused on things that he finds boring, like paperwork and planning. he wishes that she would open up more though, but he understands the unwillingness to share with people who are self-proclaimed rebels.
seo-hyun and riley are two of the leaders of the resistance. seo-hyun would describe them as merely acquainted, although they are closer to riley than most of the other resistance members. this is purely because riley was the one who recruited her, and is often one of the few that frets over the devil’s wellbeing. while they have a friendlier relationship than seo-hyun and anachou, seo-hyun is still fairly detached and pushes away any concern towards her. riley still is friendly towards her, but has given up on trying to make conversation outside of official resistance business.
deep down, seo-hyun does appreciate that riley extends kindness to her, again and again, but she’s so mired in her own self-loathing that she doesn’t know how to handle it, and defaults to pushing riley away. she does sometimes think that his energetic and bright personality is too much for her, though. dealing with a continuously excited person drains her.
riley and nashira are friends. riley is grateful for nash for giving him a job, and that for the most part she trusts whatever he wants to do. he thinks that she’s incredibly capable, being someone who has both a business and a successful career as an information broker. he wishes that sometimes she would be a little more grounded, though, as she spends a lot of time speaking in flowery metaphors when riley prefers others to speak plainly.
to be rewritten with nashira rewrite
nashira and riley are friends. nashira is grateful to riley for inviting her to his team and making her otherwise fairly monotonous life a little more exciting. she relies a lot on riley to facilitate her relations with the other members of the group since most of them are somewhat wary of humans.