[and he will be there when she arrives! the hood is down, and it looks like there's black crystal edging up his neck. his voice echoes slightly, when he speaks.]
You could certainly have asked. I may not have provided an answer, but it becomes intrusive when one demands, or refuses to accept a lack of an answer. There are some among you I would avoid giving the simplest of answers, for such methods.
[...after a few moments, despair waves a hand. an image of an unfamiliar planet system is called up-- a circle of fourteen roughly identical worlds. or, rather, there would be space for fourteen. currently, there are seven planets, only half of them present, leaving gaps here and there.]
This is the current state of my home; once, they were a single star, which then was split across ten and four shards of what it formerly was. The same occurred to nearly all dwelling upon it; they are all mortal, possessing fractions of the souls they ought to have, with new souls born into these worlds similarly reduced.
In order to rejoin them together, they must first break. But reaching even the midpoint has been the work of millenia.
[thank god for him being an npc this time this is the most condensed this explanation has ever fucking been.]
[Seems bad. Or it would seem bad to a person who wasn't raised in a terrible bone cult worshiping a Necrolord. She's so much less alarmed by this than she should be, is what I'm saying. She doesn't know if she agrees with his goals, but she's not like. Nearly skeptical enough of them. The thing is she knows that he's very sad?]
Then you wish to use the power here to accomplish that. To try and do the work of repairing these souls. [Maybe we shouldn't give Emet Selch his wish, say I, Siz, and not Harrowhark.]
To give myself more capability in it, rather. It is not strictly necessary, and all that I truly desire is to return to that work-- but there have been particular pains in the process, and I am not so proud that I do not realize additional power would only be beneficial.
More or less. But this does not mean I am inclined to spare the effort to aid you, either; I do not particularly care to see any of you live. It is a waste, really, given most of your short lifespans.
[Hey, now. Her lifespan is probably like 10,000 years? Unless she gets her wish in which case it no longer will be.]
No, I didn't think so. I wouldn't consider it worthwhile to approach you without a realistic plan that is at least as advantageous to you as letting us be eaten would be.
I only wanted to be certain I understood your motives correctly.
More advantageous? Why? In the sense that it's riskier, so it ought to have a better payoff?
What I'm suggesting is that if there were two alternatives, both with the same risks and rewards, but one had us dead and the other had us alive, perhaps you could be persuaded to the plan where we live. Obviously 'same risk and rewards' is hypothetical and dubious, but humour me for a moment.
It would take considerable effort for that. As it stands, there are few enough of you who I have even spoken with-- why, then, should I deviate from my own course simply so that people I have little attachment to may live? As you have surmised, I will not do so merely out of the kindness of my heart.
Perhaps a very small number of you surviving might be acceptable.
You're right that it likely will take considerable effort to find another option. I wasn't necessarily asking that you be the one to expend that effort, so much as whether you will oppose it, but. . .
[She doesn't really expect him to care that much about them. But there are some people he cares about here, she thinks.]
If we move beyond hypotheticals for a moment, the circumstance as it stands is that some of the other Avatars don't agree with you. And while you are not likely to act out of kindness, some of them are certain to try to do so. [Like Wrath? Who apparently keeps giving us too much information and is getting punished for it?]
It would seem disadvantageous to me to continue to allow this fragmentation of efforts among the eight of you in what sort of outcome you're seeking, when the current view most of us hold is to look for an outcome that wouldn't be contrary to your goals. Why not instead make your conditions for cooperation known?
Would it, now. And precisely what makes you think you are in a position to allow anything of us?
[one brow arches, wings rustling faintly.]
It would not be the first time my opinion has run counter to a misguided majority. I have always known they may well falter, in the end, and prove incapable of following through.
You misunderstand me, I think. [She meant it seems disadvantageous to her for him to continue to allow it.] I do not believe I am in such a position. It is you who I believe are in a position to rectify it, if you choose to.
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But if you insist, then name a place.
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The Planetarium?
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[and he will be there when she arrives! the hood is down, and it looks like there's black crystal edging up his neck. his voice echoes slightly, when he speaks.]
Just what is it you wished to discuss, then?
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[. . .]
Is asking you what you're here for intrusive? I've always thought so.
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[She also wants to ask who Despair hates, because that sounds juicy. But is this the time?]
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This is the current state of my home; once, they were a single star, which then was split across ten and four shards of what it formerly was. The same occurred to nearly all dwelling upon it; they are all mortal, possessing fractions of the souls they ought to have, with new souls born into these worlds similarly reduced.
In order to rejoin them together, they must first break. But reaching even the midpoint has been the work of millenia.
[thank god for him being an npc this time this is the most condensed this explanation has ever fucking been.]
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Rejoining them means rejoining the souls that are fractured?
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[by his, though-- well. they're not alive.]
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Then you wish to use the power here to accomplish that. To try and do the work of repairing these souls. [Maybe we shouldn't give Emet Selch his wish, say I, Siz, and not Harrowhark.]
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No, I didn't think so. I wouldn't consider it worthwhile to approach you without a realistic plan that is at least as advantageous to you as letting us be eaten would be.
I only wanted to be certain I understood your motives correctly.
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[he sounds amused, at that, one brow raised.]
More advantageous, I would say, if you have the capability of finding such.
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What I'm suggesting is that if there were two alternatives, both with the same risks and rewards, but one had us dead and the other had us alive, perhaps you could be persuaded to the plan where we live. Obviously 'same risk and rewards' is hypothetical and dubious, but humour me for a moment.
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Perhaps a very small number of you surviving might be acceptable.
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You're right that it likely will take considerable effort to find another option. I wasn't necessarily asking that you be the one to expend that effort, so much as whether you will oppose it, but. . .
[She doesn't really expect him to care that much about them. But there are some people he cares about here, she thinks.]
If we move beyond hypotheticals for a moment, the circumstance as it stands is that some of the other Avatars don't agree with you. And while you are not likely to act out of kindness, some of them are certain to try to do so. [Like Wrath? Who apparently keeps giving us too much information and is getting punished for it?]
It would seem disadvantageous to me to continue to allow this fragmentation of efforts among the eight of you in what sort of outcome you're seeking, when the current view most of us hold is to look for an outcome that wouldn't be contrary to your goals. Why not instead make your conditions for cooperation known?
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[one brow arches, wings rustling faintly.]
It would not be the first time my opinion has run counter to a misguided majority. I have always known they may well falter, in the end, and prove incapable of following through.
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