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

Anon Text | user name given: Alibaba

[codeoracle]

I made the suggestion before, people said it's not possible. But cognition of others is a powerful thing.

If it's believed by enough people, with enough conviction, it could shape the world around them. I was once erased because no one remembered I ever existed, no one believed in my existence. It's an extreme example, and one from home...but still.

permatext.

[shadohdamn]

I know someone who said "better dead than forgotten."

Did you come back?

[codeoracle]

It's pretty true. Being forgotten is worse, so much worse.

We all made it back--and kicked the ass of the person...god that caused it to happen.

[shadohdamn]

Sounds complicated.

Mind if I ask how it was you got back? Seems like it'd be hard to make someone remember you from far away. "Out of sight," and everything.

[codeoracle]

Complicated is putting it lightly.

Part of how we got out was our own conviction. We were stuck in a sort of limbo...until our leader spoke to each of us and had us realize we deserved to live, that we had a right to exist and needed to fight for it. After that--people came to support us in a final battle.
We had to take down a god--he was destroying our world.

[shadohdamn]

That sounds familiar, actually.

( like REALLY familiar.
except instead of "limbo," the gods were stuck in financial hardship in America, which could arguably be considered worse than limbo )

Was that god one of many gods, or the only god?

[codeoracle]

Technically he was the only one. I mean...we encountered others I guess, but he was the only problem?

...We kind of...shot him in the face.

[shadohdamn]

I know about gods with attitude problems that screw things up for everyone else.

( TECHNICAL BOY U LITTLE SHIT )

If it gets the job done, I guess. Seems anticlimactic for a god.

( where are the swords and makeshift volcanoes? )

[codeoracle]

They're a handful andneed to be taken down a peg or two.

[A pause and then she adds:]

I guess? I mean considering the way we shot him was to summon another god...It's complicated.