asgardeventide | Seven ★ Video

[It's assumed that Draco is around somewhere despite not being on camera immediately, judging by the fact that when the feed starts travelers are greeted with a nice view of a bedroom wall absolutely covered in diagrams, charts, graphs, drawings and notes. Literally every square inch of the wall above the bed is covered in paper marked with random colored pens. It's assumed the rest of the room is set the same way. In the background, anyone listening can hear a coffee maker brewing a new pot.

War's never been one of Draco's favorite things, but the battles in Asgard have made him think of his home world and the situation he's in. He hates thinking about it, but he's started dissecting everything he knows…hence some of the charts that are overlaying some older charts. When Draco begins to speak, he's still out of the line of vision, if only because he can't exactly face the city just yet.]

…I know this man at home who's trying to, more or less, recreate the entire world. A perfect world where everyone's exactly the same and everyone who's considered less than worthy is punished severely if they're not outright killed immediately. [This is bad. This is a bad idea to be bringing this up, but Draco's full of bad ideas and bad decisions lately.] Actually, his favorite method is to torture them severely before sparing them and then murdering them with a flick of the wrist.

But the thing is, despite the fact he's more or less a slit-nosed homicidal freak, he has a large following. Many follow him out of fear, but there are just as many who follow out of loyalty. There are many people who actually, genuinely believe our world will be better if we follow his plan for destruction and reconstruction. It's messy and violent, and yet they go along with it anyway. Funny how that works, isn't it? One has to wonder why. [It's probably for the best that Voldemort's not around to hear that one of his servants is basically disregarding everything he's been taught. But after his last conversation with Jade? Maybe he really doesn't have to be constantly fearing for his life...maybe just every other day.

Let's get to the point, shall we? His hand appears in the frame of video and he's pinning a fresh piece of paper to the wall above the bed. He soon takes out a pen and in a neat, elegant scrawl writes something on the top of the page.

The art of persuasion and manipulation

His hand hovers in midair for a moment before he withdraws it.]

What is the fine line between persuading people and manipulating them? And, as a bonus question, what is the fine line between safety and fear? Sometimes I have to wonder if the rulers of this world aren't any different, what with having to do their bidding without even asking us. And yet we do it anyway because we're told it's better this way. [He knows it's a stretch, but it's still a valid point in his opinion.] As you can see, I've plenty of room on the paper so give me something worth writing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I suppose you could say that. Where I'm from, you can't get stronger if you don't study and you don't know what you're doing.

It's the same with everything, really. I had to train for years before I was skilled enough to become a full member of the Queen's Knights.

How many years?

I entered the Queen's Knights as an apprentice at the age of twelve, so about five years. That was including the war.

We're required seven years of schooling before we're supposed to find jobs and the like, but I'm fairly certain most of us won't even make it that far.

Is the schoolwork that demanding, or do you mean because of the war...?

Mostly the latter, but naturally the spellwork grows more difficult with age.

That makes sense. You have to learn the basics of anything first.

The basics are, of course, simplistic enough that anyone with decent ability can figure it out. You'd have to be a complete idiot not to understand.

But all of the advanced lessons build on what you learn early on, right?

Well yes. That's the basis of learning anything, isn't it?

Yes, but it's easy to get overconfident and forget the early lessons or think you don't need to practice them anymore. I'm sure it's that way with everything.

You really think that's true?

I do. Practicing the basics faithfully is very important.

So do you still practice here?

Every day, in the Arena in Thor District.

The Arena? [What Arena, he wonders.]

That's right. It's a good place to practice all sorts of combat.

I haven't been out there yet. [A beat.] Think it'd be decent for even archery?

Yes, they have archery equipment there as well, and training rooms where you can set up your own targets. I was thinking of learning myself, actually.

I might have to stop by then and see if it's beneficial. Thanks for the tipoff.

You're welcome. And good luck with your research.