quietmounds | (no subject)

Individual tolerances can vary substantially.

My homeworld was just annihilated?

. . .

My condolences.

[RAISES HIS GLASS, like, ya, i kno]

See what I mean.

[raises his own glass, then downs it]

Being here must be jarring.

[chugs his!! and drops it with a sigh.]

Isn't it for everyone?

Well, it's not the first time I've had time and space tugged around me and I doubt it'll be the last.

[he laughs.]

Odin's beard, you are right about that. You're going to have to be much more specific. Most people from Earth have never experienced such a thing at all.

I can tell you about some of the situations I've been through with Alexander . . . relating to that topic. Though I don't want to jerk the conversation that way if there's anything more you'd like to talk about with regards to your loss. I can't imagine that's something that sits well.

Noo, no. Let's not talk about loss, it's far too early. What I mean is! Have you traveled, among worlds? Have you been off-planet?

[gives him a critical look, assessing, eyes heavy-lidded and thoughtful. before he shrugs, grabbing another two mugs of beer for them]

Off-planet isn't exactly it, though I'm aware of the possibility, in a sense. But we don't, as a rule, have the capacity for—I suppose, mundane, interplanetary space travel.

[bless you. he takes one of the beers[

My thanks. Aah, I see, that's actually how it is for the Earth that I know. You're getting close, though, I'm rooting for you.

You see, I know I am known as Thor on your world in Norse Myth. I'm afraid they know of us because of ah, visits we made.

Huh. As in, you're not actually of Earth, you're actually immortal aliens that made contact thousands of years ago, then left Earth to its own devices, your own interactions then falling into myth?

[He beams at him, approving, his one eye practically twinkling.]

Followed by a prank or two every five hundred years.

What, like Stonehenge? Pyramids?

Gods, no, your people made those, give humans some credit. I mean the myth is off a bit. We didn't really explain much so they just took most of us and wrote whatever they wanted. Obviously I haven't taken nine steps and died.

Right, good, I was going to get really annoyed if those theories were right.

No no no. Aliens are real, non-Caucasian humans are capable of great architecture.

[he's laughing into his beer, now]

Reassuring on some levels, maybe not on others.

[he smiles.]

Yggdrasil is a very large tree, my friend. Greater than anyone can imagine.

Yggdrasil. The Nine Realms, yes? Is there more than one way to travel between them?

Quite a few, really. Can't say I know all the methods.

Interesting.

[taking a long chug of beer, then exhaling loudly]

That might be compatible with our world, and it might not. For the sake of brevity . . . we have to assume that some measure of 'multiple world theory' is true and that more than one reality can exist concurrently, overlapping but separate. Like pages in a book. Accessible and traversable by particular magics and great effort only. I'll also assume that on some level you're familiar with at least the rough concept that there is energy in the world and in people—whatever name you might give it or particular form it might take—that can be used and manipulated. Mana, magic, what have you.

There exists in 'my' world something called the Throne of Heroes, which I recall Alexander alluding to briefly. Wherein, using human imagination as a container, Heroic Spirits exist and are woven from the ideals of people all throughout human history. The divine, the bestial and evil, or those who were human who simply gained enough fame of their exploits in life that they captured the human imagination and their essence propelled them, in an elemental sense, to continue existing beyond time and the constraints of reality as we know it.

It is not unlikely, for example, that you and yours would be considered candidates for this . . . though I've never encountered you personally. That doesn't mean much—I'm just one man. Ah, but the life of a magus is to engage and interact with this world and this power just beneath the surface of the mundane. Vessels exist to contract with and summon those from the Throne; outside the Throne, there is also the power of the world itself. The Root, the source, the "force" that exists at the top of all theories on dimensions. Every magus has their own goals, of course, just as all men do, but it wouldn't be incorrect to say that most are driven by the desire to understand these mysteries and claim some part of it for their own.

[drinking through a whole beer while he's talking, attentively keeping his eye on him. Only vaguely glancing down the line of Waver's neck at one point.]

So you're saying another Thor could be manifested based entirely on the concept of me, as people know me? And he would be more like the myths humanity's imagined for themselves? And that's mixed in with like... the actual existing historical figure.

[frowns a little as he watches Thor's gaze. just gets another drink]

Yes, that's correct. Generally speaking, however, one doesn't become a heroic spirit until after their death. So there's no chance of . . . interaction.