[A faunish snort in reply.] It was important to him, [Myr says; were he of another world entirely, there'd be a bless his heart tagged on the end.
The sentiment is definitely there. Mettaton's ideas of luxury and spectacle and owning things for their own sake sat ill with Myr's notions of the world, but it didn't mean he needed to dislike the Puca.]
A...jest, messere? I'm not sure I follow--but while I have not heard of anyone among the Mirrorbound who's developed an addiction to Witchblood, there are some of us who have gone feral and attacked others for want of a Bond. Or resisting our impulses.
[He pauses a moment, and then--because it had been a cold and razor-edged comfort to him to hear,] There is a Mirrorbound Witch, the Lady Maria, who takes it as her duty to put down any Monster who becomes a threat to others in his madness. Were I to lose all my Bonds and find myself at risk for it, I'd be sure she'd know where to find me.
Mm. Important enough to offer me some items of considerable value for it. Twould be a shame if it rotted away from mismanagement.
[Though it really wasn't his problem anymore if so. He wondered what the thing tasted like. It would be unfortunate, but also very amusing, if the fruit had been one of those bitter tasting sorts and not at all worth building an empire out of.]
.... Ah, yes. There has been an ongoing ribbon of thought that I must be a cannibal. Which is of course nonsense, there's only one other of my species here which to cannibalize, and I will do no such thing. But it is entertaining to play with the notion.
[Only because it bothers others. Specifically because it bothers others.]
And has this woman actually done so? I can think of plenty who make noise and threats but take no action. I have not heard of anyone directly addressing the two dragons who burned a fair portion of the street not long ago, along with the residents and each other.
T'would indeed. [Whether or not Myr will actually contact Mettaton in time to rescue the pineapple... remains to be seen. it'll probably get the cwyld at this rate, given Present Events]
...Oh. [Myr is silent a little while, thinking about that.] You know, I s'pose I never thought about the strict definition of cannibalism and always assumed I'd be one for trying to eat anything elf-shaped.
[But was that REALLY cannibalism? If he'd eaten a shem back home they'd definitely call it cannibalism. Why is he thinking about this.
...He's only really bothered about it because now he's thinking about the moral dimensions of a human as a food source if it's not cannibalism. Still almost surely wrong, but...
He snaps out of it.]
--You know, messere, I don't know. [He'd heard about the epic dragon battle--that did seem like something she should've...intervened on.] I've never heard of her actually killing a Monster, though as you said, she'd threatened so. [It had been his first month in Aefenglom and made an impression on him he'd...never really bothered to check on, since of course there'd be something like a Templar around and presumably she'd do her job without boasting about it if it were required of her.]
S'pose you could ask the woman yourself; it may have been a lack of opportunity or presence in the city that's kept her from carrying out her threats. [Though even that betokened poorly for her future ability to put down a Monster concerned about his own ferality.]
Most seem to take it to mean any sapient creature at all, but I am unsure if I were to make a diet explicitly of the denizens of this city that I would suffer the ordinary consequences of consuming one's own kind. And yet I am disinclined to actually find out.
[Even though it would still be eating lesser lifeforms, he's less certain of his ability to simply leave when the natives got restless. Fish were better, besides.
And strawberries.]
I am unsure asking would be to any benefit. If she's taken action, would others not know about it? I have heard no rumors of a witch handling any feral threats, but plenty of feral threats circulating. I ... do not think I could rely on such a person.
[The sound of it brought to mind plenty of creatures that were mostly bluff and noise in the hopes that their threat displays were enough.]
My senses may be sharp enough to avoid anything with blood in them, at least. I will... have little choice I suppose, than to seek out these potions and such. As arrogant as it sounds, I would sooner chain myself to a rock and throw myself in the sea before taking ... well, nearly anyone into my soul. It may be that my God will look kindly upon my situation and send unto me one of my brethren. There are a few who are certainly tolerable enough.
[By the edges of what sounds like fondness that creep into his voice, he doesn't really mean tolerable. Some of them are actually liked, these mystery people.]
[Myr has to ask, since that sounds like there's something more behind it. Who else is he going to have a frank conversation about cannibalism with, anyway?
(L. L would absolutely have a frank conversation about cannibalism with him. But other than that...)]
I understand that fully, messere. Now that you've made me reflect on it, I'm--rather glad I found a Bond with a Witch, rather than relying on my own assumption she'd simply take care of my irresponsibility as a Templar would.
[It's an uncomfortable admission to make, but he's making it, because he's been a year and a half away from the Circle and that's distance enough to begin seeing how it marked him. (Mutilated him. Would Vandelin be proud of all the conclusions he's made, all on his own?)
He essays a small and thoughtful hum at Lahabrea's words; Myr is, at least and as he said, a sympathetic audience to the idea of treating a Bond as touching the sacred. Even if his own Faunish nature had made him parlous casual about the temporary sort, for those in need.
Something probably to read in that, given his schizophrenic attitude toward casual sex when forbidden even in the Circle. That's also not anything he's going to be thinking about right now~!]
I'll add my prayers to yours, for that. I don't like to think of you having to rely purely on the potions to maintain yourself; it's a dismal sort of future. [A breath.] While I'm not one to rail nor suspect the Coven of deceiving us about something as fundamental as our need for magic, or a Witch's need to rid herself of it, I do wonder if there's not something they're missing in their insistence on Bonds. Given they're a new thing in the world and the native Monsters previously were not all at a risk of inevitably running mad...
...Are there any other Mirrorbound from your world already present?
Health, specifically. You might note that stories of habitual cannibals inevitably have those sad beings as rather mad, far beyond the reach of this one mere star and into other stars such as your world of origin. There's a reason for that, in the blood and in the meat. Sickness has a very easy time crossing like to like, even amongst beasts. The more consumed the higher the risk of such an illness striking. There is no living thing thusly that prospers, which also consumes its own kind as a regular and large portion of its diet.
[Explaining the details of it as he understood them might well be beyond him, without being certain of Myr's actual base knowledge. But everyone understood sickness and contagion.
These Templar must be some form of guard or police force. That at least was familiar, even the Ancients had ways to deal with rogue elements of their society, or escaped concepts getting loose and causing trouble. Bringing down one of their own, gone mad from some source, was obligatory.]
I have long wondered what the monsters did in this world for the millions of years before the onset of witch bonds a mere few centuries ago. Was the murder of witches rampant, so they may be devoured? There's no tales of such, and surely there would be as a warning for why bonds are vital, lest civilization as it is return to those dark and bloody days. Mayhap truly there is no risk for madness, and it results only because it is expected.
[He wasn't entirely sure of it. There could be a point where the beast and the thinking mind simply ... merged, seamless and whole. Certainly his harpy neighbors didn't seem to need any such bonds with a witch to keep going, they were living quite fine as they were.]
Yes. Two. A deadly enemy, and one whom was once an ally.
[It's an explanation that Myr's never heard before, but it makes absolute intuitive sense laid out that way. Certainly cannibal societies were not a talked-about thing in the Circles of Magi, but there did seem to be an odd trend toward madness in the accounts Myr had read of them in passing--in Genitivi or one of the man's peers. Sicknesses being more apt to spread like-to-like even accords with the sympathetic principles every mage knew were writ in the Fade; if demons could be drawn to haunt a man's mind for the familiar content of his thoughts, then why wouldn't an illness be the same way?]
I hadn't known that. S'pose that does go some way to explaining our disgust for it, doesn't it...
[The Maker's moral rules underlay nature's workings, after all.
The mention of "millions of years" gives the Faun momentary pause. Actually, hadn't they seen something of the world's deep past?]
I think, [he says, slowly,] --based on a dream we had some months ago, that the earliest Monsters were not much more than very smart beasts, and there were no Witches for them to draw from. They must've gotten their magic from the leylines, then--or from their connection to the world as it was.
I suspect for a time after that the kinds lived separate and what we call "feral" now might have simply been how Monsters were, among each other--and the more dangerous irruptions of our nature are in part a result of how society's demands suppress and distort them. And--perhaps--
[There's a sound as he gets up and begins pacing, hooves click-clicking on whatever floor he's walking on.] --If humans here didn't have magic to start, but gained it over time, they might've pulled it from whatever natural reservoir Monsters once drew on. We, [hm, wait,] they wouldn't have needed to turn to Witches until much of the magic was in Witches, and then with the advent of the Cwyld pushing them out of their homes...
[It's not a wholly connected train of thought, not yet. He mumbles to himself a little more on the subject, before sighing.] Wish I could make better use of the Coven's library--or the Underground's; there's got to be more on this somewhere.
[Then a jingling interruption as he shakes his head to clear the cobwebs.] --Though I suppose we could test the hypothesis that we go mad because of our own expectations, if we surveyed all the Mirrorbound and whether or not they believed what the Coven told them.
[Pause.] I'm--sorry, messere.
[He's put himself temporarily into a like situation. He doesn't have many enemies, but if the only people who'd ever come through the Mirror from Thedas had been--oh--Corypheus and Vandelin's apprentice Rohesia...] That's surely worse than being alone here.
[He sounds a touch incredulous, but he's still not really experienced how those work here - the one time he had such a dream-nightmare, it hadn't overlapped at all into the waking world. He'll allow it for the time being, because prophecy was a possibility, why not looking back? But he'd want evidence in time, and an explanation for how they became intelligent if they really were just animals once.
It didn't bode well for his eventual fate, though.]
When you say 'earliest', how early do you speak? Millions of years? Most species rise to sapience in the span of only a few million, but the implication is that these ... humans had already been thus and intelligence only came far after them, and the local mortals are not particularly further along than the earliest of advances thus cannot be an ancient species.
[There must be information somewhere indeed, but how much could a blind faun really do by way of research?]
... If you have not already, it might be advisable to seek a spell which will translate the written word into speech for you. I fear I will not be a great example of whether or not one might go mad simply through belief, for I have already fallen victim to it. Expectation leads the result, one would have to isolate a new monster with no information leading from the Coven, and then keep them that way for some months.
[A difficult prospect!
But easier to consider than other things.]
Ah, there is no pity needed. We are used to spending decades, sometimes centuries alone. This is merely an inconvenient problem which could have been made easier by a willing ally.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-01-27 06:31 am (UTC)The sentiment is definitely there. Mettaton's ideas of luxury and spectacle and owning things for their own sake sat ill with Myr's notions of the world, but it didn't mean he needed to dislike the Puca.]
A...jest, messere? I'm not sure I follow--but while I have not heard of anyone among the Mirrorbound who's developed an addiction to Witchblood, there are some of us who have gone feral and attacked others for want of a Bond. Or resisting our impulses.
[He pauses a moment, and then--because it had been a cold and razor-edged comfort to him to hear,] There is a Mirrorbound Witch, the Lady Maria, who takes it as her duty to put down any Monster who becomes a threat to others in his madness. Were I to lose all my Bonds and find myself at risk for it, I'd be sure she'd know where to find me.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-01 05:15 pm (UTC)[Though it really wasn't his problem anymore if so. He wondered what the thing tasted like. It would be unfortunate, but also very amusing, if the fruit had been one of those bitter tasting sorts and not at all worth building an empire out of.]
.... Ah, yes. There has been an ongoing ribbon of thought that I must be a cannibal. Which is of course nonsense, there's only one other of my species here which to cannibalize, and I will do no such thing. But it is entertaining to play with the notion.
[Only because it bothers others. Specifically because it bothers others.]
And has this woman actually done so? I can think of plenty who make noise and threats but take no action. I have not heard of anyone directly addressing the two dragons who burned a fair portion of the street not long ago, along with the residents and each other.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-07 03:50 am (UTC)it'll probably get the cwyld at this rate, given Present Events]...Oh. [Myr is silent a little while, thinking about that.] You know, I s'pose I never thought about the strict definition of cannibalism and always assumed I'd be one for trying to eat anything elf-shaped.
[But was that REALLY cannibalism? If he'd eaten a shem back home they'd definitely call it cannibalism.
Why is he thinking about this....He's only really bothered about it because now he's thinking about the moral dimensions of a human as a food source if it's not cannibalism. Still almost surely wrong, but...
He snaps out of it.]
--You know, messere, I don't know. [He'd heard about the epic dragon battle--that did seem like something she should've...intervened on.] I've never heard of her actually killing a Monster, though as you said, she'd threatened so. [It had been his first month in Aefenglom and made an impression on him he'd...never really bothered to check on, since of course there'd be something like a Templar around and presumably she'd do her job without boasting about it if it were required of her.]
S'pose you could ask the woman yourself; it may have been a lack of opportunity or presence in the city that's kept her from carrying out her threats. [Though even that betokened poorly for her future ability to put down a Monster concerned about his own ferality.]
no subject
Date: 2021-02-07 09:54 pm (UTC)[Even though it would still be eating lesser lifeforms, he's less certain of his ability to simply leave when the natives got restless. Fish were better, besides.
And strawberries.]
I am unsure asking would be to any benefit. If she's taken action, would others not know about it? I have heard no rumors of a witch handling any feral threats, but plenty of feral threats circulating. I ... do not think I could rely on such a person.
[The sound of it brought to mind plenty of creatures that were mostly bluff and noise in the hopes that their threat displays were enough.]
My senses may be sharp enough to avoid anything with blood in them, at least. I will... have little choice I suppose, than to seek out these potions and such. As arrogant as it sounds, I would sooner chain myself to a rock and throw myself in the sea before taking ... well, nearly anyone into my soul. It may be that my God will look kindly upon my situation and send unto me one of my brethren. There are a few who are certainly tolerable enough.
[By the edges of what sounds like fondness that creep into his voice, he doesn't really mean tolerable. Some of them are actually liked, these mystery people.]
no subject
Date: 2021-02-21 07:51 am (UTC)[Myr has to ask, since that sounds like there's something more behind it. Who else is he going to have a frank conversation about cannibalism with, anyway?
(L. L would absolutely have a frank conversation about cannibalism with him. But other than that...)]
I understand that fully, messere. Now that you've made me reflect on it, I'm--rather glad I found a Bond with a Witch, rather than relying on my own assumption she'd simply take care of my irresponsibility as a Templar would.
[It's an uncomfortable admission to make, but he's making it, because he's been a year and a half away from the Circle and that's distance enough to begin seeing how it marked him. (Mutilated him. Would Vandelin be proud of all the conclusions he's made, all on his own?)
He essays a small and thoughtful hum at Lahabrea's words; Myr is, at least and as he said, a sympathetic audience to the idea of treating a Bond as touching the sacred. Even if his own Faunish nature had made him parlous casual about the temporary sort, for those in need.
Something probably to read in that, given his schizophrenic attitude toward casual sex when forbidden even in the Circle. That's also not anything he's going to be thinking about right now~!]
I'll add my prayers to yours, for that. I don't like to think of you having to rely purely on the potions to maintain yourself; it's a dismal sort of future. [A breath.] While I'm not one to rail nor suspect the Coven of deceiving us about something as fundamental as our need for magic, or a Witch's need to rid herself of it, I do wonder if there's not something they're missing in their insistence on Bonds. Given they're a new thing in the world and the native Monsters previously were not all at a risk of inevitably running mad...
...Are there any other Mirrorbound from your world already present?
no subject
Date: 2021-02-21 03:51 pm (UTC)[Explaining the details of it as he understood them might well be beyond him, without being certain of Myr's actual base knowledge. But everyone understood sickness and contagion.
These Templar must be some form of guard or police force. That at least was familiar, even the Ancients had ways to deal with rogue elements of their society, or escaped concepts getting loose and causing trouble. Bringing down one of their own, gone mad from some source, was obligatory.]
I have long wondered what the monsters did in this world for the millions of years before the onset of witch bonds a mere few centuries ago. Was the murder of witches rampant, so they may be devoured? There's no tales of such, and surely there would be as a warning for why bonds are vital, lest civilization as it is return to those dark and bloody days. Mayhap truly there is no risk for madness, and it results only because it is expected.
[He wasn't entirely sure of it. There could be a point where the beast and the thinking mind simply ... merged, seamless and whole. Certainly his harpy neighbors didn't seem to need any such bonds with a witch to keep going, they were living quite fine as they were.]
Yes. Two. A deadly enemy, and one whom was once an ally.
[It's ... said with some reluctance.]
Neither are options.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-24 06:27 am (UTC)[It's an explanation that Myr's never heard before, but it makes absolute intuitive sense laid out that way. Certainly cannibal societies were not a talked-about thing in the Circles of Magi, but there did seem to be an odd trend toward madness in the accounts Myr had read of them in passing--in Genitivi or one of the man's peers. Sicknesses being more apt to spread like-to-like even accords with the sympathetic principles every mage knew were writ in the Fade; if demons could be drawn to haunt a man's mind for the familiar content of his thoughts, then why wouldn't an illness be the same way?]
I hadn't known that. S'pose that does go some way to explaining our disgust for it, doesn't it...
[The Maker's moral rules underlay nature's workings, after all.
The mention of "millions of years" gives the Faun momentary pause. Actually, hadn't they seen something of the world's deep past?]
I think, [he says, slowly,] --based on a dream we had some months ago, that the earliest Monsters were not much more than very smart beasts, and there were no Witches for them to draw from. They must've gotten their magic from the leylines, then--or from their connection to the world as it was.
I suspect for a time after that the kinds lived separate and what we call "feral" now might have simply been how Monsters were, among each other--and the more dangerous irruptions of our nature are in part a result of how society's demands suppress and distort them. And--perhaps--
[There's a sound as he gets up and begins pacing, hooves click-clicking on whatever floor he's walking on.] --If humans here didn't have magic to start, but gained it over time, they might've pulled it from whatever natural reservoir Monsters once drew on. We, [hm, wait,] they wouldn't have needed to turn to Witches until much of the magic was in Witches, and then with the advent of the Cwyld pushing them out of their homes...
[It's not a wholly connected train of thought, not yet. He mumbles to himself a little more on the subject, before sighing.] Wish I could make better use of the Coven's library--or the Underground's; there's got to be more on this somewhere.
[Then a jingling interruption as he shakes his head to clear the cobwebs.] --Though I suppose we could test the hypothesis that we go mad because of our own expectations, if we surveyed all the Mirrorbound and whether or not they believed what the Coven told them.
[Pause.] I'm--sorry, messere.
[He's put himself temporarily into a like situation. He doesn't have many enemies, but if the only people who'd ever come through the Mirror from Thedas had been--oh--Corypheus and Vandelin's apprentice Rohesia...] That's surely worse than being alone here.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-25 01:07 am (UTC)[He sounds a touch incredulous, but he's still not really experienced how those work here - the one time he had such a dream-nightmare, it hadn't overlapped at all into the waking world. He'll allow it for the time being, because prophecy was a possibility, why not looking back? But he'd want evidence in time, and an explanation for how they became intelligent if they really were just animals once.
It didn't bode well for his eventual fate, though.]
When you say 'earliest', how early do you speak? Millions of years? Most species rise to sapience in the span of only a few million, but the implication is that these ... humans had already been thus and intelligence only came far after them, and the local mortals are not particularly further along than the earliest of advances thus cannot be an ancient species.
[There must be information somewhere indeed, but how much could a blind faun really do by way of research?]
... If you have not already, it might be advisable to seek a spell which will translate the written word into speech for you. I fear I will not be a great example of whether or not one might go mad simply through belief, for I have already fallen victim to it. Expectation leads the result, one would have to isolate a new monster with no information leading from the Coven, and then keep them that way for some months.
[A difficult prospect!
But easier to consider than other things.]
Ah, there is no pity needed. We are used to spending decades, sometimes centuries alone. This is merely an inconvenient problem which could have been made easier by a willing ally.