milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Pure anything is an idea; and ideas never exist at one hundred percent in reality," Asar-Suti argues. "They are always diluted by entropy."

Aeryn nodded, trying her best not to seem like an ignorant soldier and finishing the last of her Klah.

"I'm sure."

"There is always a last little part that is redeemable," Asar-Suti claims. "There was in me. I am sure that somewhere, the is even in Kal Torak, the new dark god I spoke to just now; he is absolutely mental and has nothing to lose. But still; there is something in him that is a person."

"Sometimes, a person can't be redeemed. They have too much hate and hurt inside them to ever be healed."

It was probably good that she wasn't a God with great powers to hurt others.

"Theoretically, everybody can be redeemed," Asar-Suti says, being recently redeemed himself and thus especially convinced of it. "Only circumstances or people may not be right, or good enough, to actually redeem them. Life often fails somebody like that, but that doesn't mean they're irredeemable."

"Maybe life fails, because they don't deserve it."

God's didn't know everything. She didn't actually believe in God's, so it was easier for her to assume this much.

"Life doesn't care if you deserve anything or not. That has nothing to do with anything," Asar-Suti says, absolutely assured.

"You would know."

This conversation was getting entirely too philosophical for her and it was making her tired.

"Yes, I do," Asar-Suti says, with the assurance of a deity. "Fate is fate, but there are many things beyond the ken of even gods."

"I have no idea what that last part meant, but somehow I believe you."

Maybe it was because Asar-Suti had the calmness of...well a God.

"I meant that even we don't know. Sorry; I got into that highfalutin' style of speech while talkong to that poor other Dark God just now."

Asar-Suti smiled, slightly apologetic.

"I see. A soldier doesn't need to learn flowery words."

Many of them couldn't even read. Of course, Peacekeepers were trained to be intelligent.

"That's why we never had armies; we always poked other people's armies into action," Asar-Suti says. "I wonder why they still have soldiers in a technical advanced world like yours."

He doesn't realised that he's probably quite offensive; he's just proud of his clever Ihlini who never needed to keep an army.

He isn't offensive, personally she doesn't understand how he got by without soldiers.

"To fight battles, obviously."

"I would have thought that in time, people would invent machines for that?" Asar-Suti smiled, lifting an eyebrow.

"Machines are never a substitute for people."

She couldn't imagine a machine thinking up on-the-spot tactical maneouvres.

"There are some people here who are machines," Asar-Suti points out. "One of them, Kitt, is a very good friend of mine."

"I keep forgetting that things are different here. It's not like that on my world."

She didn't think she'd ever get used to it. It made her feel very helpless and if there was one thing Aeryn hated, it was helplessness.

"I know; it's not nice to have your mind forcibly expanded," Asar-Suti says, remembering the time when that first happened to him.

And he didn't have to go through a lightning-speed pregnancy like poor Aeryn.

If she could read minds, she'd probably have kicked him. She hated pity.

"Sometimes it's just what you need. I'm used to it."

"You're strong and independent and from a very advanced world; you can probably take it without sufering too much of a culture shock. But you should meet one of the cars; they are very nice," Asar-Suti says, with a smile.

"Cars? Those things they have on earth?"

She didn't really approve of Earth, still.

"Yep. They look a bit like this - but the ones in the bar are black, and much sleeker," Asar-Suti says, turning into car-shape. There is suddenly much less space beside the fireplace.

Aeryn blinked, but was too used to his changes to register much more surprise.

"Are you operational?"

"Yep," Asar-Suti's voice says from near the car. "Gil drove me once, in winter, through the snow - it was eormous fun!"