egodraconis:
“Ah, then you ask after the traditional sorts. Beings of great power, bending forces to their whims…” he punctuates this with a wave of his hand.
“In this sense, it is entirely, disappointingly arbitrary. Assigned by those with only half an understanding of a term coined to denote a position in a hierarchy fashioned by man, for man.”
A scowl, eyes grappling with some unseen question. “But that does not help you either. Hmm. Perhaps this. Tell me, Lorelei, for all that I am, that which I have seen and done, would you not consider me a god?”
There is a long pause as she ponders the question, expression one of both understanding and abject defeat.
“I set myself up for that one, didn’t I.” She sits down on one of the chairs and hums thoughtfully, contemplating it.
“…Yes… and no? I mean, from what I understand, you have… a domain. A thing. People tell stories about you, and you, in a sense, embody something. I guess that’s really what I’m looking for - the transition of being a something to being an embodiment of something. But it doesn’t really work with you, because that’s where you started.”
A beat.
“Man, understanding all of this elevated, magical stuff is hard.”
Balbus chuckles in sympathy, knowing the young woman to be trying her best.
"Child," he begins with a gleam in his eye, "I am older than your entire bloodline, and even I only understand that I know Nothing. I started as a mud crawling belly dragger with no thoughts beyond filling my belly, with only a spark of divinity at the dawn of time. I fit every quota of a God, and yet-i am not. Because I refute the title. I do not create. I do not rule. I simply am."
He slides her a cup, bending to pour an amberish liquid that could be a tea, smelling odd and floral.
"Whatever I may have come to embody is pure metaphor and philosophy, it does not reset the clock and retroactively rewrite fundamental laws around my personhood. Zeus did not create the concept of lightning, nor is Quetzalcoatl the Sun."
"As for what you seek, I can only offer conjecture. This...this BECOMING you search for, this mantling...it sounds like an evolution. A mutation. Something purely unique, even if it has happened before."
