Post Examination: Persian King
Often, Hermes doesn't mean what he says. This entry is a note to myself on the stories behind his words. You may reply out of character only.
For a thread with Cyrus (will_be_god):
This is the story Hermes tells:
"Oh, it was a simple thing. For a while she strongly believed herself incapable of a Promethean mind. Forethought, you understand. By observation and connection, she managed to for once help herself where obeying would not supply. A little fire of proposition, if you will, to take into the darkness that had no light behind."
Hermes is not talking about me. He is talking about Cyrus, comparing him to Prometheus.
The ‘she’ meaning Cyrus, because Cyrus would give birth to Team Galactic's world, the ‘Promethean mind’ = the compassion expressed for man and the concern of their safety, which no one else of all shared to Prometheus’ extent. Cyrus shares that, in wanting to rid the world of man's strife and sin. In short, those first two sentences is really just Hermes saying, “Cyrus, you believed yourself incapable, or at least thoroughly absent, of all attachment, and perhaps the single knowing mind, of the potential and possibility of mankind.”
Got that so far?
‘By observation and connection’ = Prometheus looking at mankind and wanting to give them an edge. Fire would do nicely. Cyrus eventually seeing the world as full of strife beyond repair.
‘To for once help herself where obeying would not supply’ = Prometheus disobeying the command of Zeus and giving mankind fire. Cyrus discovering a way to ‘save’ mankind, with the lakes and the chain and destruction/rebuilding of the planet/universe, and his resolve to fight against the gods.
‘A little fire of proposition’ = Prometheus...not-exactly tricking Zeus to take the yummy fat-laced undecayable bones instead of the succulent meat covered in the inedible, repugnant stomach. Cyrus, you don’t know this but Hermes whispered into the ears of Mars and Saturn, suggesting a rash, innocent action of them both, which chained their deaths. Dance, war. Hear, age, of war. Well, Hermes didn’t know it would end in that. He just wanted to see what would happen.
‘To take into the darkness that had no light behind’ = Prometheus’ gift of fire bringing mankind asthma and cancer (from the smoke, pollution, chemical and steel works, mines, and so on), destruction of the environment, etc.. Cyrus you are a fool if you think you know yourself, or that you think you can create a world that will stay as you wish it to be. Also, Hermes' whisper led to the deaths of Mars and Saturn.
The second story Hermes tells is this:
"I convinced her to trick a man who sought to kill someone we needed to live. She provided him with what he wanted, but used it to her benefit, saying the man represented by it was no longer present. I then suggested a way of reply, and she sent the man across the sea. It was the raking of trust between strangers. What he had wanted, it had been a ring, by the way."
‘Trick a man’ = trick Cyrus.
‘Kill someone we needed to live’ = the earth we stand upon, in reference to Cyrus wiping out the universe.
‘Provided him with what he wanted’ = gave him a Saturn to talk to.
‘Used it to her benefit’ = Set Saturn up to die after he bonded with Cyrus.
‘The man represented by it’ = Cyrus, represented by Saturn.
‘No longer present’ = Cyrus is out of his mind and needed to be brought down a few pegs.
‘Sent the man across the sea’ = brought him to mourning.
‘Raking of trust’ = wow Cyrus you sure are trusting Hermes a lot. It amuses him. Referring to the initial news of Saturn's and Mars' deaths.
'A ring' = the rings of Saturn.
The tricked Cyrus = the Cyrus who lives now, who grieved over the death of Saturn. The represented-by-Saturn-who-is-no-longer-present Cyrus = the self-proclaimed emotionless Cyrus. This story really says:
"I, Hermes, convinced her, my role-player, to fool Cyrus, who sought to destroy the world then rebuild it as some moron’s view of ridding the universe of sin forever. She gave him a Saturn to bond with, but allowed me to indirectly kill him off, because Cyrus is insane if he sees benefit in a strife-free universe and he needs to be reminded that he will never be able to rid himself of all emotions. I passed Saturn’s death off as an accident, which Cyrus accepted - a benefit of the messenger. People think you’re always telling the total truth."
I could list out the points of correlation between these two stories, but this entry is quite at length already...
In another thread, where again they bring the fates of Mars and Saturn to throat, Hermes tells Cyrus this:
"I had given you the honor of determining their way of rest. Their breath and soul had been yours to fate. They could have been returned to you within the noontide sun, of life again, if only you had voiced it so."
He isn't talking about the deaths of Mars and Saturn, not directly. Hermes had never given Cyrus any power, he had given him a chance, that the perished officers would return, if Cyrus had for once focused on their individual selves, and put aside his dismal view of humanity and shredded judgment on the world.
Let’s list out the events: I made ZanyRehab Saturn. SacrificeMeCake Hermes eventually came along. I thought, “Oh, if Saturn died, I wonder what that would do to Cyrus. I’m not role-playing Saturn much - I've lost his mindset and Team Galactic is a fading interest of mine anyway.” Hermes endorsed this because killing him makes a wonderful opportunity to teach Cyrus a lesson that yes you have emotions you twat, I decided to go through with it and allowed him to indirectly kill not only Saturn but Mars as well, to further Cyrus’ emotional awakening. Hermes told Mars to dance, he turned Saturn’s head to hear, and they ended up dying because of it. Even for all this merciless Cyrus-hounding and general disregard for life, Hermes did eventually put them to rest.
Hermes, here, is talking about when they first joined Team Galactic. Saturn, in their moments of honest conversation, would have told Hermes what he had been before Team Galactic, and those nine years he had lived beyond it. When Saturn joined Team Galactic, his future of representing mortality was unavoidable, for all which occurred would lead up to that moment of Cyrus’ decision, then, with leaving Saturn behind to die in the wake of the new universe, and now, in the moment that came, when Cyrus royally screwed up Saturn's single fortune of living again.
‘I had given you the honor of determining their way of rest’ = Saturn had been a good person, and would have remained so, if only he had avoided Team Galactic, and more specifically, if he had not strode to Cyrus’ favor, and had not accepted and risen to the rank of Commander, for, in that act, Saturn would seal his fate as representing the impact of mortality (that meaning, no matter how loyal one may be, they can always be left behind, and that in his death, Saturn made a man who constantly preached the vileness of emotions mourn). Mars had always been immoral, fixated on lust and gain, but that would have waned, had she not come to hear of the Team. When she joined Team Galactic, Mars felt that she could no longer receive punishment for anything she did, so released all her concerns, which basically meant she became a repulsive freak devoid of all morality who would be as likely to be friendly to everyone she met as strive to seduce or murder them.
‘They could have been returned to you within the noontide sun, of life again, if only you had voiced it so’ = this is Hermes attempting to make Cyrus realize the fatality in a choice of words. If Cyrus had decided there was peace to be had in the universe, in any part of it as it was at that moment, Hermes would have convinced me to bring them back to life, because they're only a state of mind, and the mind is limitless.
This entry, on the other hand, is quickly gaining on the limit.
Then, a long time later, Hermes punches Cyrus in the gut, saying, "Next you'll tell me the universe wills you to share your liver!" The sharing of the liver is a metaphor for Cyrus' inability to make himself be the way he wants, though he aims for his followers to be just like him (fanatic belief in the same exact thing with severe discipline and no room for interpretation or independent thoughts or you will be struck down and cast into strife forever). The Greeks thought the liver was the seat of emotions. It's the attachment to life and is called the "desiring soul." Hermes is saying that Cyrus wants people to have his liver, in that he wants his followers to be exactly as devoted as he is. There are intense impulses that follow fanatic belief. In this case, to heatedly defend the cause (as Saturn had done), jealousy (that arises when Cyrus shows some favor to Cynthia, as Jupiter demonstrates), of wrath (Mars, pick a time), all of which are attributed to the liver. By giving parts of it away, Cyrus will be lessening his emotions and impulses, but no one can survive without their liver, and it grows back from even the smallest piece that remains, thus Cyrus will never be able to rid himself of his bitterness, impulses, desires, or anything, so they won't get anywhere mentally even if they DO make their new world. The remark itself is meant to be taken literally, for the level of absurdity Hermes sees in Cyrus.
This will end eventually.