think of a sword pun

[hasapoint]

[Need starts in the Mindspeech whisper she's used over the network before - a voice seeming to come from right between the ears of any listener.]

So! We've learned that some of us are analagous to various horrible entities in others' home planes while, this's important, not actually being the same thing. I'm willing to bet there's more than one case of this. And what I am might fall into that category and is also inevitably going to come up, so let's just get it out now.

[The visual comes up - a small sword laid on a table. Now Need comes out of the whisper. Sometimes her voice sounds human enough, like that of an old woman who's breathed a lot of smoke. Sometimes she sounds like metal scraping on stone or ringing off more metal.]

To make a long story very short, I was an old mage-smith and I bound my soul to this sword so I could empower and guide my apprentice at a difficult time. I don't have eyes or ears, so I borrow other peoples' and sometimes their hands as well, and I speak mind-to-mind. If my binding seems blasphemous, fear not, I was sanctioned by the Twain. If you have something against gods, don't worry about it, the Twain died a long time ago. If it's spirits, you've got me there, but I'm not interested in taking what's not freely given and I can't make anyone do something against their will.

Now. I've taught a lot of youngsters over the years. If you want to learn the sling, the bow, or the sword, you can ask for my help and I can get you to proficiency faster than a normal teacher. If you've got an injury or a chronic condition, I'm also a healer. I may not be as good as usual, but I'm discreet and nothing will be lost by coming to me. If you need a blacksmith... well, that takes more of an arrangement. I can also show people old memories while they're asleep, which displaces nightmares so they can wake up all nice and rested.

Call me Need. If you have questions, I have time.

Comments

[garmr]

You saw all of that?

[ here he is, realizing the extent of how mirror shards work. ]

Yeah, well, that guy was the softest looking demon I’ve ever seen. The ones I fight - they don’t hold back, and they get a kick out of killing humans and getting to do whatever the hell they want with them.

Felt weird, cutting him down like that. Especially with that fussy little stuffed suit next to him.

[hasapoint]

Of course.

Hmmph. The ones I know, it depends. The lesser ones, the imps and runners and so on, they don't have much in the way of minds, but you climb the hierarchy and you find smarter ones that can play longer games, changing to softer shapes included. Admittedly, they tend towards charisma and always seem to have a lot of pride. Hard to imagine any of them going snake boy's route.

[She reaches out, past the mirrors, to find Guts' actual mind and self. Need can't touch either as strongly without being present physically, but they do have a connection. She Mindspeaks faintly but more properly - more privately - now.]

:I've been a demon-killing blade for a long time. If I was there and had a body to work with, I would have just killed him and written off his friend as a thrall or something, and looking at it now, that would have been the wrong decision. You have your good moments, boy.:

[garmr]

Each one’s got its quirks, but because of that thing on my neck most can’t resist trying to get a bite out of me. Guess that factored in, too.

[ now that he thinks about it, it was even stranger that snake bastard couldn’t sense he was a sacrifice. Or maybe he could and didn’t mention it?

And then he feels the familiar brush of the sword against the back of his head, receiving her message. ]

:I would’ve done the same, not too long ago. For a while, killing those things was all I had to keep me going. It was all that was left.

It took a lot of people to break me out of that and see a better way.:

[ Need has a good idea of how stubborn he is, so one can only imagine the titanic amounts of patience. ]

[hasapoint]

Well, that'd do it. If they're usually compelled to attack you and one doesn't, something's up.

[She can imagine, but it's a big ask. Need says something like hmmmm, something like running a file down an almost-finished blade, rasping the edge sharper in a long, unhurried stroke.]

:You've known some good people.:

[garmr]

:Yeah.:

[ The statement is simple, but is tinged with the sadness of longing for his old companions. It's been over a year now. Did they think he abandoned them? For Casca, it'd be a second time.

Having little interest in lingering on that for too long, he focuses on the spoken subject. ]

Did manage to work with one of those monsters once, a real piece of work... Figure I could extend the same chance to him. He hasn't been howling about how he'll eat me, so it's goin' better than last time.

[hasapoint]

[She doesn't feel this kind of thing anymore, she has no more expectation of meeting again with the people she's parted from. By now the pain of loss and separation isn't ever more than a vague pang, soon faded, unless she's with someone who feels that loss more keenly and she can share in it. Need warms her long-cold spirit in the very human feeling of longing, in how this kind of thing used to be part of her, in the moment before Guts redirects and compartmentalizes it away.]

Huh. How'd you put up with that?

[garmr]

[ bluntly: ]

Jumped on his back, told him I'd cut his head off unless he flew in the direction I wanted to. Then the thing snarled on about crap on how it was fated to be or somethin'.

Then he realized that we were both going after the same enemy. An even bigger monster made out of storm clouds. He's got the wings, I've got a sword that can cut mist. So we teamed up.

Almost tried to kill each other again once the third guy was taken care of... but one of my guys stopped me. Wasn't the time for fighting. He was right about that, so I backed down.

[hasapoint]

[She pauses to consider that. What a bizarre image.]

All right then. I suppose it's possible 'your' demons are as different from 'my' demons as either are from that snake boy. There's some I've met that might see enough reason to, hm, team up, but it wouldn't end as nicely as that.

[Possibly because her setting is morally simplistic enough that the situation would never arise. Possibly because she'd totally go for the kill herself the first chance she got; letting that kind of creature go is plainly, to her, just borrowing trouble from the future for herself and others.]

[garmr]

Yeah, Zodd's an exception. Most of 'em are like how I described. Monsters that only want to eat and kill.

[ and he'll let Need fill in the rest on 'whatever the hell they want' means. ]

We've... had history. Zodd just wants some kinda big flashy showdown with me, gets his blood all excited. All the lightning left me in a pretty bad state, so the fight wouldn't be satisfying enough for him, and he let us go.

That's my best guess, anyway.

[hasapoint]

[Need can imagine, she's met demons like that.]

How strange. [And impractical! She probably shouldn't say that one. Need's done a lot of finding a purpose in immortality, but the idea of living for a worthy anime rivalry that ends in one person dying in the right way is alien to her.]

But he's not following you around looking for the chance after you've recovered, he's... just going to show up?

[garmr]

Demons have their own masters to serve, that’s why they call themselves apostles.

[ how’s that for a little sacrilegious irony. ]

So Zodd went off to go do his bidding, whatever it is, maybe hoping we’ll bump into each other again.

[ Perhaps there’s that small satisfaction in being human. No master to serve but himself. ]

[hasapoint]

[Need almost asks what masters those would be that they would take a title like that; her thought is 'bigger demons', maybe ones that have crested the threshold to godhood. Those are, simply put, the worst, and she doesn't... really wanna contemplate them right now.]

Right. Well, as long as that doesn't happen here, I suppose.

[What a headache that would be. Need speaks more directly and privately again.]

:He's touchy enough that I don't want him to hear me say it, but thank you for looking after my little gold mage earlier.:

[Definitely some fond and kinda possessive connotations there.]