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un: xXx_tWiStEd_MiNd_xXx

Name: Henry
Date: 10/07
Format: voice (please feel free to theadjack!)

I've been thinking about this decision we're left to make about Morgana Drummond. Sheesh, talk about a toughie, right? I mean, why NOT kill Drummond dead? Sounds easy-peasy to me! Dorchacht's Coven is even preparing the pyre and everything. Yay, fire!

[Henry busts out in a raucous laugh.]

You have to admire that initiative. Oh, by the by, you can't resurrect bones without the body stuffs, I guess. Reanimation ONLY. Trust me on that.

So anyway, they say they're gonna seal away her ashes. But I can't help but wonder if there's reeeeally any way to guarantee that she won't be resurrected after we burn her to bones at the stake. Imagine how awesome it'd be, facing off against an UNDEAD Drummond, revived by her necromancer lackeys! Nya ha ha! Guess we'd better hope that pile of ashes doesn't end up in the wrong hands, huh?

Who are you guys gonna side with? Dorchacht's death sentence, or Aefenglom's curious Coven?

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[it's definitely a relevant topic being brought up here, and Styx does intend to address it at some point, but right now his attention has been completely diverted by something else here.]

Dude, you ok?

[his tone is genuinely concerned, rather than the "what the hell is your problem" that a delivery like this post probably warrants.]

...Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm doing swell! Thanks for asking.

[He sounds chipper, if caught a bit off-guard. Sure, people react with incredulity to his manner of speaking a lot, but something like this sort of concern is a bit rarer... He wonders what he did to warrant that kind of concern.]

Why? Do I sound like I'm catching a cold or something? I promise that's just my voice, honest!

I mean, uh, doesn't sound like a cold or nothing. I don't think? Just, your laugh...

[nya ha ha? it sounded like his kitten trying to sneeze some dust off his nose, which was. concerning! coming from a human being. so he can't help but worry, big idiot that he is.]

You sure you didn't get hit with nothing lately?

Ohhh, I got it now. Yep, you're not the first person to get worried because I'm laughing, but don't worry. No concussions or fractured skulls, honest! I always laugh like this. I'm just a happy-go-lucky fellow, when it boils down to it.

[he considers this, since Henry seems pretty sincere in his declaration of being fine. well, sometimes your nose could be shaped kind of funny right out the gate, right? and it'd whistle and do some other weird stuff. so like...it was probably something like that. right?]

Mm, if you're sure! 's an extra bad time to get sick, you know? So I was kinda worried.

[what with the...giant flaming city and all.]

You're telling me! Can you imagine facing off against Drummond and sneezing in her face, instead of casting a fire spell? As a Witch, my magic could go haywire or something if I were sick!

[It just ends up being an amusing mental image instead, so Henry giggles a bit.]

But really, sorry for worrying ya. I'm right as rain.

[oh, shit, can that happen? Styx makes a soft noise, somewhere between thoughtful and concerned, as his dull brain takes that joke way too seriously. he's always been a robustly healthy dude, but...geez, that was something else to worry about now, wasn't it?]

's fine, don't gotta apologize or nothing.

[his words are a little spacey, if still genuine, since his mind is still fixating on the newfound terrors of the flu. thankfully he shakes it off after actually speaking, and the rest of his response is more collected.]

Uh, but, what you were actually talking about with the post 'nd all...you really think killing her's the only way?

[The real terror of Talam: the Cwyld, and other such sicknesses, like the common cold. Truly terrifying. Other terrifying matters: accidentally sneezing a fire spell. Who knows what can happen?

Henry makes a humming sound, thinking on it.]

Normally, I'm a huge proponent in killing things. It's usually the easiest thing to do... But a lot of other folks wanna be decent and stuff. But with all those necromancers she made a friend of, you gotta wonder. How SURE is it that she'll stay dead, if we kill her?

[Not quite an answer, but maybe it's just that Henry doesn't quite have his own thoughts drafted up yet...]

Mean...if she came back the way those dead guys were in Dorchacht, would it really matter? Didn't really seem like they could do much on their own.

[just dance like puppets and kill. Styx was hardly any sort of strategic master, but that didn't seem like a very useful head of your hate group. there's the sound of him shifting, somewhat uncomfortably, and a noise like hair being brushed back.]

Kinda hoping we don't gotta kill her in the first place, though. Just feels...I dunno. 's not really that much better than what they're doing now, you know?

What you're seeing is reanimation, mister. RESURRECTION is in a class of its own! That's the kind of magic high-level necromancers can do. They completely revive someone at a teeeeensy cost... And BAM! Morgana's back and bad as ever. I've never resurrected anyone, though.

[Reanimation only.

But with that said, Henry tries to remember the rest of what Styx said. He can get pretty wrapped up in his area of expertise.]

I guess it's 'cause it's easy to kill. WAY easier than, say, trying to negotiate with either her or Dorchacht's angry Coven! They'd probably bite our heads off at a chance to get Drummond's. But I'm not very good at this kind of stuff. I just do the killing.

[oh. huh! this seems like the kind of thing that Ymir would know already, and - even though he's still fairly? sure? there's no actual magic in his own world - be capable of, but Styx still listens to the explanation with rapt attention all the same. he's not with the drummer now, but...it's always nice to be able to talk to your friend about something they're passionate about, right?

he kind of almost wants to ask some more about it, like the differences and what that 'price' was...but now is probably not the time. maybe later.]

'm not good at anything, so you're better off than me. [he chuckles, but he's being quite serious.] But I guess...usually 's the hard stuff that ends up being the best, right? How it feels to me, anyway.

[Henry would be absurdly glad to shed light on the forbidden knowledge he's collected over the year, in a theoretical sense, but even to him that price is an abstract. Maybe someday, he'll learn what that is.

It's an interesting thing, to be told he's better off for his ability to kill. Henry hums an ascending note, faint and soft.]

Yeah... That's pretty insightful of you. I guess so. [He spares a few pauses to thinking about it, how the hardest stuff is the best... Then he sighs.] But sometimes, stuff's hard just because. No reason. Or, hey, maybe the cost for NOT doing things the hard way is your life, or something like that! We're all a bunch of animals anyway, so we do what we can to survive. That must be why everyone wants Drummond dead: it's to ensure their safety.

[Henry's not sure if the hardship of his own life was because there was any good to it, and he wouldn't call anything he's done virtuous at all. But after being with the Ylissean army, watching Robin make such a tough decision for the sake of the world... He can understand it a bit better, perhaps.]

But don't be so down on yourself. I'm ONLY any good at killing and war. I bet you're good at something, too.

[insightful? him? surely that must be a mistake...but it would be rude to question someone obviously much more intelligent than he was, so he keeps quiet about it. Henry would probably realize on his own soon enough.]

's a lotta stuff you need to be good at to be good at those things, though. Not like you can only use it for fighting 'nd stuff, you know?

[it's so funny, how naturally Styx leaps to lift up people who speak in the same manner he did about himself. but it was true, wasn't it? to kill and wage war, those skills...you could protect the people you cared about just as easily with them. those were things to be proud of, not play down.]

...maybe people just gotta look at it that way instead.

[not as single-minded animals who needed to slaughter or be slaughtered, but...uh, well, animals with options. he supposed. this train of thought is only going so far by itself.]

[There's another hum from Henry's end as he thinks about that. Styx has a manner of speaking that, well... It's coming from a place of trying to express the core of his thoughts, he thought. He doesn't explain all of the things he considers when it comes to applying Henry's wartime skills toward anything else, but the sorcerer's met enough people to know that even his sinister curses intended for torture could also be used to mend porcelain.

Things like that. Little things. If it were video, there'd be a nod.]

Yeah, I guess if you can take a step back... For both things, I mean. That maybe my skills could be used for other stuff, or that Drummond might not be so threatening in Miss Nessie's care.

[There could be pacifist sorts among them. Henry can respect that, even if he doesn't get it very well. As long as there was somebody out there who could see from that view, he thinks it's worth it. But likewise...]

Hey, you're pretty good at talking about this stuff. It's easy to talk to you, even if we don't EXACTLY share the same point of view. Dunno why.

[regardless of the fact that this is a voice call, Styx is still nodding earnestly on his side of things. that the only faint evidence of his action is the extremely quiet sound of moving hair occurs to him after rather than before - and then he's glad this isn't video, because that's definitely a very embarrassed look on his face for a little while.]

Me?

[he seems surprised to be labeled 'good' at anything, let alone discussing weighty topics of a vaguely philosophical nature. it makes Styx laugh, bashful, before he very cheerfully and sincerely continues on to the other part of Henry's reply.]

Must be 'cause I'm pretty dumb! Easy to talk to somebody when there's nothing really complicated going on with it, you know?

[it doesn't seem to bother him, though, acknowledging that he's an idiot. that was just the way of the world...and honestly, he's far happier to know that someone was having a nice time chatting him up. it made his heart warm, just a little.]

'm glad, though.

Edited (how many times will i forget to close my smalls) 2020-10-19 14:58 (UTC)

Hey! Don't sell yourself short. Whether it's 'cause you're dumb or what, I think that's pretty neat. Maybe it's because there's nothing too complicated going on here, or something...

[Henry can hardly wrap his mind around what makes Styx eas(ier?) to talk to than some other people, but a more straightforward sort of person would be easiest. But he laughs off all of the more complex sort of pondering. Henry's ability to socialize isn't terribly refined.]

Well, I'm not very good at being a people-person, easy to talk to, and all that, myself. So I guess I just noticed it, is all. I'm normally much better at talking to the crows and the flowers, nya ha!

[it's probably for the best that the intricacies of this little mystery are put to the side for the time being. while Styx is always more than happy to give any topic a go if his conversation partner is willing, his strengths are decidedly not in the realm of dissecting the human psyche.]

I dunno, been having a pretty good time talking to you so far! Even with all the heavy stuff going on and all that, you know? Think you're probably a lot better than you're giving yourself credit for, too.

[so maybe...they should both stop selling themselves short? he's almost onto some sort of personal revelation when something else that Henry says immediately grasps all of his attention.]

...oh, dude, you can talk to birds?

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