test drive / milliways

[gods_that_haunt_me]

A tall, lanky man, seemingly made up entirely of long lines and angles, wanders into the bar through the back door.

He's been out all day, exploring the forest. Listening to the trees.

(They were quite talkative.)

The waitrats scatter as he crosses the room. They probably don't like the hatchet tucked into his belt. Or the knife. Or the sword.

He snickers at their fright. He's harmless! Really!

(No, he isn't.)

"Lady Bar, a cup of mead, if you please," he says in Old Norse. A horn cup appears, and he takes a swig.

Comments

[witchfinder_general]

"Monsters that exist in some worlds, and sometimes come here," the man says. "It's my job to hunt them, so they're exempt from the general good will to all mankind."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Floki can be very diplomatic when it comes to monsters.

"Not all monsters are bad. Who gave you the right to hunt them?"

[witchfinder_general]

"The fact that they are a large if hidden threat to humanity," the man says, "and the mandate of my church. Any sentient being that treats people as food is necessarily bad."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"So your god tells you to kill these monsters? For being hungry?"

[witchfinder_general]

"For being hungry for our blood," the priest says. "For possessing the bodies of some of our dead. For trying to subjugate humanity like so many chickens."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"Oh, that does sound troublesome. How did they come into being? Perhaps it is humanity's fault that these monsters are what they are. It is not the wolf's fault for stealing a lamb when deer in the forest are scarce."

[witchfinder_general]

"They're not natural predators," the priest says. "They're corpses infected with a sickness, and we suspect that the sickness has something of a mind of its own, connecting all those corpses."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"A sickness? Are you certain it isn't sorcery?"

[witchfinder_general]

"Yes," the priest says. "We're certain there is no magic in our world."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"No magic? Yet you have monsters? And a god that gives you orders? You live in a strange world indeed."

[witchfinder_general]

"The monsters can be explained by science," the priest says, "which doesn't make them any less monstrous."