[Open]

[spellcollect]

[ Frieren's mind opens up; as before, on the surface it's a calm, smooth pond. She's not quite used to this, so the connection (at first) is a touch tentative and then as she feels her way forward it opens more until she thinks she's finally ready. ]

I have a question for all of you. And you may consider it a simple matter of curiosity; I won't take offense at being ignored.

[ There's a pause, as if she's collecting her thoughts. ]

How many of you are long-lived species? Or long-lived by virtue of who you are? My kind are rare, even in my world, so I can't assume others will be particularly more common here, at the end of the universe.

[ It's an open question. ]

Comments

[dreamflowers]

I did what I had to survive.

[Even if Jade didn't always want to.]

In my experience, people are afraid of what's different. If they don't understand it or can't control it, even more so. If my magic hadn't developed more recently, I doubt I'd have lived long at all, let alone past my thirties, so I'm probably more fortunate than others still stuck in my country.

[spellcollect]

Survival is a powerful motivator.

[ She has some experience with that. ]

Are people with magic hunted down where you come from?

[dreamflowers]

Indeed.

[Jade isn't proud of many of the things she's done in pursuit of her continued existence, but there's not much she can do about it now.]

Depends. I know in the Northrealm of my country, both Aeterna and magically gifted people are treated pretty ruthlessly, even more so than what I'm used to in the Southrealm. It's why I never traveled that far north, but I read that it had something to do with the Chancellor not wanting anyone with power to challenge his authority. Y'know, a tale as old as time.

[spellcollect]

The humans in my world used magic to cement their authority and challenge demons. So that sounds a bit strange to me.

[dreamflowers]

Hm. We don't really have demons, as far as I'm aware. Other entities, sure, but "demon" tends to be associated with superstitious nonsense.

Guess it's more literal in other worlds.

[spellcollect]

They're quite real and quite deadly. I've killed many of them.

[dreamflowers]

I usually just kill people.

[Wait. That sounds bad.]

When they're trying to kill me first. Which is... a lot. Sometimes Arcanists turn into monsters and I have to kill those, too. And other things. [You know. Normal stuff.]

[spellcollect]

I try not to kill people if it can be helped.

[ But she doesn't say she never kills anyone. ]

I find that at least most of the time a solution can be found. [ But, you know, that's not all the time. ]

[dreamflowers]

Yeah... I don't particularly enjoy killing, but not everyone is capable of seeing reason no matter what I do.

[She's tried even with a high Speech/Rhetorics check dammit. After a while, she's become kind of become numb to it.]

[spellcollect]

Some beings can't be reasoned with, in the end.