voice; un: eliasainsworth

[thornydisposition]

I believe I have some information that might be of use, or at least to consider.

[The voice is low and very even, having only the barest hint of a conversational cadence.]

My companion, Shuyi, and I managed to locate and capture Miz Poppy. We captured her and two of her Deemer companions, and as we began to take them back to Perdition's Rest, she had some very interesting things to say.

She reaffirmed that there was no way to safely separate a Taraxa from its host without the destruction of the latter. What is more troubling, however, was that she insisted that hers and her compatriots' mission of destruction was something which the TIMELINE.EXE asked of them.

Before we could deliver her back here, one of the other captured Deemers sacrificed himself so that she may escape in the confusion.

It is not my intention to offer this information in order to incite mass confusion or doubt, as it is quite possible she was lying. But I do not think we can completely discount that she might be telling the truth—or that she and her fellows are somehow deluded enough to believe that they are. It is, as I originally said, something to at the very least keep in mind.

Comments

[thornydisposition]

[He's aware. He's used that tactic a few times before.]

If they had intended to confound, doing it earlier would have been more preferable, before some of the larger wheels had started motion.

At this point, it might've been a gambit of desperation, and she did not seem desperate.

[respired]

[ A deep, rattling sigh. False breath, like air through a broken window. ]

Zymandis seeks to end the timeline, not serve it. These creatures are in their employ! That slug is only trying to distract us.

[thornydisposition]

[Elias merely seems bemused.]

I do not disagree with you.

But I do believe this is just one possibility, albeit the most likely one. What I do disagree with is anything that would stymie attempts made to remain wary of our situation.

Particularly when the information we are given is heavily controlled.

[And by an organization Elias sees no reason to trust any more than anything else.]

[respired]

[ Koltira is ill-tempered at the best of times, and he's fiercely defensive of ALASTAIR--they have treated him better than most organizations back in Azeroth, save for his brothers and sisters in death. ]

I have been with ALASTAIR for nearly a year. In all my time with them, we have never sought anything but the highest good.

[ To his perception, anyway. ]

[thornydisposition]

[Elias is petty. They separated him from his apprentice, and they were not nearly as liberal with information as he feels they should be. Two big negatives in his ledgers.

But he also never takes anything on faith. Anything told to him would have to be reassessed and reconfirmed in his own eyes.]

Good and ill are constructs seen through a biased lens.

I suppose ALASTAIR will have to do more to bias me, in that regard.

[He is unimpressed so far.]

[respired]

[ His lip curls. As a death knight, he has experienced both absolute good and absolute evil. He has participated in absolute evil, while enslaved. But he also exemplifies the in-between, existing in a gray twilight that is neither fully wicked nor fully noble. ]

I disagree, though it is your prerogative to think so.

In any case, we are ALASTAIR. Us and a handful of others who have persisted in this work for far longer.

[thornydisposition]

[It was a difference of perspective born from several unbridgeable factors—that Elias had only ever had one foot in the mortal realm, and was also a world separated from the spectrum of typical emotion. His opinion would always be odd and often unpopular, considering the distance with which he typically kept mortals (and those who had been mortal, at one point).

He is silent for a long moment, red eyes staring, unfazed. Elias dislikes being beholden to anyone or anything. Back home, he performed tasks for the church as per their agreement, but he never skipped an opportunity to gripe about it. That ALASTAIR had forcibly impressed him to aiding them was something he would never forgive. The magus might not have any emotions, but he was a prideful thing, set on his own independence.]

We can agree to disagree on both fronts, then.

For until they provide more reason or restitution to dedicating my efforts to their cause, I am, at the very best, a private contractor.

[respired]

[ Koltira just looks puzzled. ]

You are nothing of the sort. You are an accident, like the rest of us.

[ Koltira finds it strange to listen to the others question and fuss over ALASTAIR, because--given his experience--it is not an organization with any particular hierarchy, nor any direction beyond the TIMELINE program in and of itself. Everyone here is in the exact same situation. What is there to rail against? What is there to distrust, apart from each other? Koltira considers himself separate from the team at large, mostly for their own safety, but ALASTAIR has his loyalty because this team is ALASTAIR. As are the other teams, all comprised of people in the same set of circumstances.

(But he doesn't know them, and so cares less for their wellbeing.) ]

[thornydisposition]

[It was simply not in Elias' nature to belong to anything. To an organization, to a country, or, hell, even to a race or a species. Throughout his long existence he had learned to set himself apart; a spare cog that did not seem to mesh with the machine of the world at any point of contact. In his dealings back home, he interacted but did not belong—did not seek to belong. He lived in England but he did not think of himself as English. He walked among the people in town, bought things of them and sold things to them, but he did not count himself as one of them. He helped the church with various problems they had with fae and aberrations, but their Lord would know he did not think of himself as one of them.

So even if he hadn't been forced into service by ALASTAIR without proper approach and consent, and even if his relationship with them was neutral or even positive, he would not think of himself as a part of them. It was just how his mental processes worked, a kind of mental exile he held himself to.]

You cannot force an individual into picking up a banner. It must be upon one's own volition.

[In his centuries he had watched kingdoms rise and fall. It had never been his place to interfere.]

For now, it is my volition to help as I see fit.

And nothing more.

[respired]

[ Bitterly, his ears folding back against either side of his head--like an agitated cat. ]

Not so, in my experience. But there is no force in this.

[ He was a slave for ten years--he knows from force. ]

We have no masters here. Our wills are not leashed. If we choose to do nothing, then that is a viable option. Albeit unproductive.

[thornydisposition]

[Starkly contrary to the conversation, Elias seems strangely interested in the gesture of irritation. Largely because... well, it was one he had never seen, largely studying the emotions of humans, and he was always intrigued by emotions, gestures, or expressions he had never seen.

Anyway.]

Just because they do not present you with a threat does not mean there is no force to it.

Individuals are forcibly extracted from their own familiar worlds and are practically ransomed for their involvement in dangerous missions in order to perhaps be returned, upon ALASTAIR's leisure. There are no agreements. There are no promises.

Even the concept of abstaining is an illusory one, as doing so would likely increase one's risk of death.

[In the end... they're just probably not going to agree on this, largely due to the completely understandable preconceptions they have coming from two very different worlds and backgrounds.]

A risk which should not have been posed to them unwillingly in the first place.

I hope this is okay!!

[gunah]

An ending is a form of completion.

[ But Koltira is the one who has been here far longer than her or Elias, so. ]

You seem to trust ALASTAIR. Why?

you're good :*

[respired]

[ Wry, bitter smile. ]

Not always.

[ A JOKE AT HIS OWN EXPENSE, though he does know what she means. ]

What is there to distrust? They have done no wrong by me.