voice; un: stranger

[eightfoldfiend]

[A deep, rumbling baritone voice speaks.]

I am here.

Who has summoned me?

(ooc: mentions of blood and violence in comments)

Comments

[eightfoldfiend]

A hazard of being human.

Have you had your death yet?

[leitstern]

Listening to the garbage people spew on these devices I have perished several times over.

[eightfoldfiend]

They are the perfect vessel for inconsequential human prattle, aren't they? I doubt I shall ever get used to it.

Face to face conversations are much better.

[leitstern]

Oh, but then one must feign interest in what another is saying.

Do you not think I have superior uses for my time?

[eightfoldfiend]

No, I don't.

But I do not know you, do I?

What is it you do that is so important?

[leitstern]

The art of war. It is amazing, how the poweful refuse to wage it themselves.

[eightfoldfiend]

You are waging a war? Here?

[The deep voice lilts. He's intrigued now.]

[leitstern]

It would certainly be something to behold...

[And?]

You do seem quite in raptures at the thought.

[eightfoldfiend]

I do love a good war.

[leitstern]

It can be a pleasure. The finest test of one's imagination and skill. And then there are the men who fight in it like yourself. And then there are those who detest it.

[eightfoldfiend]

I see... You are a strategist, then?

[leitstern]

Got it in one! Oh, bravo.

[eightfoldfiend]

Hmph! Don't take that tone with me. I have killed people for talking to me that way and I'd hate to kill you when you seem so...interesting.

I have served some of the most brilliant strategists in history, you know... Or at least strategists who thought themselves brilliant.

Which kind are you? Are a great military mind or a mere pretender?

[leitstern]

That is one question I refuse to answer. I could more easily reveal the truth were I back home; the situation of which ought be proof enough.

Oh, and slaughtering individuals for a wrong turn of phrase is wasteful. Though I hardly think you care about the difference.

[eightfoldfiend]

Oh, I care... But we may have very different ideas of what is or is not wasteful.

[Allowing a human to live when their dying screams could light up his soul is wasteful.]

Now... Tell me of your home. I'm curious.

[leitstern]

At present I have not enough time to do an answer justice. For the issue is hardly so simple.

[He has manouvers to plan and details to finalise.]

Why do you enquire, anyway? There is more to this than mere curiosity.

[eightfoldfiend]

You underestimate my curiosity, then.

I've been a general in a thousand wars so of course I wonder about military minds from other worlds. Wouldn't you?

[leitstern]

That is another point where we differ.

My curiosity extends towards their knowledge; not their character.

[eightfoldfiend]

Is your knowledge not what I've been asking about?

[leitstern]

Yes but you surely know that being one's source of entertainment is tiresome?

[eightfoldfiend]

Oh, I am not asking to be entertained.

If I were seeking entertainment at your expense this exchange would be going much differently.

[leitstern]

Of course it might.

But should you admit one path is more dangerous than the other? I cannot recommend making presumptions.

[eightfoldfiend]

My line of questioning was to determine if you were the sort of man who would summon someone like me.

[leitstern]

If I was, I should have made it obvious before you broadcast your nature to all and sundry. So either way you have your answer.

[eightfoldfiend]

Bah! I don't broadcast my nature... But I see no reason to keep it a secret either. I am what I am.

Does that trouble you?