maskormenace | (no subject)

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[On the network is what appears to be a young boy, about 12 or 13 years old. For a moment, he stares quite soulfully at the video output impossibly deep, black eyes, and then pokes at the screen with one fingernail.]

Not even a proper imp in there, how's that for you...?

[He pulls back and mimes clearing his throat. A voice far, far more booming than is fit for the child's face resounds across the feed.]

Right, broadcast. AHEM. This is just a friendly, non-suspicious question, inquiring on when the next coup or violent overthrow of this government is going to be. Not that I'm actually advocating it, I just know you humans really can't resist.

I'm pretty handy with a popcorn machine if anyone can provide good seats.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... You tried again. Why?

[ She hesitates...but in the end, she can't take credit for it, really. ]

It wasn't really trying again. More...trying for the first time. [ She chews on her lip, then says: ] When I first came here, I was pulled from right after when I summoned you for the first time. - You know all the rubbish about time travel and all that, right? - Anyway. I had a copy of Ptolemy's book, and I had it translated, and I tried to use it. Didn't work. [ Though, in her defense: ] Though I did know that there'd be effects then, and I still did it, didn't I.

No. Wait.

You tried it without a spirit to call on here? What if it had WORKED?

Well...I tried calling on you. I was testing out whether there was any way across worlds.

... That... could have worked. Maybe. If you'd had someone on the other side to open up a way out.

Nope. Thought about it. Still reckless and stupid.

Oh, right, cheers. First I'm an arsehole because I wouldn't do it again, now I'm an idiot because I would.

[ ... Okay. Point. But. ]

I never said you could win. Nor did I say you should do it AGAIN. That would be stupid. And fatal.

Well - potentially fatal.

Probably. Lets avoid that. You have a lot of good sense rattling around in there. Don't waste it here.

Well -

[ She waves her hand in frustration. ]

Except that you've laid me a trap, now, haven't you. If I don't do it again, then it was all just in service of my agenda - and I can't do it again. Therefore, what, you've proven that it was all about my agenda, was it?

Rather neat, isn't it?

Stupid, more like. It's not a trap just for me, after all - you've fallen into it, too.

I don't see how.

Well, you're like the gate guardian who always lies, now, aren't you. No matter what I do, you can't trust me. Which means you never trust. You've made it so even if I deserve that trust, you'll always bet against me.

[ That would twist a bit. If he cared. But he didn't. So that's fine. ]

Let me reframe that - I've got a better idea of what you will and wont do. Nothing wrong with that. Everyone moves by an agenda, even Ptolemy did. It's not worth getting that riled up on.

[ She purses her lips, quiet a moment. Then, firmly: ]

You need to get out of a slave's mindset.

[ That stings enough to get a spark of anger from him. ]

So how is that new world going? Because last I checked, Ptolemy's life work is regarded world wide as a naive fantasy.

Until every library is burned out, every magician dead, a slave's mindset is going to stay pretty useful.

I'd like to say things are going to get better, but there's only been two of you in my life. It's been a long time.

Two.

[ She arches her eyebrows at him. ]

So which is it, then? Ptolemy and I - are we the two decent ones in your life, or are we users like all the others? It's got to be one or the other, and you can't keep waffling back and forth.

[ It happens in an instant, a cascade of emotions. Hurt, outrage, then closes into a cold sort of anger. Absolve the fact that the act of summoning itself is corruptive and awful because it was them doing it, because of intent, or deny the few bright spots he's had entirely as worthwhile?

Fine. If that's her terms of acceptance, who actually needs that anyway? Ptolemy is long past caring. ]

I can't, can I? [ His form shifts, settling into a bird, feathers bristling with agitation. ] Well, that makes things easier.

[ She's quiet a moment, her lips tightening - and then she lets go of her own shapeshifting. She stares at him with her aged, wrinkled face, her eyes bright and intense, the corners of her mouth tense and unhappy. ]

So this meant nothing to you.

You already know the answer to that! [ He HAD answered, he'd put everything he had back out on the line for her, killed his own people of HIS free will, stopped their own revolt that had every justice in the world, just no foresight, no way back home. Just madness at the end. A stupid sacrifice all the way around. Another empire to fall, another cycle to begin. ]

You're the one who's putting conditions on it!

I'm not putting conditions on it! I'm asking you not to decide that we're villains when that's convenient for you and decent people at other times!

[ He... doesn't really have an answer to that. ]

[ Good, because she has More To Say. ]

You want to be angry and hurt and furious. All right. Fine. But I don't want a part of it. I don't want to be involved in these narratives you make up about how I never really cared. 'Cause that's a bloody lie, and it cheapens what I did. What I am now. And if what I am is going to be cheapened, I want it to be in service of something less idiotic than you justifying your cynicism.

[ Silence answers that, the bird absolutely still, processing that dizzying assault on how HE was framing the world, and how she was seeing it... and how it wasn't that different.

The bird's head tucks down a bit, wings ruffle and settle back on its back, before Bartimaeus mutters something that isn't quite audible over the connection. ]