come back home [thoth]

@"Thoth"

Huh, seemed that the guy had a lot of words to say about royalty. Was land royalty really that horrendous and just for decoration? He didn't know, and at the moment he would've asked had more important matters not been at hand. He made note to do so later on, when the time called for it and perhaps in more casual conversation.

As for human culture... Ah, he knew enough about past human culture, or at least shards of it from what he ate, destroyed and hoarded treasures from. A lot of it had to do with sea travel and naval warfare. More recent culture was, in fact, along those lines and even more so now that it was better recorded. Land culture, though? No. He could navigate that like an awkward, socially inept teenage human male navigating human females.

"Well, you guys sure like starting wars and pointing your projectiles at each other." Not like the Panthalassians could say much, considering they were in the middle of a war dragged from ancient times. "You have a very storied history with the sea. You didn't master it until fairly recently, too."

As for current culture... "Humans don't quite like confrontation; you aren't as physical as my kind. At least, most of the time. You have particular foods that you eat with pronged utensils, and you don't like nudity. Well, you do but only the idea of it. Sometimes. But become quite offended when anybody actually offers nudity. You have a very strange idea of sexuality. But anyways," He thought for a moment more.

"You all are quite varied, but are offended by differences, too. In fact, you're quite an offended species. You have rulers who are for the people in theory and are voted to power, but they all say that on both accounts. You become quite anxious over a points system called 'money' but I'm not quite sure what that's about, I've only gotten brief interaction with it." There was plenty more about food, literature, technology... Too much to sum up.

@"Thoth"

Humans were so downright complex that he was well aware it'd be difficult to wrap his head around in just one session. No, they needed to sit down a lot, talk about it, go through it all bit by bit. He'd be glad to teach Nicolas about the Panthalassians in turn, but he doubted the redhead was interested.

Talking it out, huh? It sounded rather... well, complicated. Words could be misinterpreted, and there was this thing called passive aggression and... Well, he didn't like the idea of not fixing things with either fighting or sex. That's how they did it among his own kind, mostly the former but occasionally the latter. And apparently sex was also a taboo.

"How strange of you humans to think of it that way." But then again, humans probably thought of his ways of life strange, too. Not that he'd be any more open to it, but he needed to blend in. So he supposed instigating a fight with someone while naked was a no-go.

"So tell me about humans, then. What's important to you?" And what wasn't? How did their lore go? What did many of them find interesting? How was their society run? He had quite a few curiousities about the whole thing, but that would take a while longer to figure out.

He hadn't intended for the second part to sound so personal, though.

@"Thoth"

Ulrich sat back, winding his fingers together on his lap with a curious sort of cock of his brow. So humans were just as varied as their body types. Money, power, family... There was quite a few indications that this man's main motivator was the former. He didn't seem to have family as far as his spies had reported trying to track him down, and he'd rapidly slid in rank since he'd first seen him. The gap between that time and just a year ago was a mystery, but Ulrich didn't need to be concerned for that.

Still, Nicolas only answered half his question even if he was good at guesses.

"More or less." He nodded. "Individual preferences vary, but there is a tendency for our kind to be born with the grudges our forefathers bared. The majority of us are strongly motivated towards eliminating the opposing royal family." In his case, that meant the southern Panthalassians would fight viciously with a northern Panthalassian almost right out of the egg.

And when he said 'born with grudges', he wasn't joking. Memories were melded into their genetics; it wasn't rare to have a young one hatch and hate a particular person right off the bat, only to grow up and realize their father and great grandfather hated them, too.

"But what is important to you?" He repeated, deciding to be patient just as Nicolas needed to be patient with him.

@"Thoth"

They were born with hatred, but also love towards individuals, kindness towards certain factions and occasionally, vivid memories of past events. Ulrich could remember the splitting of the two branches of the royal family as if he had been sitting front row and center, even though he was born three generations after the fact. He was fairly certain Emma could remember shards of the event as well, if not the whole thing.

Pretty rude? Also rather strange. Panthalassians were the blunt sort who asked what they thought and didn't try to cover it up. It just seemed so much more productive that way, getting right to the point without bothering with formalities and beating around the bush. No matter, he'd take Nicolas' advice. He was supposed to be the human expert.

"I see." And, as far as Ulrich knew, both had been irrevocably taken away. So what was important now, or was that, too, rude to ask? Ulrich just reclined back further in his chair, comfortable and soft but so foreign at the same time. "I should make some sort of notebook for all of this. It is quite a bit of information that would be similar enough to get confused."

@"Thoth"

Ulrich made a faint displeased noise, almost like a grunt, still rather used to making various noises to voice his displeasures or amusement. "I have owned a human body for longer than you have been alive." He used the same template, more or less. He could change a few minor physical characteristics, but generally it was all very similar. Physical injuries, like the various scars, remained the same across all forms.

"I am well aware of how to use one. It is your customs that I have troubles with." Even though having so few limbs seemed counterproductive, at least he knew how to use said limbs. Fingers had been hard to figure out but he'd done it. Only being able to look in a single direction had been the hardest part.

As far as food went, Ulrich gave a small shrug. "I somehow doubt you'd find my eating habits very tasteful." Raw fish, raw fish, a couple of seals, maybe a shark or giant squid and more raw fish. Seaweed was also nice, and he had to admit that Emma made some very good rock salt cookies, not that he'd ever admit it.

"But your food will be taken care of." Or rather, money for food will be taken care of. If they were in the sea, he'd send his guards off to find something suitable. On land, his guards were unfortunately absent.