#oc. ❝ salem barak ⧽ ❪ headcanons ❫

[chaoslulled]

salem barak + humans & devils.

it's strange, this space that he exists in where he is devil  &  he is human all in one.  it's strange, the way that he has to dictate what his heart thinks is disgust  &  what can actually be just loathing for the way that things have turned out.

on one hand, he is a devil,  &  hatred for humans comes naturally.  they smell off, they act off,  &  all around just aren't pleasant to be around.  they'll sell parts of themselves for contracts with the things they fear in order to think they have some semblance of power,  &  then it's uprooted  &  they act so surprised when it happens.  when they have to pay up their end of the bargain for use of said power.  they are vile creatures that are just scrambling, desperate, with no way to really find their own trajectory.  it's tragic, really, in their own demise sort of way.

it's complicated, the way that he had been with anthony silas for twenty four years, quite literally since his birth.  since he looked down into a baby stroller  &  seen the chubby faced idiot  &  thought oh, humans are actually very ugly.  but then he looked at the parents, seen the pride  &  joy,  &  something had twisted in him.  it wasn't just fear  ––  the thing all devils are made up of.  no, it had been the first time he had felt a different emotion coming off of humans.  &  it had been addicting.

he had no humanoid body.  like liquid, like rain  ––  he appeared in reflections, settled around them like a protective netting.  fed off of the happiness that they felt, off of the sheer joy when days were sunny  &  anthony got to play in the park.  off of the way that he chased thunder storms away  &  left a terrified baby to be lulled into a comfortable sleep.  it was unheard of, but the silas family was his own.  he has claimed them, had kept devils away  ––  &  that had been enough for him.

for years, it had been more than enough. 

then anthony had started dating anita when he was twenty  &  he felt what love between two others felt like.  it was different from the seasoned love that his parents had had  ;  it was new, bustling.  exciting.  &  salem had fed off of that too  ––  had made sure days were clear for picnics, only bringing the downpour once they were safe inside.  gave them nudges with the weather too  ––  like when he blew wind to knock him into anita in order to ensure their first kiss because both of them had been dancing around it.

&  he was there the day public safety showed themselves, chasing after a low grade devil that was making a mess of downtown.  they had shown up recklessly with guns  &  new comers who couldn't handle their contracts.  &  anita had been in the way.  &  her blood had stained anthony's hands longer than it had taken for the ambulance to come.  longer than the grave that she sat in.

&  humans are tricky  ––  they're terrible  &  awful  &  all sorts of things, but he thinks the worst is how lonely they feel when everything is taken away from them.  when they've bit down on their own sadness  &  can't swallow it but can't do without it either.  he couldn't do anything.  he watched anthony fading away into himself.  he started letting the rainy days come  ––  because it matched how the boy felt, anyway.

&  that day on the roof, salem had tried to stop him.  he had managed to solidfy himself for long enough to grab anthony's arm as he stood at the edge, begged him not to do it.  begged him to fight through it.  but anthony had just smiled at him  &  thanked him  &  agreed to give his body over for a fiend without salem even asking.  salem's shock had been enough to lose the form of his arm.  anthony slipped through his fingers.

the sound sticks with him, even now.  he remembers the roar of everything in his own ears.  remembers unleashing a category three hurricane on the coast of california as his own pain  &  anger slipped free.

he doesn't like humans.  they're too fragile.  they're too complicated.  they're too full of mistakes  &  loneliness  &  relying on other people.  they're full of too many emotions that don't suit them.  they're too eager to throw their lives away via contract or other means,  &  he thinks he hates them for that, too.

but that doesn't stop him from changing his posture once a month  ––  slouches his shoulders a little more, forces himself to calm a bit more, forces his face into something neutral that isn't a sneer.  takes his piercings out  &  heads to that little town just outside of san diego.  visits anthony's parents  &  pretends to be him  ––  because it is kinder than letting them know that their son is dead  &  he is a devil wearing his body.  it doesn't matter that anthony gave him permission.  it doesn't matter that it is salem's, now.  what matters is that they don't deserve something like that on their hands.

so he plays the role of good son  :  brings his mother flowers, talks sports with his father.  cooks dinner or makes a big reservation  &  doesn't sneer at the other humans all throughout the night.  but at the end of the day he is still devil  &  when he heads home, he feels the weight of it.  of the pretending.  of what he's loss.

but that doesn't mean that he's on the side of devils, either.  they are selfish  &  dicks  &  feed off of fear like it's their new favorite drug.  they are crass  &  make contracts for the fun of it.

but most importantly, they aren't free.  public safety is constantly nabbing them off of the streets, making contracts or killing them  ––  making sure that even the reincarnations are watched.  they are the watch dogs  &  the big enemy.  they have taken everything from anthony, therefore they have taken everything from salem.

&  he is forever seeing them out of the corner of his eye.  they force him to make contracts.  the hallucinated fear of the power they take feeds the other devils.  he finds no joy in it.

but at the end of the day they aren't devil or human.  they are something far nastier  &  in between.  he doesn't like them, either.

[chaoslulled]

salem barak / chainsaw man verse.

lives as a hybrid between devil and human –– took over his contract's body once he died. was with anthony silas for twenty four years –– until a devil killed his girlfriend and he decided that he couldn't live without her. salem, unable to convince him otherwise, then took over his body after his death. the death of his girlfriend was through devil hunters being careless while on a hunt, and it's given salem a hatred for humans, despite being a fiend and having befriended a human since his birth. he has never forgiven the hunters and public safety for what they've done to anthony.

salem is the storm devil, with his last name barak literally meaning lightning. he is born of people's natural fear of storms. when anthony was a baby, he would keep thunderstorms at bay and ensure fair weather for when family outings were held. for years he lived in the shadows of humans and serving them and never once complained. him and anthony had a good relationship. it's how he's stayed off of public safety's radar for as long as he has.

BEING THE STORM DEVIL MEANS THAT HE CAN MANIPULATE THE WEATHER. be it making the weather turn violent during a fight or striking someone down with lightning, he has control over the clouds above him. however, there's a downside to his power that has become more apparent since becoming a fiend –– his emotions can influence the weather. it's his downfall when it comes to hiding: the night that anthony dies, all the fury and hatred and sadness erupts in him all at once, causing an unexpected category 1 hurricane to hit the coast of japan. without any other explanation for it, public safety deems it the work of a devil and takes him down.

though he has no interest in making contracts, he's forced to make them –– for any use of his power, the contracted has a fear induced hallucination for half an hour. this can be their biggest fear or something that is just a minor fear –– it doesn't matter. any emotion of fear is heightened and your world becomes a walking nightmare for half an hour.

while in the custody of public safety, he hates being locked in the cells underground. after a year spent in them, he is put in the care of maven monroe and is released above ground with a tracker inserted into his arm to ensure that he can be found if and when public safety calls.