un: mouse | video

[terriblepurpose]

[ The feed opens on a young man seated cross-legged on an expanse of black scales, framed between two spiralling white horns against a backdrop of more black scales interspersed with charcoal dark feathers. His Hunter's armour is nearly of a shade to match, covering all of him but his vaguely familiar face.

He smiles warmly as he runs a soft cloth over a plain knife to clean it of the black blood all over its flat metal grey. ]

Good evening, fellow Sleepers.



[ The last light of the day catches in his dark curls and his blue-green eyes, on the pale mist of his breath in the cool winter air. ]

For those of you I haven't met, let me reintroduce myself. Paul Atreides, of House Atreides, also known as Paul Muad'Dib, which sounds more impressive than it is.

[ A tiny, smoke dark mouse appears on his shoulder, and he inclines his head towards her fondly. ]

It's been some time since I was here, at least from my perspective. I've certainly changed much more than anything else has. It's a peculiar position to be in, and I've been at all kinds of ends with myself, waiting for the reversion.

But while I am here, for however long that is - I've never been very good at being idle.

[ The knife cleaned, Paul flicks it deftly upward in a flashing spin, a gesture made for the joy of making it. He catches it and flips it on its side, balancing it on two fingers at precisely the axis of its gravity. His gaze focuses on it, still and tranquil. ]

Someone once told me that with great power comes great responsibility. [ The corner of his mouth quirks up, amusement brushed through with nostalgia. ] It was a joke, of course, although I didn't know that at the time.

Still. There's something to the principle, if taken seriously, or so I'd like to think.

[ He furrows his brow slightly, all of his intent honed in on his knife. In a mild, everyday sort of voice, he says: ]

This knife is as light as a feather.

[ He flicks it upward again, but this time, the blade that acted as metal before drifts as lightly as he's told it that it would. It floats gently down towards his opened palm, where he smiles at it with a faint sheen of accomplishment. ]

Which brings me to my purpose here.

As long as this is a stop along my path, I want to exercise my responsibility to my power - and my responsibility to you, as my friends and as my people.

I want to know what you want in this world, whatever it might be. I can't promise that I'll be able to grant your request, but I give you my word I'll do all that I am capable of to see your wishes manifested, so long as you don't ask me to be an agent of harm.

Be creative. Be selfish. No wish too small or too large. Let me see what I can do for you.

[ He flashes a bright grin, a trace of rueful self-deprecation turned inward on himself. ]

You'll be keeping me out of trouble.

[ ooc: replies will come from unchoose ]

Comments

video, un: tabris

[peripheries]

 

[peripheries]

I want you to get off the network and go clean the bathroom.

Video | un: justafarmlad

[justoscar]

If you're going to try to be like Jinn or Ambrosius, you're wearing a few too many layers.

[unchoose]

Oscar. It's good to see you.

[ Paul grins, amused. ]

And you're a few years too young for me to give that a response.

Video: mackenzie

[slightlytaller]

... You don't look like Kyle McLachlan.

[unchoose]

I don't expect I do.

Who is Kyle McLachlan?

text (un: aquila)

[grice]

[ how much this . . . may be troubling? goes over falco’s head in favor of indulgence. he’s tired, too tired to type and too worried to put himself on voice or video, so his voice in writing through perle would do just fine. she was tired, too. but she manages, in her little half-sleeping ball of feathers. ]

I wish to spend one more day with you.

text

[unchoose]

[ Paul stops smiling when he gets the message. It flickers across his thoughts by way of his Omen, and so it comes blurred already with her sorrow.

He's capable of putting one and one together and bringing himself to the sum. It isn't particularly difficult. ]

You're still not very good at being selfish.

You'll have more than one day.

Video | Clickclickbloom

[onekindsoul]

I'll take two triple decker ham sandwiches please. Extra cheese. A little light on the green stuff.

And no pickles.

With a large coke.

And I'll take two chocolate chip cookies to make a meal deal.

[unchoose]

Consider it done.

Any preference on where you'd like it delivered, and for what time of the day?

voice | un: GOLDEN ONE

[possessum]

( Now this is interesting.

There's always been something to Paul that wasn't... average. Something more. A Voice that can will to its command. Some power there beneath. Paimon's certainly seen it for himself, been caught in its periphery over time.

Was this what he'd spoken of to Peter in that cave, not so long ago? Is this the looming fate? It feels so very familiar, all of it — but he must wonder how familiar it truly may be. (What is Paul? Something like himself? There is no mention of offering, so the demon king has questions of his own, before he'll allow Peter to see this and fret—) )

What do you require in return?

[unchoose]

The request is all I require.

[ Paul modulates his tone to a more respectful register when he recognizes the altered echo of that other voice. ]

There's no other offering necessary. Nothing that I need that I don't already have.

Would you like to ask for anything?

text; username: 🍎

[hauntedsavior]

Can you grant a God's love?

text

[unchoose]

It depends on the God.

voice; un: stanford

[cryptograms]

I think you're mostly going to get requests for food and solutions to Trench's farming problems.

If you can manage either of those, it'll be even more impressive than whatever monster you just killed.

voice

[unchoose]

You'd think no one in this city ever learned to cook.

[ He doesn't sound resentful of it, only fondly amused. ]

As for the farming problems, I've been doing some preliminary exploration of solutions, but the longevity has been an issue. It's difficult to test for persistence after I cease to exist here, what with my continuing to exist.

Video; UN: IttyBitty

[lightthedarkness]

[Chibi Chibi is getting a kick out of this partly because of who and what she is, but mostly because if he can actually fulfill her wish, well, she only has one wish:]

CAKE AND PUDDING!

[She's all giggles, clearly amused and shaking her little stuffed rabbit.]

video

[unchoose]

[ Paul sets his knife aside and folds forward into a half-bow from his seat as gallantly as he can manage. When he straightens up, his eyes and voice are soft and kind. ]

As the lady wishes. What sort of cake and pudding do you like best?

Video; UN Lothrat

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Oh boy.]

I come to serve. That's one of the traditional ways the Jedi say it.

...but there's reasons I don't put up posts like this.

[He smiles, tremulously. Affectionate and faintly worried.] I just want you to be careful, ok?

Video

[unchoose]

[ A glint enters Paul's eyes at the consideration, flaring up like a spark. ]

I'm always careful.

[ Then he laughs, low and soft, and the spark extinguishes. ]

I appreciate the concern. I try not to make myself easily taken advantage of.

Is that your only request? Keep in mind I'm already going out to the market.

text: un: tenskulls

[stayscared]

[it's half joking. ...half.]

How are you at bringing back the dead?

text

[unchoose]

So far, it's a work in progress.

Did they die here, or somewhere else?

[ He isn't joking at all. ]

video; un: kiriona

[lipochrome]

[ Kiriona sits lazily on her bed, her collar just loose enough for the red of a wound to peek through. In the background is a potted plant. ]

Moved on from nature books, huh?

[ This is weird. It's never seemed hard for Paul to keep himself occupied. He used to talk to her about the animals.

Whatever. Kiriona knows what it's like to change. What sucks is that this is embarrassing for Paul. ]

Mm. I want you to fight me and win, Paul Muad'dab.

video

[unchoose]

[ Paul looks at Kiriona like he hasn't looked at anyone else. Something crumples around his eyes as they flit too fast to follow across her face, her environment. ]

I never moved on from the nature books.

[ The easy cheer of his voice is replaced by a quieter evenness. He lowers his hand to the top of his knee, studying her like one of the illustrations in those very books. ]

If that's what you want, it's yours.

[ Then he smiles again. It's small and crooked, a world apart from the first smiles. ]

I'll even do the move, if you like. I still remember.

un: aweful, video

[necroprince]

I want to be out of this decrepit slum of a world. Can you do that for me, Paul?

video

[unchoose]

You're in luck.

[ He looks a little delighted, as a matter of fact. ]

That request is already underway. If it comes together, you'll have one of the first tickets out.

video; @skywalker

[facultative]

[He's sceptical, but if it costs nothing why not?]

Is your influence limited to this world only?

video

[unchoose]

So far.

[ A one shouldered shrug, affable and untroubled. It's a temporary problem. ]

I know that breaching that limit hasn't been accomplished by any of us yet, but why not aspire to greater possibilities?

un: kickflips, text, private

[strongroots]

two times you got shed? you have bad luck

how's life going for you

text | private ∞

[unchoose]

Maybe. Better than having no luck at all.

It's going well. Not without its obstacles, but whenever is life that way?

What about yourself? I hope there's been a return to some form of normality. Specifically in the area of age.

no message, no video; ignore

[bankvault]

[Yoichi's just watching, and leaves no message or request, just making note of what others are saying and doing.

This isn't the first time someone's magnanimously offered others great things, with 'nothing' asked in return; who comes as a savior with arms full of favors and a friendly smile.

It's suspicious. Dangerous.]

nothing here

[unchoose]

[Text][UN:A_Wesker013]

[subject_013]

How successful are you at summoning Sleepers back from the sea, or keeping beings from trashing their own ecosystem?

[Text]

[unchoose]

Not at all for the first, yet. I've had better fortune with the second, although I had a different set of tools at my disposal then.

[Video] un: foxylady

[hachitaro]

[Oh this? This could be fun. He knows there's no free lunches, so he changes his form and voice with ease, leaning against the windowsill and letting the sun frame his (her?) hair.]

Well, well, well. How generous of you. I'm wondering, what do you get out of this? I'm sure you've been asked this before, but... well. Person to person, what's the price?

Cute as you are, I'm no fool~.

[Video]

[unchoose]

[ Paul looks over the arrangement this woman has made of herself with the appreciative eye of a curator. When his eyes find hers, there's a degree of knowing respect in them, paired with his crescent moon smile. ]

No price. Truthfully, what I gain out of this - besides a distraction - is an opportunity for a challenge.

Even if that weren't so, what could I possibly be in need of? I have a place to rest my head, food to eat, companions to speak to. Is there anything else a human being needs to be content?

un: kris, video

[heartshapedobject]

[The one that answers isn't Chara. Not... really. Or rather not quite. The look in their eyes carries more exhaustion, the sickly shade of their skin is even more dead, and they look at this video with those same eyes.

And they feel grief. pain. Paul, that's who this is, they remember him. They remember caring about him, or... CHARNAME caring about him. They remember thinking that this wasn't what they wanted for him. But he laughs, and the part of them that is Chara can't help but wince.

Why is he talking like him.]

...What happened to you.

video

[unchoose]

[ Paul recognizes the difference. Even through this flattened feed, he can see it bending and snapping around their skull, a sizzling corona of possibility casting off plasmic spurts of dying time. It's almost beautiful.

The look in their eyes isn't. Neither is the question. There is nothing he wants to look at in either. His smile fades like smoke. ]

I grew up.

[ Truth broad enough to hold all manner of lies. ]

text; un: merlin

[lludw]

[Lucius uses his new, text-only alias for this. He has to respond, since no one else seems to have made the point yet. But like hell is he going to let something that will tip his hand be tied back to him.]

"Your people"?

text

[unchoose]

[ It really was only a matter of time. Paul notes the name attached to the message with a twist of his lips that's only for himself. ]

My fellow Sleepers, of course.

I suppose it's a bit sentimental of me.

text / un; Abigail Williams

[iaiafhtagn]

...Do you know how to make the fluffiest pancakes ever?

text

[unchoose]

I could give it a try.

How fluffy are the fluffiest pancakes ever?

video ; un: a.solo

[hopesparks]

I'm lost. Your responsibility to your power is to grant wishes?

video

[unchoose]

When you put it like that...

[ Paul shakes his head, still smiling. ]

My responsibility to my power is to use it for greater good than harm. I'll have to ask forgiveness for the flight of fancy in my language. Bad old habits.