16 . spring catch-all

[necrolord]

Who: John Gaius and company.
What: Important conversations, old ghosts, bodyswaps.
When: March into April
Where: Trench

Content Warnings: Tagged in headers as needed. Note all the usual warnings of this character.

Comments

cw: child death mention

[anbaric]

Is that so?

[ it's funny because of course it would be the same concept. his most great and terrible discovery, given the cost, but it was knowing that price and still deciding to pay it that made all the difference. ]

There is also a significant amount of energy released the moment someone is severed from their daemon. In most cases one dies instantly, but it is possible to reduce the effects of shock. A ghastly process, but—... [ a shrug. an idea is an idea. ] I already know it's possible to harness that energy for a purpose.

[ that had been a child. this is much easier. there is no precipice for asriel, who continues to charge ahead with enough data to claim it isn't blindly, just like the first time. what does anyone know about what killing gods will be like until you're already trying? ]

I wonder if you could also stabilise the soul after death? And does the manner of death make a difference or only that it's sudden?

[necrolord]

[ John listens intently, tips his head in quiet thought. That would be, what, the soul cleaved in half? Spirit fission, where he went and invented fusion? That Asriel has done it, has used it as a power source, is something he'll turn over in quiet thought for a long time after. It's the sort of thing they would have tried at Canaan.

It isn't lost on him, the effect of hearing it from his own voice, seeing his own body animated with enthusiasm for carving up souls. Someone up there is really getting pointed. ]

Normally? I could pin a soul in any state you want. But here... well.

[ He waves a hand out to the distance. ]

Even I can't muscle past the reincarnation cycle. Any soul not tied to its body will be dragged under, back to the sea. We can get away with fragments of soul orbiting an embodied central piece, which, if you ask me... [ He looks to Stelmaria. ] We already see it with Omens, and a handful of players in town who can imbue objects with bits of themselves. But a soul in isolation won't last long.

Still, any sudden death will get me a look at it.

[anbaric]

You make it sound effortless. I wouldn't have expected muscling past the reincarnation cycle to be an option even under the best of circumstances.

[ this is funny because it's the first time he's actually wondered about john. it never mattered before. it doesn't matter now, strictly speaking, but it's more difficult not to think about it. ]

Well, I think I can get you a good look, at least.

[ this is not the first time that asriel has had to look himself in the face though, but this is a marked improvement over the last time. the "god" that had shown him that illusion had also been an imposter, so this only makes him feel more correct to be pursuing the local pantheon. ]

Apparently, the body won't last without a soul, either, so when you kill them, they dissolve. Incidentally, so do angels. [ annoying. ] Luckily, I've already solved that problem.

[ he says this with a distinct air of would you like to know more? ]

[necrolord]

I mean, there's a little effort. I am just very good.

[ He says this like a joke, because it's such a ridiculous flattening of all that he is and can do; he doesn't address the implicit question. Asriel carries them to a fresh field of red flags, anyway, and John takes a moment to mourn that there's no one here to get the bit. Waging war on Heaven hits a little different when it comes from his own voice. ]

So do Sleepers, funny enough. What's your fix for it?

[anbaric]

[ john's words, meanwhile, are the most natural sounding thing in the world when said in asriel's voice. ]

Containment.

[ he goes back to drawing and labelling things, but this time it's a rectangular box. or several boxes, really, because they're meant to be nested. more layers on layers of things. the labels are mostly notations describing what sort of metal the layers are made of. ]

Using the same construction as the intercision chamber I've made previously, anything inside it cannot escape. Sealing it with a blood ward ensures it. Knowing what you've just told me means it's as straightforward as devising a secondary ward that can be activated once it's sealed. [ he snaps his fingers and looks entirely too proud of himself for his awful little murder box. ] Quick.

[ this is fairly tame compared to the last time he did this on a larger scale. ]