Video

[sos_pilot]

[ della has a slightly serious look on her face... but for those who know her, there's definite playfulness in her eyes. ]

This is one of those "I can't believe I have to say this" kind of deals, so buckle up, folks.

Guys? I know I'm really amazing, very cool, and all around unbelievable. I'm so many things, it's hard to list them all. But one thing I'm not?

A deity. Yes, I am in fact, 100%, absolutely and truly not a goddess. And no, I'm not a demi-goddess either. Not a single trace of divinity in me. I won't name names, but this has happened about three or four times now. Just thought I'd mention it in case there's anyone else out there with this assumption.

... Y'know what? It's a new month, and that means we're getting newbies. Maybe now's a good time for everyone to sweep any other misunderstandings under the rug. So, if there's anything you wanna clear up about yourself, your world, your species, whatever, go for it.

((ooc: feel free to use the above as an excuse to tag others in this post!))

Comments

[helborn]

Oh, I... that's... nice of you to offer... it's kind of a relic, though. Not in the sense of it's old, but it's tied to some magical powers.

Thanks, though? I... um. Really appreciate it.

[piercinggaze]

Ooooo. [Maybe she should be more skeptical, but on the other grasping appendage, she did just get kidnapped by a magic modular passenger conveyance.] How'd you wind up with a magic leg?

[helborn]

Mine got... uh. removed in a fight. Managed to get the children of a forge god to make it for me.

[piercinggaze]

I am not sure what that means but it sounds impressive!

The "children of a forge god" part. Not the "removed in a fight" part. I know what griefing-related limb amputation is.

[helborn]

Oh. Um. Gods are like... really powerful beings that can affect the world. People tend to pray to them or otherwise show them acts of devotion in order to gain favor. Most of the gods in my world aren't worshiped anymore, but a lot of them still have children.

Gods tend to have domains they rule over - the sun, the moon, the ocean, love, making things, ice, death... those kinds of big concepts. And I knew a group of people who were children of a god of making things, so I asked them to make me a leg in exchange for some favors.

[piercinggaze]

[Sigh.] I know what gods are, although ours don't... generally actually talk to us or anything. Generally. And I think most of the people who say they do are just really high on something they should not be putting in their bodies.

I'm just not sure... you know what, it's probably not important.

[helborn]

... Wait, was it the children part you didn't get?

[piercinggaze]

Kind of?

[helborn]

Uh. Offspring. Progeny. The continuation of a family line.

[piercinggaze]

I... think your species does ancestry differently from how mine does? We don't have family "lines" so much as we have recurring phenotypes.

[helborn]

... I kind of didn't pay attention in biology class, what's a phenotype?

[piercinggaze]

Oh, like... physical presentation of traits. The stuff you can see by looking at and interacting with an individual, without doing a lot of genetic testing.

Like I've got the right blood color and horn shape and dentition and attracted the right kind of lusus so they assigned me this symbol - [She holds up her left arm to the camera, showing the symbol tattooed on the inside of her wrist, a vertical line crossed by an upward curving arrow. It is, by what may or may not be coincidence, a symbol used in earth's alchemical tradition to represent the process of putrefaction.] - but it's been a couple centuries since anyone else with quite that same constellation of traits has been hatched and as far as I know none of them are my immediate genetic forbearers.

[helborn]

... Putrefaction?

A... anyway. Huh. That's interesting. Yeah, we're... generally just a line, or a family tree with everyone connected. So my mother and my father got together and had me. You can also bring people in from adoption.

Apparently in a future timeline I adopt someone, but I haven't gotten there yet.

[piercinggaze]

It's usually read putrefactio, but... wait, you can read it? Most trolls even wouldn't know everyone's signs, there's a lot of them. Most of 'em predate imperial unification.

[helborn]

Well, that one at least is the same as an alchemical symbol used in my world. Or one that used to be used, at least. I read a lot of books about that kind of stuff, so I just ended up memorizing a bunch of the symbols.

[piercinggaze]

...weird coincidence. I wonder how much overlap there is.

[helborn]

I dunno. You'd have to show me more symbols.