Disclaimer: If I owned Death Note, chances are I wouldn't be writing fan fiction about it.

The Quirks of Geniuses
One-shot
by: Eternity Bites

"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success."
Bruce Feirstein

Geniuses, Ryuk decided, were an incredibly quirky bunch. Every single one had their own unique peculiarity. Even though Ryuk knew the definition for genius (He had looked it up in his abundant spare time) was a person that had an extraordinarily high intelligence rating he couldn't help but feel they forgot a stipulation when they were characterizing it; general insanity.

Of course one might argue that the owner of the Death Note he dropped, Yagami Light, was a fairly normal individual, or at least it seemed that way. Ryuk would loudly disagree. From all he had witnessed of Light's behaviour, he was probably one of the crazier geniuses he knew. For example Light had an incredibly large ego and a God complex, which in all honesty wasn't completely common. Early on Ryuk had also noted that Light had an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Everything Light did had to be perfect. This included his homework, his room, and his life. Everything for Mr. Yagami Light had to be neatly compartmentalized. So yes, Yagami Light certainly fit with Ryuk's definition of 'genius'.

This wasn't to say that Light was the only one. On the contrary most of the humans that Ryuk had encountered during his stint on Earth had turned out to be rather crazy. Crazier than most of the Shinigami he knew which was saying something.

There was however, Ryuk argued, varying levels of insanity. The least bizarre of all he observed was that Matt fellow. The boy was fairly normal, as far as prodigies went. His video game obsession and obvious infatuation with a man who dressed exclusively in leather aside Ryuk would almost swear that he was sane.

Next would probably be the leather king himself, Mello (and what kind of name is Mello anyway?). Ryuk had a better handle on this human, which was probably because he hadn't died quite as quickly as the other one. Mello also had a fixation on sweets, much like his mentor, except he preferred chocolate. It seemed that the boy also had an inferiority complex the size of the Grand Canyon so maybe he was a lot more unstable then he appeared.

Near didn't seem ridiculously strange but he was still very odd. After all, not many people have naturally white hair and wear pyjamas all the time. He also seemed to be incredibly preoccupied with toys which was odd, considering the fact that he had to be about twenty. Robots, puppets, puzzles, you name it and Near probably owned at least a dozen of them.

L, the great detective himself, would rate somewhere in the middle of Ryuk's insane-o-meter. Ryuk decided that if Light hadn't got Rem to kill him than in a few years the man would've likely died from diabetes. The Shinigami couldn't recall L ever eating anything that wasn't loaded down with sugar. There was also the man's curious way of holding things and his grudge against footwear of any kind. Ryuk couldn't help but wonder if shoes had ever done anything to warrant such hatred.

The next would be Light in all his super order and cleanliness. The boy obviously needed some serious counselling. It was really quite a shame that he gave into the insanity of great intelligence. The boy had seemed like such a nice kid when they had first met, well besides the whole holier-than-thou attitude.

The absolute craziest person he'd heard of though, would have to be that Beyond Birthday fellow. While Ryuk had never actually met the individual in person he and a bunch of other Shinigami had watched Beyond's life for some time. After all having the Shinigami eyes naturally was quite the big deal. But fascinating appendages aside the guy was as mad as a hatter. Because really what kind of freak goes around personating their idol to such a degree? And also the jam thing was a little much.

But perhaps being slightly off your rocker, to borrow a human saying, couldn't be all bad. Besides, Ryuk was in no position to judge people for their level of sanity. He himself was rather on the deranged side.

"Well," Ryuk mused. "It just makes the humans all the more amusing when they weren't entirely there."

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Authors Note: This is what stems from extreme boredom and a wandering mind. Just a short little drabble/one-shot thingy on something I noticed. Also no offence to cosplayers I'm just thinking from Ryuk's perspective. He wouldn't likely know that people did such a thing. Anyway reviews make me happy (probably make all writers feel happy) and I appreciate and comments.