"The gods? Absolutely." He gestured to the books and off toward another part of the library. "Half the Northern folktales are about them bickering or falling in love or some such thing."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
"And are they all asleep? Or are any still awake causing--" Problems. "Making anything happen?"
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"They all went to sleep centuries ago." Gaius gave her an impatient look. "It's all in there and on other shelves." Ada yawned; she'd relaxed pretty completely at this point and was now watching Ky and Gaius with drooping eylids.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
"I don't have time to read the entire library tonight," she answered dryly. It wasn't exactly her fault that he had over twice her lifetime to learn about his petty gods, when she'd only been here a few months -- and had, quite frankly, had little interest in gods at all. They made her angry at them and sad at losing her father all at once, since he was a Believer. Not to mention she didn't believe they existed until she met Rönn two weeks ago.
Pratik was amused but was careful to hide it. He'd settled down with one of the books he'd been sent to fetch, but was watching Ky and Gaius bicker. He hadn't realized until that very moment how similar they were. At least in this one, very specific way. They were both used to being the Smart One when something happened. And now neither of them knew. And they didn't like that. And, it seemed like, they were losing patience for each other, too. What a fascinating dynamic.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Then you'd best start soon." He dipped back into the book. She was making so little progress; his notes were pages long at this point. Why couldn't she keep up? "Do you need assistance?"
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky furrowed her brow and looked back at her book sourly rather than answering, jaw tight. She didn't 'need assistance' from the likes of him. And at this point she didn't want to offer her assistance, since it was clear he viewed himself as too important to deign to listen to her questions and ideas. She considered taking her book to a different corner to read so she didn't have to deal with his condescension breathing down her neck, but decided that would be melodramatic.
Gods, the man had the emotional intelligence of a potato. This was an important and interesting matter -- Pratik could appreciate that. But it didn't mean you needed to step on someone clearly trying to help you. Or insult her. Ky was far smarter than Gaius seemed to be giving her credit for. What she wasn't, however, was someone who could be motivated to do better by belittling her. It made her shut down, not challenge her to try harder. She tried her hardest at baseline. She knew it. He knew it. And Gaius should know it by now, too. And yet it seemed like he had no idea what a valuable resource he was about to lose if he kept up. He didn't own her; she didn't have the compulsion to keep trying to help him that she did under Aleth. There was nothing at all keeping her here but her own curiosity and goodwill. Did he really want to go and fuck that up? And for what -- saving himself a few minutes of explaining context to her so she could understand what she was reading? Bah.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
She hadn't responded, but Gaius didn't really notice as he was already soaking up words again. He was reading about stars and the night sky now, and how the gods could manipulate it if they were angered. It turned out they had done something similar to sleeping about two thousand years ago and gone into a fit of angry silence. The sky turned black and starless, and nothing but the moon shone for about ten years.
Last edited by Ljungtroll on Sun May 08, 2022 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Dick. She started skimming again, looking for anything about the gods, but she was far slower this time than before, agitated and therefore distracted by Gaius’s words. His attitude. The way he thought he was sooooo much better than her. Maybe she should just go to her room. Let him read the entire library by himself, since it was so easy according to him.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"I have something," he announced, turning the book up to show them all. "The gods have been petty before--they shunned the Northern Realm for a decade and darkened the sky. The trolls went berserk shortly before and massacred thousands. Then they did the same when the gods returned."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky let out a shuddering breath. Great. They were really all going to die.
Pratik but his lip. He didn’t like the sound of that. “… were thee any other indicators before that?”
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Well, they weren't asleep, so the change was rather sudden. The sun rose immediately. The earth trembled. It was a day of reckoning; skalds thought it was the end of the world."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
“So the troll apocalypse will probably be slow to awake as well?” Pratik mused.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Hopefully there won't be one this time," Gaius replied. "If there is, though, it will be on a larger scale." He paused. "The trolls may not be so quick to kill if it's a slower process. It won't be a sensory overload for them."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"None." Gaius shook his head. "This isn't a study, it's a folktale. It was legend until now, meant to frighten children."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
