asgardeventide | Eight ★ Video

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[Draco Malfoy has absolutely no reason to be outside right now. His hands are both still cut up pretty badly, he's fighting off a cold, and to top things off…

…well. He lost Jade Harley. Sort of. Jade sort of lost herself by leaving her bracelet on his bathroom counter. So today Draco's out and flying around the city of Asgard, Jade's bracelet in his pocket and bundled up against the cold. It's only when he's outside of his room that he really notices all of the lights going off in the city, twinkling against the darkness. He stops long enough to examine a few displays of light, raising an eyebrow.

It really must be close to Christmas then. Fantastic. Just one more thing to remind him of things he doesn't want to think about. Christmas reminds him of home, and lights remind him of a certain girl with long blond hair that he can't seem to stop thinking about. Ridiculous. After a few hours of flying back and forth hoping for some sign of Jade, anything that might indicate she's around, he gives up and lands to head into the Great Library if only for a distraction and maybe to pick up a few books to help with his current research for potions.

…and thus he finds himself curled up in a chair fifteen minutes later, trying to warm up and staring at a book in his hands. It's a small book, worn out and old in appearance. It's also a book he most certainly wasn't expecting to find here in Asgard, but then again it made sense. Why wouldn't the gods pull things from their own worlds to entertain them? When he turns on the bracelet's video feed, he's casually flipping through the book, reading and mumbling to himself. He's holding the book gingerly as though it's hard to bend his hands around it, but his eyes are narrowed in concentration.]

Babbity Rabbitty will never not be a strange name, and that's saying something [Flip. Flip. Flip.]

Granted, this shouldn't be a surprise. [And he looks up then, facing the camera.]

Here's a new question for anyone awake, something a bit lighter than the last. [Which he's still pondering on, thank you. His wall of notes may be folded up and in a box under his bed, but he still references them quite a bit.]

With the lights all around the city and with the discovery of this book--[He lifts it up, revealing the title to be the Tales of Beedle the Bard]--do you believe that something as simplistic as a fairy tale can actually have some truth behind it? Or, in other words, what determines if they're made up or if they're based on real people and real events?

And before anyone asks, no, there's no motive behind this question. Just genuine curiosity. [Which as we all know is the biggest lie of them all.]

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Am I, now? You mean to say yourself?

[His private opinion is "This is "put together", is it?"]

Considering last year my entire body was littered with lacerations and I lost half of my weight in blood? I'd wager I count.

[Let's not even get into how un-put together he is beyond that.] Either way that was a dissection and yet here I am.

[very calmly:]

And was that in Asgard? Well, in any case, it's not quite as much of a feat to be physically repaired. The mental portion is what's truly important, isn't it? After all, I suppose that even a mouse could be put together again, but who can say whether it would live again, even if it were somehow restored motor capability? If it did, would it be with the same mind? It seems unlikely. Traumatic prints may be removed from objects with relative ease, but from conceptual schemas only with much greater difficulty, if at all.

You know, I'd be more than happy to help you find out about how such things would affect someone in the city of Asgard. You just need to hold still long enough for me to break you. [Mentally, physically, whatever. He'd be more than happy to figure out how to perform a lobotomy on him if necessary.]

Sadly, Asgard's not that great at breaking people on its own.

[He laughs, or really sneers a little - more for the sake of form, equaling that particular tone from Malfoy.]

Thank you for the generous offer. As for me - I suspect I wouldn't need you to hold still.

I take that to mean it was something that occurred at home, then.

Naturally. I know you're not completely stupid, Koizumi. You must know I've reasons I don't feel like going home yet.

One suspects it. However, those reasons could be anything. They might even not be so much reasons discouraging home as those which encourage a longer stay here. It's unwise, I think, to assume one way or the other.

So then -- you managed to get yourself into some form of desperate trouble at home. May I say that it's not the most surprising development of the last month?

Well I don't particularly care to stay here longer than necessary either. Hence my theory I'm working on, but that's neither here nor there.

You may, but then obviously I'd ask what is the most surprising development you've discovered in the last month?

[He considers briefly.] Meaning that because it's possible to travel both to and from a number of different worlds, there should be some mechanism allowing a person to travel to a universe that's neither their own nor Asgard, either?

[He thinks about it and shrugs. It holds no particular interest at the moment.]

In the last month? Well, I suppose it's a tossup between what we saw happen to Freyr, and perhaps one or two things which Rapunzel and I discovered on our Utgard trip - but that's neither here nor there either.

Precisely that. Ask Rapunzel, she knows a bit more about my theory. [Granted, the day he shared that theory with her is also the day a lot of things changed, but whatever.]

...what we saw happen to Freyr isn't much of a surprise. It was bound to happen this way, wasn't it? [...wait hold on] When the hell did you go to Utgard with her?

Within the last month, obviously. For a significant portion of the last month. Of course, there were events here which might have caused you not to note our absence.

[He shakes his head.] I don't see an inevitability in it. I suspect that our dissension as a group made us significantly weaker than we could have been had we been dealt with properly.

[You. Asshole.]

I noticed she was gone, but I'm not really concerned with your whereabouts most of the time.

What exactly do you define as properly though?

[He predictably laughs.] Well, it was she who wanted it to be long enough to count as a - proper expedition. [The remaining smile now dimming back into a bland serious face.] I think it's fair to say that most of the time, if you're concerned with her whereabouts, you can take it on faith that you'll be concerning yourself with mine as well.

[Shrug now. He doesn't have to lace that with anything else.] Properly - properly meaning that there is a functional leadership structure. The most obvious is a strong and single leader, the way most social structures have been unified throughout history. Granted, there are significant losses associated with it, but having a single lord makes for the most streamlined progress in a limited time frame. And obviously, ours was limited more than we could hope. Instead, here we were allowed to go our own ways, most of the time expressing resentment against the power structure, such as it is.

[If it were possible to lunge through the screen at someone, you can bet that's what Draco would be trying.] We'll see about that.

So you reckon if we had something like a Prime Minister or a President or a General we'd be more successful?

[He bows his head ironically to the first part.]

General perhaps being the closest. When you have a collection of strangers, not bound by nation, culture, or family, that you want to form into a force in the shortest available time, the most efficient option is the personal magnetism of power. We know the gods are able to grant us levels of power, and to alter us personally. Were there some central figure possessing a clearly superior level of power to all of us, there would be no room for the various thoughts of insurrection or insubordination that have arisen here.

I of course am rather thankful that this hasn't taken place, as it would undoubtedly be more unpleasant, but I'm surprised, too.

One has to wonder how long we would have survived if it had been the other way though. Even if there was a set leader in place, there's always going to be at least one person that will want to, and will successfully, overthrow that ruler.

Perhaps. But perhaps not in the requisite time frame. Besides, the gods certainly have enough knowledge of the city they've confined us to. If they assisted that person, it would take a long time before such a person could realistically arrive. Longer than would be needed.

Besides, if the powers were adequate - it might be very difficult.

Have you given this legitimate thought, or are you spouting pure bullshit?

Please, Malfoy. When have I been known to spout, ah, "pure bullshit"?

I've a feeling you do it more often than you'd like to admit.

If that were true, I certainly wouldn't admit it to you, Malfoy. In this case, however, I certainly can avow that it isn't.

Don't expect me to believe that. That's all I have to say.

Your loss. As usual.

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