felldenlogs | November Catch-All (Closed)

[ ok, honestly, even Gilgamesh is not reckless enough to return to the Gods Wood for absolutely no reason after it became a location of instant death only a few days ago,

but maybe he had morbid curiosity to see whether it was still in that state. or maybe he went to pay Neria a visit. or maybe he actually went to investigate the strange woman he encountered previously, or the source of all these calamities. he never was one to calmly wait for the faction leaders to return or to simply enjoy the peace and quiet. but it could not possibly be that he would be returning to face the consequences of his prior actions.

KNOCK KNOCK, DEATH, WHO'S THERE? here we have a little quiet post-apocalyptic wandering outside the woods after surviving wendigo-go-go-palooza; the world still snowy, but quiet now, and come to see that the woods are still inaccessible. ]

Edited (OOPS I GUESS HE LOCKED OUT. KNOCK KNOCK, INDEED.) 2019-11-03 16:40 (UTC)

[ As always, Lorelai appears with silence, one second not there and the next she is visible. She stands on a thick branch several dozen feet above Gilgamesh, her blue eyes icy. ]

You should know better than to be here again, Goldilocks!

[ her again? ]

What an ill-mannered woman you are, to look down on me.

[ he glares up at her, not concealing that irritation. ~~this is why you sometimes get eaten by darkness incarnate.~~ ]

Some show that was of you and your Master. You claim neutrality, yet did those things not emerge from your woods? Did they not return into this darkened place?

Why should anyone sit idly by while you house every evil to plague these factions?

[ maybe his righteous indignation is sincere, or maybe this is after-the-fact reasoning and he just likes poking hornet's nests -- though given he is the King who went into the Forest of Cedars to seek out Humbaba and rid "all of the evils of the world," there is probably at least some legitimate interest there... though it would be obvious his reasons are not wholly noble. ]

Edited (TYPOS AHOY) 2019-11-04 21:35 (UTC)

[ Lorelai raises an eyebrow, not bothering to hide her annoyance at this line of questioning. ]

What, the wendigo? [ She shrugs carelessly. ] They're a force of nature, much like Famine. You try controlling a hungry dog.

Is that so? Yet why should they have suddenly emerged?

[ seriously, he cannot be the only one who wonders about that. ]

Your Master is Death, who holds court here. I had believed Death held power over all beings. That Priestess having disappeared, it is natural I should seek answers elsewhere.

Death holds power over souls and spirits. [ She takes a step over the branches, none of them moving with the pressure of her feet. ] It can't control the living.

[ She jumps to another branch like she's jumping from stone to stone across a river, her arms outstretched for balance. ]

The wendigo are nature spirits called forth when living beings go against the laws of nature.

Oh?

[ he watches her with apparently absent interest.

still, that seemed like it might be a clue to something. perhaps not, but -- ]

And who, in this world, went against the laws of nature? Do you speak of this war, or something else?

[ Her light body twirls to face Gilgamesh, and the look she fixes the king of all heroes with while not disdainful, certain comes close. ]

Something else. [ She wants to throw another pinecone at him, maybe this one will explode, but she's been told by her Lord to be less openly aggressive. ] "When one eats of its own flesh, it breaks the very law the world had set for it."

Or something like that. Basically: cannibalism is bad, kids.

[ two can play that disdainful look game. this Lorelai -- she reminds him of other goddesses he has known, or that Moon Insect, BB. trickster personalities; an obnoxious lot. ]

You speak in riddles, eh, woman? [ cannibalism... what could that mean. he considers for a moment. solving puzzles is something he is actually rather good at, usually, but he may need to ask that Priestess about this remark, should he see her again. something to keep in mind, seeing as how this Lorelai is certainly not one to answer directly.

Gilgamesh considers. the other matter is whether or not he cares to directly intervene. still... ] I grow quite bored in this world. These faction leaders speak of war, yet no war comes. The only discord is that of their own minds which cannot reach a truce. "Forces of nature" plague this land. You deities abet these problems when you do not create them. Not a one of you has an ounce of ability to rule mankind.

I care not for the lives of these people, yet I have decided they are my belongings. Therefore, I shall root out these evils. [ cannibalism... what nonsense. ] Tell me about this "Famine" and "Temperance," or I shall go to discern the matter myself, even if it means upending this world unto its ends. Either way, I will not succumb to the will of these gods.

Edited (to add a bit more hook) 2019-11-05 20:16 (UTC)

... I dunno, I thought I was pretty straightforward. If you're human, don't eat other humans.

[ But, okay! She'll listen to him speak, her eyebrows furrowing. ]

Famine is one of the Four Horsemen, she causes food to go bad and starves people, driving them to be the worst of themselves. Temperance is a bad bitch, don't mess with her.

... You are saying that is all? Those creatures were humans who consumed one another?

[ duh, Gilgamesh!! he massively over-complicated things. but some of us missed the memo because, you know, we were busy fighting those beasties.

of course, seeing as how he drinks his Master's blood on the regular, his perspective on this topic might be a little off. ]

Hn. Very well. I still do not see why it should have such effects, absent some magic.

If you are truly speaking plainly to me, then, is this Temperance to declare herself the enemy of all in this world? A deity with so benign-sounding a name is a force of destruction, or do you mean something else?

[ Lorelai narrows her eyes at Gilgamesh, tempted to not give him any answers at all because of how he treated the Wood before.

However, she's far less a fan of Temperance, so: ]

I mean she only cares about her own sense of "balance," and she doesn't care who gets in her way or gets hurt because of it.

[ Gilgamesh looks up at her, standing high above. His eyes narrow as well, more in contemplation than contempt. This Lorelai has an insufferable attitude, but as much as he is frustrated to say so... he must begin to admit to himself that there seems to be an honesty about her. More so than the Priestess or that other faction leader. It does not redeem the fact that they are naturally oil and water, yet -- ]

Plainly, if her followers die, then others die? Is that the way of it? [ he recalls something of Neria's network post, and what he has been hearing talk of until now. "balance." that word keeps appearing again, and again. balance. ] A life for a life. You are saying she will spread this philosophy, but how far shall it reach? Is she a calamity that shall destroy this world?

[ it does sound alarming, but he needs to know more about the scale and the method.

he pauses, and in a very serious voice, with as much neutrality as he can manage -- ]

Do you agree, goddess Lorelai? -- with what I said before, about the Priestess and the Emperor? That this war is their fault? I have long thought so.

[ he may be pushing his luck, asking so many questions. but this has been a much more interesting reception than he imagined. if only he had been one to enter those woods less rudely, but that is more Neria's approach, not his. for at least this moment, though, hearing the truth takes precedence. ]

[ Oh, she doesn't like this. She doesn't like being asked such good questions because Lorelai doesn't like to dance around a subject if she doesn't have to. She'll give people shit before giving them their answers, sure, but she tries her best not to lie. ]

Oookay, first? Not a goddess. Thanks for the compliment though! [ Lorelai you gonna explain? No? Okay then. ] Yeah you got it right, they'll take every eye they can for every eye of theirs.

[ Pausing for a second, Lorelai leaps to another branch, poking her head down toward a hollow and letting a small squirrel run up her arm. ]

It's their fault for not coming to an agreement on shit. [ Lorelai pets the critter between its ears. ] Things escalated and then there's war. Couldn't just talk about it like adults.

[ he, of course, knows all about wars. from the dawn of human history until now, there have been no shortage of them, including the ones his kind of have been called to participate in. ]

And yet you and your kind do not intercede. [ but that is not really an accusation. maybe the words are such, but it's an observation; Death, of course, would be neutral.

or at least it would claim so. maybe. he has some doubts. ] It is foolish in the extreme to summon me and expect obedience if the results do not satisfy me. And those others -- well, humans are creatures of will.

[ and that is the closest he will get to complimenting the others in the factions. for now. ]

They will not agree to a war without cause. These faction leaders have begun something they do not comprehend. Powerful though each may be, a conceptual god who refuses to adapt is a creature awaiting its own downfall. So it was with the gods who created me. Gods underestimate the ingenuity of human beings and always have.

[ not that he is saying he has any plans to act against his so-called leader. nor presently, not so long as there is potential in using her for opportunities such as that quest. why remove one's self from a good thing without more reason than this, after all? but Gilgamesh, too, is half-god, and shares the same divine obstinacy and some of the same notorious rigidity of thought... if there is anything adaptable in him, that would be his frail, fallible, always-concealed human half. ]

[ Her eyes narrow, but not in annoyance or anger. Confusion flickers over her features, and Lorelai tilts her head. ]

You talk a lot but don't say much, don't you. [ Still, she picks up on the theme of what he's saying. ] I don't doubt human creativity: you wouldn't believe the many ways I've seen humans kill each over over several millennia.

We don't jump in the shit 'cause it'd be way too easy if we did. All we gotta do is reap everyone and whoever's left wins. [ She shrugs, arms crossing loosely. ] Buuut I thought the cause was clear for everyone listening. Worlds are dying, you guys gotta save 'em.

That presumes that those who have been summoned should care about such details. My duty to my own world perished with my first life.

[ but ... nevertheless, he considers. ]

Though that world is still my belonging. [ he is pretty contradictory, you know. ] Yet there is one point which I find myself wondering about: if these faction leaders are indeed causing the war, then how can the matter be resolved through serving one or the other? Simply, it seems like nonsense to me.

[ Lorelai holds up her hands in a shrug. ]

You got me. I think they're both fucked up.

[ he is, actually, quiet for a moment, closing his eyes for a time before responding with a sort of solemnity only vaguely tinged by that undercurrent of arrogance. ]

Yet to oppose the ones supplying our existence here -- that would difficult, even for me.

[ not that he sounds discouraged, exactly. this would be that obstinacy again. ]

Hmph. In that Grail War I participated in, the matter was not simple, but it was possible to transfer a contract. I shall ask you frankly, is there some manner by which such a "contract" can be transferred away from this prolonging this war?

[ otherwise, how exactly are they saving their worlds? they are simply prolonging the conflict, if Lorelai's earlier words are to be believed. ]

[ She... considers that for a moment. ]

You're talking defecting, right? Or what, straight up telling the Priestess to fuck off?

[ smiling. ]

I would do nothing hasty, given that she has supplied me with adequate entertainment.

[ defecting, as near as he can tell, means incurring severe punishments, and he prefers to keep his treasury intact to the extent that it is possible here. he is no coward, but neither is he altruistic enough to sacrifice too much of his own comfort. matters would have to be far worse for him to consider outright defecting, at least as of now.

still, it is true that he is appraising his options, since it would seem this war is bad business and this faction allegiance could very well become a yoke around his neck. ]

And having lost much of my power, I am unfortunately unable to oppose her alone.

[ though perhaps he could not do so anyway. this is her world. she is a goddess, and moreover, she holds all the cards. there are limits even to Gilgamesh's recklessness in such a situation. ]

Yet, what I want to know is if there are any other great powers in this world, beings or magics, whom one might turn to for support if they were to fall afoul of these temperamental faction leaders. This Fellden has other races and peoples within it, and I am certain there are those within it who have no love for this war and those who continue to prolong it.

[ There's a brief moment of pause before Lorelai extends her hand to Gilgamesh. ]

Hi, have we met? [ Stepping forward, she fixes him with a "for real?" look. ] I'm Lorelai, I work for Death, and Death is about as sick of this war as anyone else. Moreso, probably. It's got no love for the faction leaders or any dogs they hire on.

[ ... how strange.

Gilgamesh regards her outstretched hand. for a moment, the closest thing to bewilderment that one might ever see from him flickers across his features, though he quickly regains his composure.

is this not the same woman who has been known to throw pine cones at him? then again, though she says she is not a goddess, she is clearly built of that mercurial inhuman mold which he is somewhat intimately familiar with. such beings tended to be made of extreme whims, for better or for worse. ]

Oh? Does Death not claim neutrality in this war?

[ inwardly, he cannot deny there is a flash of appeal, but his instincts are to be wary. this Lorelai has a certain seeming honesty to her, but how would he verify that? she may simply be a cunning trickster to the core, a siren singing danger for a man. she would not be the first at all. ]

Let us dispense with pretense. [ he is still looking at her, neither accepting nor rejecting whatever this perhaps-offer is. ] What are the limits to what you can or would do in this matter?

November Catch-All (Closed)

[ OUTSIDE GODS WOOD / FOLLOW-UP TO PREVIOUS ... ]

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THANK YOU FOR THIS GIFT <3

NP NP!!

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should i give a signal for the tag likely to earn de-voicing? i kind of had an idea in mind soon

sure!

(can probably be here depending on how pressed this makes her, unless she has more to taunt)

she can take a bit more! ;)

cool ;) trying to be consistent about what he does/doesn't know yet pre-audience

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I'm so sorry for this delay! Everything happened so much.

it's ok!! she's great.

❤️❤️❤️

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TY FOR your patience during delays;;