video; un: polaris

[anbaric]

[ asriel has been described as an imposing figure, and the harsh lighting in this place does nothing to dispel that. it's a spacious room, and what light there is seems swallowed by the darkness of the shadows. the lamp on the desk beside him provides most of what there is, and it also illuminates the mess of books and papers he did not bother to tidy before making this.

his snow leopard daemon sits calm and still at his side, all except for her tail sweeping back and forth. there are the sounds of ravens chattering nearby unseen, but as the cat seems more attentive to asriel, they don't seem to be the cause of her anticipation. ]

I am Lord Asriel Belacqua. Few of you will know me, as I only recently found myself in this world, which is why I am here now.

For various reasons, I am interested in the pthumerians, but my research will take time and is more limited in some areas than I would like. I would rather hear it from the rest of you since the people alive here right now are more relevant than the opinions of authors who may no longer be with us. Do you consider them friends or foes? What role does their presence play in your lives? Do you approve of their influence on you? Consider me taking a neutral stance, so all sides have value; if it is worth mentioning, I would hear of it.

[ it's intended to be some encouragement to those who might wonder if their information isn't important enough (because it is), but asriel being asriel means it comes out sounding more like a command. ]

You needn't answer all the questions either, just whatever you like.

[ yes, the snow leopard talks too, but stelmaria's manner manages to be gentler, at least. ]

Given the implications of the illness problem, now seems an appropriate time for an exchange of information, don't you think?

Comments

playin a little fast & loose w/ timelines, lmk if this is not cool

[bolstafir]

she had our back in the dream and on the way here is the long and short of it
she's the only one that's never fucked with us

[As the dream crumbled, she begged to be released from it, freed from the role she was trapped in as she sustained the Sleepers within her dead daughter's dream world against her will--and when she was, she'd been there for them as they crossed over into the Waking World.

Let yourself be more than you were, she'd said, You're allowed...To take this new route. So take it. Take it with me.]

as for riteoir, i don't know most of the details since i didn't end up in that freaky alternate cult world
but any pthumerian gearing up to kill the others clearly wants more power than its already got and that's bad news whichever way you slice it

looks fine to me!

[anbaric]

Fair enough. So at least one pthumerian engages on a reasonably human level, at least enough to have earned trust.

[ this is one example anyone's given that hasn't gone the force of nature route, so he'll take it.

riteoir, though, is deeply concerning because it sets off several red flags. the last thing this world needs is something like the Authority. ]

What you say is true, and I didn't win a war just to see this world fall to an enemy with a similar agenda.

[bolstafir]

she was julia's mother, if you've heard of her
her kid having been half-human probably helped with having a sense of affinity with us

[The comment about the war has him huff a bitter half-snort on his own end. Would be nice if he could've had the peace of mind of his own war ending well--but then he supposes they wouldn't have chosen to cross over into the Waking World in the first place.]

but yeah i gotta say i've been having a pretty comfortable retirement here despite the regular cycles of bullshit, and it'd be annoying as hell to have some new godlike asshole strolling in trying to call the shots

[anbaric]

This is retirement for you, is it?

[ something about the bloody hellscape doesn't seem restful, but he supposes perspective changes a lot. ]

You must've come from a very turbulent place. Was it something posing as a god in your world as well?

[bolstafir]

[Oh, Asriel has no idea how loaded of a question he just asked. The answer could simultaneously be "yes" and "no", and the truth falls somewhere in between.]

that is a long, loooong story for a casual chat on the network
for now, let's just say it started with gods, and someday in some version of our world, it'll end with em
one way or another