Welcome to Gaia! ::

It actually clicked very quickly. Astrid nodded at Sekhmet's explanation, quite satisfied with it. It made perfect sense to her. She tried to imagine her parents and her sister, all of them living forever just like her. But then also the people she hated ( although she sometimes thought she hated her parents, too ) living forever. Astrid could see the frustration. She'd want to kill a good number of people, but just imagining all of them being immortal would drive her crazy. That had to be annoying as hell.

And then, too, there were the mortals. Astrid didn't instinctively group herself as one; she thought, instead, subjectively. Obviously, if you had mortals worshipping you, it was favorable to have them keep doing it. And just imagine if some other god or goddess stole your followers, and you couldn't even KILL them for it. I suppose you could kill their followers, though. But then neither of you would have any. In that case, I'd try to get them back first...then kill them if they didn't.

Actually, was having people worship you really all that important? Astrid could understand being pissed off if some other god had taken her own followers. Yet it felt a lot more attractive to instead just screw around with everyone else's followers.

...Haha.

Blinking slowly, Astrid realized her mental thoughts had been racing on a bit. "Sorry," she supplied, and then nodded again. "I get what you mean. That would be annoying as anything. Well, while you're down here, what are the other gods doing? Can you die here?" Astrid realized that question might sound a bit strange, but probably to a goddess, it would be like any other question. Astrid assumed if her mortal body died for whatever reason, she'd just go back to being a goddess. So, this is kind of like a vacation. I get it. Cool.

Astrid but her hands behind her head, thoroughly interested in Sekhmet and her ways. It hadn't seemed to strike her as very out of the ordinary anymore to be talking to a god in mortal form. After all, if there are indeed gods, getting their kicks in the mortal world was probably better than being bored as a god.

Astrid thought so, anyway.

This new information was even more interesting. Yet that explanation made sense, too. Astrid nodded again. If Sekhmet couldn't die here, she didn't really have any reason to care about the other gods. And she had already mentioned that the height of her time had been during another civilization. She didn't have to worry about those followers, either. "Well, in that case, you'll probably like being around here. I was trying to find this person called Aerin...it's a little complicated."

She sighed, for a moment wondering if Sekhmet really cared about whatever she'd been doing. Well, she might not care, but she might be interested. I dunno. Shrugging, Astrid continued, "I was just talking to a friend a day or so ago. He was the first one to start talking about gods. He says he's bonded to a god named Anubis. Has to do with dead people or something..." Astrid gave Sekhmet a rather "I really have no idea"-look and put her hands behind her head again. Hod flicked his tongue in her ear and she winced at how it tickled. "I was trying to find Aerin to ask him about all that," she added.

I wonder if Sekhmet knows any of the gods Akira and I were talking about.

Astrid had trouble deciding exactly what she wanted to do first. At hearing Sekhmet's knowledge of Anubis, she was immediately interested to know more. What was he the god of, again? What kind of...god...was Anubis? And better yet, what did Sekhmet know about the bond between Anubis and Akira? Was that some kind of standard thing?

Yet she couldn't possibly say all of what was in her mind at once. "Whoa, you know him," she observed, instead noting it for future reference. "You should probably talk to Akira soon. He's the guy bonded to him. Maybe you can give him more information about Anubis. He was trying to find some, I think." Sekhmet's information, Astrid decided, would probably be better spent on Akira, as Anubis was "his" god...or whatever.

"Oh! Aerin's in the infirmary?" Astrid was happy to hear this. She'd had no idea where to start looking for him. "Yeah, if you can show me the way, that'd be great." She smiled, genuinely. "Do you know about any gods who aren't Egyptian?" Astrid gestured to either side of her, indicating Sekhmet could lead the way...since she had no idea where she was going.

Astrid had decided she quite liked Sekhmet too. Mentally she had already aligned her as an ally. No doubt this goddess' knowledge was infinite. I want to learn about her. And from her, too. I wonder... She quickly tacked on a second question, not being able to help herself. "And, what are you the goddess of, respectively?"

Respectively was such a big-sounding word.

Astrid followed alongside Sekhmet, listening to her. "I don't think I know a lot about the Egyptians," Astrid confessed, keeping stride with the lioness. "I didn't have schooling before this. Whatever I know I learned from reading books, or what my parents or sister had time to tell me. But they sound like they were fairly smart." The thought of a whole other civilization was so interesting. Astrid could imagine what these Egyptians might look like, but she knew she'd probably be off. They could be anything.

"Actually, I don't know if this certain god is worshipped anymore. Or if he was. Akira was trying to help me figure out some of my dreams, and he thinks I may have what he does but with a different god." The look Astrid shot Sekhmet then was one of "yeah, right," but she broke into a smile. "But then again, I didn't believe in gods then either, and you're here now, so hey. Who knows." She was feeling quite cheerful about the whole thing, really. Sekhmet was so interesting to her that the thought of learning more about other gods out there was fascinating.

"I checked my feed. It said my guy might be a Norse god. Do you know about them? ...I guess that probably means he isn't Egyptian like you are." Astrid was musing aloud, but thought it made sense. She didn't know what Norse was either, though. Probably she should have searched for that through her feed, but she had Sekhmet here now, and that was ten times cooler.

"So they were from the same world, the Norse and the Egyptians," Astrid said, nodding. "Hmm. Interesting." She logged that information away, too, for future use. No doubt Aerin would clear a lot up, if Akira was telling the truth. Why would he lie? But, there's not always an answer to that question. People just lie. She knew this to be hard fact, but thought Akira might at least have not chosen to.

Standing outside the infirmary, Astrid bit her lip. So this was it. "Thanks for getting me here," Astrid said, genuinely grateful. She gave Hod a smirk as he looped around her neck, giving her a look. This goddess is alright, she said silently to him.

Now, the true test began.

Astrid cocked an eyebrow at Sekhmet, something between a smirk and a smile crossing her face. She felt the same way. "I'm glad I talk to you too. I'll see ya around," Astrid said, nodding as Sekhmet turned and walked calmly back down the hallway.

It was true. Astrid had meant it. She wanted to see Sekhmet again. What were the odds of running into a goddess, just like that? Especially after that whole talk with Akira... I wonder if it was...what do you call it. Fate? She shrugged, not beliving in fate. Fate was stupid. People made fate up to make themselves feel better when things went wrong. They wanted someone to blame.

So they blamed fate.

"For all I know," Astrid muttered dryly, "there's a god for that too." Opening the door to the infirmary, she slipped inside to find Aerin.


[wrap!]