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[presgarddihellis]

[Call | Text | Action | Pray]

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[tailsofwoe]

[ After listening quietly to all that, she closes her eyes and traces a finger around the rim of her glass thoughtfully for a moment. ]

You can be a little greedier than that. Neither is a particularly difficult request.

I'm a novelist, you know? Coming up with fitting names is a key part of what I do.

[presgarddihellis]

If you'd like both, I won't stop you. I just won't insist on it.

[it's actually a lot to ask, to him? keeping a god from going berserk is a lot? but it is true that the tasks are so deceptively simple...]

... I would very much appreciate your expertise in that matter, then.

[tailsofwoe]

[ Continues quietly tracing the rim. ]

I will need some time to consider the options, though, so you should tell me the first part in the meantime.

[presgarddihellis]

Hm...

"It is just an Act."

"You are a he, not a He."

"You are a guardian, but also a miserable wretch that is constantly fighting against threats and madness."

"Do not always wear such a heavy mask."

And... most relevant to this, I feel...

"Some things are more important than others."

[tailsofwoe]

[ A slight raise of an eyebrow. ]

Am I allowed to ask questions?

[presgarddihellis]

You can ask.

[he won't necessarily answer but... he is the one asking favors.]

[tailsofwoe]

[ Fair. That's a response she is quite familiar with giving herself. ]

What is most important?

[presgarddihellis]

It is a bit situational, but...

"It is only an Act."

As things are right now, without something to call the whole... it's very easy to start to favor one face over others. And forget that that is not the reality. If that should happen, a loss of control may happen.

[tailsofwoe]

[ Seems to consider that a bit thoughtfully. ]

Ah, that's good to know as well, but I meant with regards to "some things are more important than others"... Unless the answer would be the same.

[presgarddihellis]

... ah.

The full context of that one... it is something I said to a rival god who was vying for the same title as I was.

To earn the title, taking on the remnants of an ancient being who used to own the title was necessary, but there is a risk of losing out to those remnants. Always, this is a risk.

But a necessary one. The world was without a key Pillar and was in danger from outside forces.

"I won't lose much, just myself. Some things are more important than others."

[tailsofwoe]

[ Something about that hits some kind of nerve. For a brief moment, her usual elegant composure crumbles and her mouth just hangs open dumbly.

Then she sets her drink down with a little too much force, and says uncharacteristically emphatically: ]

How could anything be more important than that?!

LOTM Spoilers!

[presgarddihellis]

[he did think that would get a bit of a reaction, which is why he left off that first part at the start, but.

it is a large part of who and how he is.

and if he is asking for a name for himself, he does need to be honest about that much.

but also... hm... what a strong reaction.]

I was stolen away from my home.

And there was no way back to it.

Not only because I lost my original body and had to inhabit the body of someone recently killed by his own hand--whose soul I've also had to take on so I can't even say I am that same person who was stolen away except in concept--but also because my spirit had been left hanging suspended above the spiritual realms for eons.

... the world I ended up in wasn't a strange new world.

It was the home I was stolen from.

And while the me who was stolen away had no one to call family there, the me who was born and raised in that kingdom in that time had a brother and sister and a sister-in-law and a niece.

How could anything be more important than my losing myself?

That world is all I have of myself.

[tailsofwoe]

[ Quickly snaps open her fan and hides most of her face behind it, perhaps a bit embarrassed about that outburst. ]

... And when you've become something else? Do you think those people, that world will still matter to you?

[presgarddihellis]

... no.

I do know that that is an inevitability.

But the choices were between delaying the inevitable for some time--decades, centuries, millennia, eons maybe--or risking someone who already had no feelings about that world be overrun.

At least this way... maybe I can influence such an ancient being.

[pauses... taps a finger on the table.]

It's too late to change that choice now. That being is also a part of me already. But. I do have one scheme I managed to set up to help with delaying things.

You know him as Arkham Raven.

[tailsofwoe]

[ Lets a long breath go. ]

I remember. You told me that he's less influenced by the entity than Miskatonic Smith.

[presgarddihellis]

[the smile of one proud of the other for paying attention!]

Exactly so.

The name Arkham was chosen not because of a comic universe's insane asylum but for the fact that it is a fictional village in our worlds.

The organization who follows Miskatonic Smith as a god came to understand that that entity also benefits from the use of the god's title since it was originally His. So they put their thumbs on the scale, so to speak.

Even if the me who shares a soul with that entity is completely overrun, there is a me who will still be a thorn in His side.

["You are a he, not a He," indeed.]

[tailsofwoe]

[ There's still a small furrow in her brow, but: ]

... Well, good. Then I suppose... that's something.

[ Then, a little huffily: ]

But I think that reinforces my point that the person you are now is not some expendable trifle. Don't expect me to repeat that one.

[presgarddihellis]

If you'd like to add your thumb to the scale, there is a prayer I can give you that may help, also.

But also... yes, I suppose that is why I asked you for a name, after all.