001 (jan. 27) / video.

[dissenter]

[good afternoon Death City. hope you aren't tired of new arrivals yet because here's another one.

it's hard to tell where exactly this particular old bespectacled man is recording from because most of the screen is taken up by the biggest hat in the cosmos. don't be intimidated, though! he seems friendly enough, though his attention constantly flickers from his unseen audience to a point just beyond them -- as if he's almost more interested in the communicator itself than who's behind it. the quiet muttering doesn't help.] A mirror, eh? Curious choice...

[right, he's supposed to be talking to people. whoops! he blinks, starts, and smiles apologetically, refocusing.] Ah-- greetings. My name is Qilby, and I am an Eliatrope.

[an awkward, expectant pause as if he's hoping that by some stretch the term should be familiar to someone out there. or maybe he's just hesitant to address his next point.] ...I don't suppose I'm the only one that finds it rather tragic that by bringing us here and giving us these new abilities, they've stripped us of our powers that arguably could have been more useful to help end this conflict. And now we must figure out how to harness an entirely new set of skills... Well. They say you can't teach an old boowolf new tricks, and I doubt I'm an exception. [and his smile at his own "joke" implies that he is a very old boowolf indeed.]

That aside, I'm more than willing to try and learn. Tell me, how have people's experiences been? I'm afraid I haven't had to fight a war in a long time.

[and at that, he looks very tired.] A very, very long time.

Comments

video.

[dissenter]

[believe him, he knows old when he hears it...

a look of wonder and-- oh he's back to looking at the communicator again, trying to be mindful and not turn it over in his hand while recording.] Is that true?

You know, I've been to a great many planets, but now that I think on it I never got the chance to really absorb the cultures... These little subtleties escape me. But you, you know much about the people of this world?

[perma-voice]

[kill_some_time]

[He can turn it if he wants to, Hades sees no sense in things like politeness anyway.

He 'hmph's at the mention of little subtleties escaping Qilby. He knows how that is, in a wider scale.]

I am no thing that lies.

...and not really. Yet there are things that remain remarkably the same no matter what culture one deals with. ...Mirrors hold wonder since they are able to 'show one things'.

permavideo!

[dissenter]

[a good-natured laugh.] Ah! That'd explain it, then. My people had no need of mirrors to truly see; it wouldn't have been a symbol of any significance to us...

The path of a stream, a breeze in a field, the pattern of veins on a leaf -- all riddles in poetry penned by our Goddess. That was her way of showing us things. [somewhat sadly, now.] But here, I suppose, a mirror will have to do.

\o/

[kill_some_time]

[He chuckles. There is no effort made to hide the haughty note in it since the idea that a god might have had done anything for mortals as a race is ridiculous to him, being one himself and knowing quite a lot about the way gods and mortals move and work.

It is endearing, in a way, how often and religiously wrong mortals assumptions about his kind are.]

You name a lot of things, but have you ever been able to see yourself?

[dissenter]

[if he takes note of the sudden haughty tone, his ever-present smile shows nothing for it.]

Brief glimpses perhaps, yes. But I'm afraid I never had much of a talent for it-- my Eliatrope brother Chibi was a prophet and poet in his own right. Our Goddess favoured the realm of his dreams over everyone else's.

[kill_some_time]

Yet a dream is not the same as the image or a mirror.

[dissenter]

Some may call them mirrors to the soul.

[kill_some_time]

A dream? [He laughs.] They hardly are.

[dissenter]

[le shrug!] I suppose I wouldn't know. I don't often remember my dreams anyway. [or he chooses not to remember.]

But who are you, who seem to know so much of the ethereal?

[kill_some_time]

Me? I am God.

[dissenter]

Ah!

[...]

... Which one?

[kill_some_time]

The one of the End.

[dissenter]

The end?

[he smiles.] Forgive me for not knowing you, then. My family and I have never known, and will never know an end.

But it's certainly an honour to meet you. Does your presence here, in this war, have any particular significance?

[kill_some_time]

None that would be worth mentioning. If anything, wouldn't you say that my presence at a place like this were to be expected?

[He smiles.]

As for you knowing no end, does it not mean that you already have reached it?

[dissenter]

Oh my, no. I've merely an infinite set of beginnings at my fingertips. Like this one -- this city -- for example.

[and-- his smile falters now.] As to your first point... Yes. I suppose it would.

Though, I must admit, it's a rare god I've met that walks so plainly in his domain. Did you come down here with the express purpose of overseeing the conflict?

[kill_some_time]

[His smile widens - every beginning comes inevitably with an end - but he doesn't press the matter.]

I did not. This world is as less my place as it is yours, though I will admit that it's challenge is still entertaining to an extend. As for me being plain.... It comes from what one thinks about my domain. Evil, madness, sickness, death... It is all quite mundane and plain until one finally notices. Therefore, I, too, am not a god who is very conspicuous.

[dissenter]

That makes a great amount of sense, actually.

What does this god look like, then? Is he so inconspicuous that I wouldn't know if I passed him on the street?

[kill_some_time]

I do not know.

[dissenter]

[rude]

Oh. Do I get a name, at least?

[kill_some_time]

[Manners? What is that thing you talk about and how does one do that? Is it edible?]


Most call me 'Hades'. A name meaning "the unseen" seems to fit a being whose appearance is always a seen as a reflection of the heart of those who look at him.

[dissenter]

Ah, so that explains-- [right! ok.

well now, that's interesting.] It's an honour to meet you, Hades. It's been a very long time since I last met a god.

[kill_some_time]

[Or did he mean that he should switch to video as well? Herpderp, whatever.]

Hmph. We get distracted easily. [What are manners or remembering that most people didn't have to time to hold the line for the few decades such a 'being distracted' might take.]

[dissenter]

[to be honest, qilby's not overly eager to see a reflection of his heart. especially if he ends up thinking his heart's a pretty dude who rolled around in a bin of animals and came out with fur, feathers, claws, and horns.]

Oh, no doubt. [and he really does sound sympathetic.] How does a god occupy himself in the mundane world, then?

[kill_some_time]

[Rofl, yeah, I can kind of feel with that... XD Hades is stuck the way Apollo sees him, but he tends to forget to mention that part since, well, he's never considered the way he looks important since it usually constantly changes anyway.]

The same way as always, pretty much. We observe. Sometimes we pick up a toy that primises not to break or get boring too quickly.

[dissenter]

[if the phrasing of that response perturbs him in any way, qilby doesn't show it.]

Then you must have no end of entertainment if, as I understand it, there's a constant stream of new guests coming into the city.