Character types and favourite colours
L thinks it's important to have a favourite colour
Author's Note
There's no real point to this. Its just a random plot bunny without a plot that hopped into my head and I needed to get it out of there. I guess there's some stuff here that might be classified as spoilers?
I can't really pretend that I know what goes on in L's mind. But I like to think that sometimes he had his mellower moments.
L looks at Light Yagami and thinks: ENTJ. That is how Juung would classify him.
Also known as the Executive. A natural born leader.
Which would, of course, make him the perfect candidate to be Kira.
L on the other hand, is an INTP type. The Thinker. He doesn't think that he likes this classification, even if it is accurate. L wonders sometimes if he's missing out because of his brain. He thinks about throwing a tantrum, about screaming out loud, about running out of the room and into the oncoming traffic, about wandering out into the balcony when it's raining and getting soaked to the bone just because he can.
But he doesn't do any of these things because he is the Thinker. The Thinker thinks. He does not do.
L needs order. He needs organization. There's so much going on in his head all the time that he needs to order it somehow. So he abides by what they classify him as because it's stable and easy. It's difficult to live life without knowing what you are. It's much easier when you know what you're expected to be. But L doesn't like this and he wouldn't wish it on anyone.
That is why it took all the strength he had to keep Mello at Wammy's House, that day the small boy had tried to run away. When he met him at the gate he wanted to tell him to run, to take him with him, in fact. But instead he had made him sit down in the grass and promised to tell him a story about L, a person he knew very well, if only he would go back to Wammy's House.
Mello is an ENFP. The Inspirer. That's a title you can be proud of. An Inspirer doesn't just lead; he doesn't just come up with ideas. An Inspirer inspires people.
Mello is brash and reckless and even at the tender age of thirteen, L knows that the only ending Mello will ever get is a fiery one. A hail of bullets, a car crash, an explosion.
Fast and loud.
Probably he'll take the awkward boy with the goggles with him. L is stuck for a moment and then remembers that his name is Matt. In the sea of strange names they give children at Wammy's House, Matt stands out. In person though, he is Mello's shadow, never far away, always one step behind.
L thinks it's not such a bad way to die, with a friend.
L's end, on the other hand, will be cold and impersonal. Maybe he'd live long enough to be finished off by a disease. He's certainly a candidate for diabetes, he muses humorously. An assassin, perhaps, the gun silenced and the trigger quick and silent. Or maybe they'd use poison.
These deaths are impersonal.
First they'd have to take Watari out though.
L lightly taps on the enter key on the keyboard and muses about what Watari would be. He's been with L from the beginning and Watari knows everything about L, but L doesn't know Watari.
Maybe, L wonders, its time he had a proper conversation with him. He should ask him what his favourite colour is.
He thinks that Watari's favourite colour would be something cheerful but at the same time powerful.
A bright yellow maybe.
He thinks that Chief Yagami's favourite colour would be yellow too. Or it might be gold, cheerful as yellow, but with a streak of nobility you can't get past.
L thinks its important to have a favourite colour. If you have a favourite colour then you have a personality, and if you have a personality then you're all set to go. Sometimes Lawliet feels as if his personality is being taken over by the figure of L. But then he remembers that his favourite colour is sky blue and Lawleit returns.
L doesn't know everything about Lawliet, but at least he knows that his favourite colour is sky blue.
L remembers asking Mello what his favourite colour was. The boy hadn't even missed a beat.
"Red," he had said, of course. L thinks red is the colour most filled with expression. Then he'd proceeded to tell him that Matt's favourite colour was orange, which fit, he thought, with the cheerful boy that was always tagging behind Mello. L could like a person who liked orange. Orange is somewhat like red after all, it just had a bit of yellow in it that made it calmer.
Yes, L could like a person that enjoyed orange. He hoped that Matt would always remain cheerful.
L worries that Near does not have a favourite colour. He has seen Near, although Near doesn't know this, and he remembers how stark the white was against his white hair and skin. Near is an albino, Watari had told him, but L thinks that it shouldn't mean that Near is deprived of a favourite colour. Perhaps, he doesn't even have a favourite colour. Or perhaps white is his favourite colour, even though technically it is not a colour at all.
L thinks about this for a moment and decides that he doesn't really like people whose favourite colour is white. You can't be sure of people like that and L likes to be sure.
He wonders if this means that he doesn't like Near, and then he realises, that, no, in fact, he doesn't like Near. Near reminds him of the part of himself he isn't always comfortable with. Near reminds him of his practicability, his stillness, his insomnia, his curtness with words and the way he puts people off. Near reminds him of L.
Mello on the other hand reminds L of the qualities in himself that he is proud of, or at least that he wishes he could have. Mello reminds L of risk-taking and ambition and a great sense of responsibility and of expression and emotion. Mello reminds him of Lawleit and he wonders sometimes, if he would have been just as bold and brash if he had never become L.
L feels guilty about confessing that he doesn't like Near. It is not fair on the boy. L has never met Near personally, and Near has never been able to express any feelings or words to L like Mello has. Also, Near will make a good L. Mello would make a good L too, but he would not compromise his expressions. L hopes that Mello never becomes L. He'd rather see him fail at becoming L and keep his emotions, than lose his emotions and succeed at becoming L.
L thinks about another boy he had decided that he disliked before actually meeting him.
Beyond Birthday.
Beyond Birthday's favourite colour would be red too, but not a bright shining red like Mello's. It would be a dark, insidious red, almost black, red the colour of blood dripping from a slashed throat. L is only guessing here, and he wishes, for what seems like the millionth time, that he had taken the time to ask Beyond Birthday what his real favourite colour was.
Maybe then he wouldn't have been incarcerated in a psychiatric ward, the scars of his attempted self-immolation shining brightly on white skin.
Maybe then he wouldn't have been killed by Kira only a few months earlier.
Maybe he would have become L's personal assistant. L thinks he likes the idea of having a personal assistant. Or maybe he is confusing the idea of a personal assistant with the idea of a friend.
Maybe Beyond Birthday would have been L's friend, or maybe even a mentor to Mello and Near. L wonders sometimes if he made a mistake in telling Mello about Beyond Birthday. He hopes that Mello will never follow in his footsteps.
But then he remembers the differences in their favourite colour and L is confident that even if Mello gets burnt, he will never do the atrocities that Beyond Birthday did.
People who like red sometimes awe and sometimes scare L.
He thinks about what Kira's favourite colour would be. It wouldn't be yellow, it wouldn't be gold, it wouldn't be bright red, it wouldn't be orange, it wouldn't be dark red, it wouldn't be white, and it wouldn't be sky blue.
Dark blue, he thinks, rich cobalt. Something intense and powerful but without the warmth or charisma of one of the warmer colours. There is strength in such a colour, but not of the comforting kind.
At the other end of the table, Light yawns and stretches. It is well past one in the morning and the rest of the task force are either stretched out on the sofas asleep, or dozing with papers lying in their laps.
Matsuda is snoring slightly.
"Hey Ryuuzaki?" says Light. L turns to him and blinks.
"You've been staring at a blank screen for fifteen minutes now."
Light smiles.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
L chews his thumb and thinks about this for a few seconds.
"Tell me, Light," he says, scooting his chair a bit closer. "What's your favourite colour?"
Light stares at L for a few seconds, at a loss for words, then he shrugs.
"This might sound boring, but I think my favourite colour is dark blue."
L nods thoughtfully and smiles at Light.
"I guessed right then."
He doesn't need anymore convincing.
You might want to take a look here: tests/the-jung-type-death-note-test