001. voice.

[shadohdamn]

( potential spoilers for season one of American Gods, if you'd like me to avoid any spoilers please just lmk in the subject line. )


What do you believe in? Really believe? What do you devote your time to?

( A pause; he's having a sip of cocoa. )

Now I've been here a few weeks, I've gotten to wondering about that. There's a lot here that's the same as back home, with a few obvious differences thrown in. Advertising, TV, that kind of thing. Back where I come from, what you spend your time on and what consumes your thoughts matters. There's a lot of shit you might not realise how much it matters to you. Mattering matters, if you want to make it sound like some bullshit affirmation.

So here's the thing: what if the reason we come through those porters with the powers we got is because people believe we will? What if we only start fighting crime or committing them because people believe we will?

( A long exhale, almost a verbal shrug. ) Or maybe it's bullshit. I dunno.

Comments

permavoice

[shadohdamn]

Who's deserving of anything probably depends on a lot of factors.

( and also, that's a lot to try and process. )

"Normal" might be too, for that matter.

permavoice

[am_i_a_monster]

I can't think of any factors that would make me more deserving than someone like my mom, or my friend Marissa. It's kind of easier to think of it as random.

I guess normal for me is just being able to have a life.

[shadohdamn]

( Shadow is quiet for a few moments, weighing that up. Laura, she would say dark things sometimes, or cryptic things, things that condemned herself. He waits before speaking. )

Look, it's not my business to pry, so you don't have to tell me a damn thing, but in my experience people are always more complicated than they seem, even if you think you know them - if you do know them. Just because you've got shit you think makes you undeserving of chances doesn't mean you are.

( Okay, that's that said. Shadow isn't really a wordy guy, but it seemed necessary, then. )

[am_i_a_monster]

Maybe.

On the other hand, if we don't deserve the good stuff that happens, then we don't deserve the bad stuff either. That's easier too.

[shadohdamn]

So everything random chance?

( Not outright dismissive, but it makes him uneasy. )

Then what reason would anyone have to be decent?

[am_i_a_monster]

Decent? Most people have reasons they do what they do. Even the monsters have reasons for hurting and killing. Some even think that the killing is decent.

[shadohdamn]

People who aren't right in the head.

( Calm, matter of fact. ) Decent as in treating other people right, obeying the law, that kind of decent. The stuff on the moral scale that isn't flexible.

[am_i_a_monster]

The law isn't always decent or even fair. They could make laws against imports.