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 Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:30 pm
Of Paws and Claws
Tian Yue twined out of the skylight and into the open air in dragon shape, his tail cracking like a whip in his irritation. The myth, the story... seemed to abruptly be more than that. It seemed to shroud a truth that Tien Lung had somehow never known.
And if it is true... His tail whipped at the air again as he soared towards the Wildflower Suites, the abandoned hotel that both Shartha and Lao Shu had made their refuge in. As he approached the building, he sought the distinct sparks that marked his two Stars. Shartha was above in her penthouse roost, as usual... and Lao Shu was in the kitchens.
Tian Yue landed by the remains of the hotel's front doors and slid rapidly through, seeming in that moment more snake than dragon. He ignored the dark expanse of the lobby and the shocked rustles from the black hallways that he strode past. There was a powerful scent of rot from up above as he moved through what had once been the hotel's most exclusive restaurant.
Rot, yes... and rats, and mice, and flies everywhere. The dragon wrinkled his nose and tried his best to ignore the smell, then waded into the mess with eyes narrowed. There- He plunged one claw into the morass of trash and life that covered the floor and came up with a squirming and rather put out Rat.
"Oh! My Lord Tien Lung!" Lao Shu squeaked and dropped the piece of 'food' he was carrying, then righted himself on the dragon's palm and executed a passable bow. "I was not expecting you."
"Are such surroundings really suitable for one of your station?" Tian Yue made a face as he backed out of the main body of the morass, then snapped at a fly that got too close for comfort.
"My Lord, with all due respect... I am the Rat. This is a place of riches for me and my kind." Lao Shu licked at his front paws, then quickly wiped them over his muzzle, cleaning away some of the grime. "You know what we are."
"I do... and then again, perhaps I do not." Tian Yue sighed and deposited the Rat on a relatively clean countertop, then coiled to crouch at its side. "I want you to tell me the truth in response to my questions, Lao Shu."
The Rat tilted his head to one side, plainly confused. "Naturally, my Lord."
"Tell me, then. Tell me what happened to the Cat."
Lao Shu froze. It was obvious he hadn't been expecting that - but then, without warning, the Rat ran, darting down the counter and leaping away, seeking to lose himself in the mess.
Not a chance. Tian Yue growled and sprang forward, easily unearthing the Rat, enclosing him in a cage of claws. The rodent banged up against the sides of his prison in a blur of frantic movement, then slumped at last, beaten. "Lao Shu!"
"I-I... hmph..." The Rat tried to regain his composure, sitting up and wiping at his muzzle again, flicking bits of dust from his fur, as if pretending his aborted attempt at escape simply hadn't happened. "It was a long time ago..."
Tian Yue growled again, and Lao Shu shuddered.
"Very well! Very... very well... the Cat was late. That's all! Late!"
"And what part did the Rat have in that tardiness?"
"I, er... heh... er..." Lao Shu wrung his tiny paws. "It was so very long ago, my Lord... merely a spat, a little spat... a little mistake... she asked that day, long long ago, so long I can... I can barely remember it, Lord! To call her before the feast, that she might attend... and well, I was so very busy..." The Rat shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "It sort of happened. May I go now?"
"No." Tian Yue's eyes narrowed with anger at the defiant, cocky rodent. "What did you mean by such an action?!"
"Cats... rats... we're natural enemies. It was so long ago." He pawed at his muzzle again.
"That matters nothing - you could have told Shai- you could have told me, and set everything to rights. Why? How dare you?"
"It wasn't important-"
The Rat never saw it coming. Tian Yue snarled and shifted, lifting up one paw and bringing it down again, claws extended to their full reach. Lao Shu abruptly shrieked as he was pinned to the ground, his eyes glazing over instantly as his entire body was impaled by his Lord's claw. The dragon jerked his claws out of the ground and flicked the mortally injured Rat into the air, then lunged, tongue extended.
Snap.
He swallowed, hard, without chewing.
A moment later, a tawny rat nearby shuddered and fell over, then slowly rose again with a subtle change in posture. "Y-you... oh, my Lord..." The Rat trembled.
Tian Yue rumbled, low and dangerous. "Never again. You have sinned, Rat. I should strip you of your title where you stand - but as you say, it was very long ago. Very long ago indeed." Why, why didn't Shaiming know?!
But he knew why, really. Tien Lung had been too busy with the concerns of the Pantheon, let alone those of mortals. He simply... hadn't noticed.
And thus Nebula had slipped into eternity, doomed to Phaedra.
Tian Yue shook his head, then focused on the Rat. "The Cat has had her vengeance. It was she who chased you and devoured you repeatedly."
Lao Shu shuddered all over, and his ears went back hard against his skull. "Lord," he whispered, and this time the emotion was real, deep fear, echoes of trauma. "Oh, Lord..."
"Let that be your punishment. And let nothing happen again, or I swear I will bring you before Destruction and let him pass judgment. You will find no such solace in His care as you have found in mine."
With that, the dragon turned away, his tail lashing back and forth. He whipped out of the building at speed, letting out a frustrated roar as he broke free into the open air again, zooming up in a spiral around the building and away.
All this time. Forgotten. Another name to add to the list of failures. And now I know who she is. Too late for restitution. Too late for real punishment. Too late.
Too late.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:31 pm
It Comes Too Late
Tian Yue whipped his long coils down through the skylight, the sudden wind of his passage creating a sudden frenzy as it caught at bedclothes, curtains and small loose objects inside his bedchamber. The dragon landed hard on his bed, burying his nose into the pillows, muffling a low snarl. The sheets tore slightly under his claws.
"My Lord!" Toki ran in, summoned by all the noise, his eyes bright with concern. "Are you well?"
"Mrrrrrr," Tian Yue rumbled, shaking the bed. Then he lifted his head, slowly. "I have found our answers." He reached down, delicately, and picked up a pillow in his teeth. A moment later there were feathers everywhere as the dragon shook the thing violently back and forth, like a predator worrying its prey.
Toki blinked, brushed away as many descending feathers as he could, and wisely took a step back. "I can see that what you found does not please you, my Lord," he said, judiciously.
Tian Yue snapped at a feather, caught it, then spit it out again after a moment. For a moment it seemed he might go for a second pillow, but he restrained himself and instead turned and slid off of the bed. "Nebula is the Cat reborn."
The capital letter in Cat was clear from the dragon's inflection, and Toki's face took on a puzzled expression. "The... the Cat, my Lord?"
"The Cat. One of the Stars, or... nearly so. She was late to the banquet. Shaiming thought she had not come, but the Rat... had neglected his promise and did not wake her in time..." Tian Yue bowed his head, drooping. "I asked Lao Shu myself, just now. The story has become legend; Crispin was taught it in college, yet Shaiming... never knew the truth."
And if he had? Tian Yue had no answer for that.
Toki wrung his hands in distress. "That is a terrible injustice! The Rat should be stripped of his title-"
"If he sins again, he will be. He tried to prevaricate, so I ate him." The dragon's eyes flashed with anger for a moment. "But it has been so long... am I too lenient, Toki?"
The Aoide bowed. "You judge as you see fit, my Lord."
"That's not an answer." Tian Yue sighed and changed, shifting to human shape; Toki immediately darted to the wardrobe and produced a loose robe, draping it around his lord's shoulders. "Thank you. Is Nebula around, do you know? She... ought to know what she was. Ought to... to hear Tien Lung's apology..." He sighed again and fumbled his glasses back on.
Toki squirmed. "She is not, my Lord. I saw her leaving not long ago; a day or so at most. She was cloaked and hooded, but I am sure it was her, and I am sure she has not been back since. My knocks at Greed's door bring no answer."
Tian Yue swore under his breath. "Very well. So be it. I'm... going to go bathe, or something. No, stay there," he added as Toki made a move towards the bathroom door. "I'll tend to myself tonight."
"Lord," Toki acknowledged, bowing again.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:32 pm
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:33 pm
The Glow of the Firelight
Tian Yue hovered for a moment above the Pantheon. It was night now, and he rarely went out flying at night - hard to see, and there were things in the night sky that gave even him pause, if only for a moment. But he had flown far enough afield that his return from Beryl's temple saw night fall over the Starscale.
The bruised sky seemed even more shocking at night, and Tian Yue tilted his muzzle up to look at it for a long moment. Lucius... The stars reminded him of everything Beryl had whacked out of him with one well-aimed swipe of her wing; a soft breath of wind against his scales brought a quiet smile to the dragon's face. Perhaps it was a coincidence.
Perhaps not.
There is still hope.
Below him, the Pantheon was thrown into livid relief against the surrounding darkness by the glow of the lava that surrounded it. Tian Yue snorted as the breeze lifted some of the fumes up to him, sideslipping in the air to avoid it with a quick movement of his tail. He yawned a moment later, then sighed. "Time for silly dragons to go to sleep."
A short, sharp dive brought him down to hover just above the roof. The skylight was closed, but it was the work of a moment to open it and slide through the opening. A light was on by the bedside, and Tian Yue gratefully coiled himself straight down and onto the bed with a contented sound. For a moment he considered shifting to human shape, then discarded the idea. He had already shifted forms often that day, and he knew his limits from when he'd tested them. Being in human shape and unable to change - not being able to feel his scales, his true form waiting for his call - had been rather traumatic, a deep, worrying ache that had left him unable to do much more than fret and squirm until his personal mana replenished.
No. He'd sleep tonight in scales. The bed was large enough for that, bless Toki.
A soft noise caught his ears, and he lifted his head and peered at the doorway. Speaking of which... "Toki?"
A moment later, the Aoide's head peered around the doorway. "Welcome home, my Lord!"
Tian Yue grinned. "Did I worry you?"
"Um..." Toki looked down, then shuffled the rest of the way into the room. "A little. But I knew you were well, my Lord," he added, hurriedly.
"Hm. Your instincts were correct. Tell me - do you know the Lady Wind?"
"Lady Wind?" Toki tilted his head to one side. "I have not met her in these new days, my Lord, but I think perhaps in the old times... perhaps..."
"My wandering brought me to her temple today. It was a good thing, a good wind that brought me there." Tian Yue shifted his coils and let out a long whuff of contentment. "I had thought about staying the night, but I knew you would worry and worry and worry some more."
"My Lord!" Toki looked reproachful - but sheepish at the same time, enough to confirm that Tian Yue's decision had been the correct one. "Surely you can do as you like without concern for me!"
"I could, but you are valuable and precious to me, Toki. Thank you for your faithfulness. I... don't think I've said that enough."
The Aoide looked up, sharply, his eyes wide, then bowed. "I... thank you, my Lord! You are too kind..." His voice trembled a little.
"You are silly," Tian Yue snorted, affectionately.
"Thank you," Toki repeated, with a bright smile. "Rest well, my Lord."
"You too, Toki."
The Aoide left the room, and Tian Yue smiled to himself, snuggling down into the bed, resting his chin on one of the pillows.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:34 pm
Dream or FantasySyrie Running. He is dreaming he is running through a forest that has no sound. The wind rustles the leaves at the very tops of the ancient, moss-laden trees but there is no sound. His feet - he can feel the impact of each stride, the slide of his feet across the twigs and leaves, across stones and grass - but there is no accompanying sound.
Dreaming. Deaf in his dream he is not -- the sound of blood rushing through his body as he barrels through the forest and the sound of his own breathing, roughened by his exertions -- tell him thus.
Eventually, he slows and looks around more; the place is familiar to him in some ways and completely alien in others. He follows a path that seems to form before his very feet, leading him onwards - inwards - towards some goal that does not reveal itself immediately...
..........Here.
A slow exhalation of breath, a flutter in time and space and then he was standing before a building. Details eluded his sleep-shrouded mind: one moment the building was a dance studio, the next a brownstone, the next a marbleized palace. On and on and on it changed form and shape but he could sense that this place was one he should know.
One he should be at.
He moved in the dream - less a movement now than a sensation of motion coupled with small fugue-like moments that brought him inside the building (whatever it was). Inside the studio-apartment-library he initially feels peaceful, warm and comfortable -- the feeling quickly fades and morphs into something less pleasant: he is choking! Suffocating and clawing at his neck ineffectually, mouth open in a silent scream--
Colin jerked awake, his hands flying to his throat even as air - so sweet tasting after the suffocation of his dream - filled his lungs. He was shaky and sweating and...laying on the couch of his apartment. "Oh god, what was that?" The blond rolled until he was sitting up, his damp hair pressed into his clammy hands -- too weird, way too weird. He was dreaming about totally silent forests and crazy buildings and suffocating to death...and why? Because of some map his god-parasite had gotten a hard-on for?
"Shower, then clothes...then worry about the dream."
***
An hour or so later found Colin walking in the area surrounding the Pantheon. The acrid smell of smoke wasn't as strong here as it would be further in, but it tickled at his senses yet. Why the blond continued to come to this place when he needed to think was anyone's guess, but that was where he'd ended up; mind blanking out slightly as he moved. Rather than thinking about the dream that had so troubled him, he was thinking about tribbles
White sneakers slowly gained a dingy cast as he scuffed along, hands deep inside the pockets of his baggy day-glo orange hoodie. As he walked, the chain attached to his wallet bumped against his jeans and the little puffy tribble key-chain that Illa had snickered over and attached to said chain swung with each step. Sosiqui Tian Yue soared in dragon form, circling around the Pantheon idly, not yet willing to go inside. Everything seemed so much more free out here, separated from the epicenter of Destruction - even if only by a tiny amount.
I could use my own shields.. but that's not what they're for. They're not for one being alone. They are for all.
The streets were largely empty, so when the dragon spotted movement, he snorted quietly in surprise and changed his flight to go take a closer look. He felt the soft pulse of divine energy as he drew near, but it was still pale and soft, much like the feel of Tien within Morgan. A host, most likely, and one unfamiliar to him.
"Greetings," he called from above, curling to land atop a nearby two-story building, putting his forelegs on the edge of the roof and peering down at the man below. "Greetings to you and the deity you bear." Hopefully that would be enough to stop whoever-it-was from running away from him. It was so irritating when people did that. He wasn't a monster! Syrie The low thrum of the Divine that lingered about the Pantheon didn't even register as something he should investigate; Colin was used to the area feeling...touched. He did, however, remove himself from his thoughts on tribbles when he heard a voice calling out - the blond looked around, passing over the large dragon coiled atop a roof for a few seconds before locking wide eyes on the sight.
It was a DRAGON -- He had to run, get away -- it was going to eat him -- oh holy shi--
'Do not!' Endiovar immediately took hold of his host's motor functions and held the young man still though his muscles quivered with the wont to run. 'Listen - he calls out in greeting to us both.' A flicker of memory, forgotten but now gently rising to the surface told Silence that the dragon was not simply a dragon, but a Dragon King. 'We will stand and greet him properly!'
"Greetings to you, Lord Dragon." Endiovar's quieting voice, the hush that was followed with the blond doing a clumsy half-bow from the waist. The deity dared not let his host go; the young man was still fighting him, still wanting to run despite knowing now that the dragon was one of their own. Sosiqui Tian Yue sighed inwardly when he saw the flicker of panic in the boy's eyes, then canted his ears forward with curiosity as the young man suddenly stilled. The voice that came out was clearly not the one belonging to the body standing before him. "Greetings," he repeated, then tilted his head at the host with a small frown. "I'm not going to eat you or anything," he added, petulantly. "I am Tian Yue, Dragon King Tien Lung, and I wouldn't harm you. Or anyone else." Unless ordered to to so, but he wasn't going to say that. It wouldn't be helpful in the least. Syrie "Forgive my host, he is not accustomed to the...arcane." That was putting it mildly, though Colin had been making steps since he'd been drawn to this place -- it wasn't quite enough to deal with meeting a rather large talking Dragon. "I am the Sachem Aphonic, Endiovar. My host is Colin." The blond was relaxing a bit; he vaguely recognized Tian Yue's name from when Illario had been telling him about meeting a dragon...and since Illario hadn't been eaten, his host was able to relax somewhat, which meant that Endiovar could release the choke-hold he'd taken over the boy's body.
"Tian Yue...Are you -- did you ever see a blue-skinned alien?" Colin's words tripped over themselves and he craned his head back to take in the whole of the dragon's size. Still scary, but he wasn't going to run, at least. Sosiqui Colin... The name was familiar, but he couldn't quite figure out why, until the boy mentioned blue-skinned aliens. "Ah! Yes, indeed I did. It was an... interesting meeting," he added. He still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. It had been... well, he kept coming back to that one word. Interesting. In good ways and bad. "I believe he mentioned your name, briefly." Syrie Despite his discomfiture at talking up to a dragon, Colin couldn't quite keep a smile from spreading across his face; that was almost precisely the tone that Illa had used when discussing Tian Yue. "You know, I think he felt the same about meeting you." He sobered a bit and then shook his head, "He's been..." Infested. Infected. Body-snatched. All accurate, all things that Silence would not allow him to say. "The Lady Science has him now."
And no, he couldn't quite keep the bitterness from his words; so he was going to be taken over by Endiovar sometime, he still didn't want his lover having to go through this. Sosiqui Tian Yue's ears flicked back at the emotions underlying the boy's tone - so the Andorian had been claimed, then, as he feared. And if his friend's emotions were anything to judge by... the goddess' domain sounded fascinating, but perhaps... "She is not kind?" he asked, with regret. If any mortal was to lay down their very being for the rebirth of the divine, it only seemed fair that the deity respect and honor that sacrifice.
Then again, life wasn't fair. Nebula was a perfect example of that. "I am sorry. I wish that all gods would be reborn as I was, through a host willing and eager to offer their being to them." His ears went flat against his head. Syrie "She's a goddamned b***h that's giving him uranium poisoning or something like that." Colin spat the words; to say that he did not like his lover's parasite at all would have been a gross understatement. His expression softened a little bit from the hard mask of anger it had taken on, "I guess not everyone's so lucky...I think maybe Illa's a little better off than Nebula..." He was sort of musing to himself; hadn't realized he'd spoken the Aoide's name aloud.
"It's - well, it's not really okay, but you shouldn't feel too bad, Tian Yue. I don't think all of you are bad. Silence has been pretty good to me, over all." Somehow, Colin felt that he should tell the dragon this; he seemed a bit saddened to hear that others were being manhandled into incubators. Sosiqui "Poisoning?" Tian Yue snorted angrily at that. That was definitely not honorable. But his indignation was derailed by Colin's next statement. "Nebula?! You've seen her? When?" Maybe Colin knew where his... former... erstwhile Aoide was.
The mention of Silence, however, reminded the dragon that he was neglecting someone in this conversation. "Ah... Silence is the deity you bear?" Syrie The blond nodded once, twice. "Uh, yeah...she was really depressed about having Greed's gem..." He wasn't going to spill everything to the Dragon King -- it had been kind of obvious that she had some feelings for this guy-dragon-thing, but that wasn't his secret to spill (if it were even a secret).
"Mmhmm." Colin rubbed at the back of his neck and frowned a little bit, "So, can I be rude and ask if maybe you could not be a dragon? It's a little hard talking up. I mean, unless it's a problem..." That, and he was still kind of weirded out talking to a big scaled creature coiled atop a roof.
There was a ripple of annoyance at his host's forward behavior, but little else. He would be quiet for the moment. Sosiqui "Yes... Nebula was one of my servants before Greed took her as host." Tian Yue's tail lashed back and forth, once; it was fairly clear how he felt about that occurrence.
Then he tilted his head at Colin. "I could come down, certainly, but assuming my human shape would be... ah." His ears flicked awkwardly. "I did not bring any clothing with me. Unfortunately, shapeshifting isn't as simple as comic books would have us believe," he added, with both regret and amusement. Syrie "Yes, she said as much." Colin had felt so sorry for the dark coloured catgirl; she had been so distressed over the whole ordeal that her parasite's questions had remained unanswered (thankfully). "Guess I'm not the only person that gets to watch someone important get taken...sucks hardcore."
The blond cocked his head while the dragon spoke, the meaning of his words sinking in. "Oh, well - down would be good." He smiled and chuckled a little. "Can't have naked people running around this place, right?" The longer that he and Tian Yue spoke, the more at ease he became; as though he were forgetting (or perhaps pushing aside) the fact that he were a dragon and treating more as the person he also was. Sosiqui "No - every god is reborn in the same fashion. The end result is almost always the same... the paths one takes to get there are different. Some are kind. Some are cruel. I suppose I must put up with the latter sort, but nobody has ever told me I had to like it." The dragon snorted.
Then he nodded, and carefully tilted his head further over the edge of the building. "I shall fly down," he decided, and pushed off of the crumbly edge of the roof. The building's supports groaned, but nothing more happened as Tian Yue half-flew, half-fell neatly down to land about ten feet away from where Colin stood. Then he sat down, flicking his tail around his front paws, almost catlike. "Better?" Syrie The dancer merely grunted a little; nothing in the world would ever change his mind that the deities were parasitic and that the whole process sucked balls. He didn't argue the point with Tian Yue though; he knew from Illario's tale that the dragon king didn't agree -- of course he didn't! His host had ...wanted to be a dragon? As for himself, he hadn't wanted to lose his life for revenge (seemed a good idea at the time), but he had asked for it. Which meant he didn't blame Endiovar. At least that relationship was fairly amiable.
"Yeah. My neck thanks you too." Colin shook his head a little and took a few steps closer to Tian Yue. Very cat-like. "So, your host wanted to be ah, a dragon?" Sosiqui "I did, yes... I am somewhat unique among the reborn gods," Tian Yue admitted. "The god dwelling in Tien Lung's jewel was called Shaiming; his host, Crispin. For reasons of his own, Shaiming chose to merge with his host in such a way that he ceded his divinity to the host... the host remained dominant, though god and host still did combine into one being. I am the result. To my knowledge, no other deity has done such a thing before or since. But... yes. I did want this. Crispin wanted magic. He wanted to save the world." The dragon ducked his head, looking a bit sheepish, then shook his head. "I'm still working on that part. But, yes. I know of many others who also accepted their gods freely. Most were that way, I am told, in the beginning, but this Age calls darker gods to the fore." He glanced up at the stained and battered sky. Syrie Colin listened to the dragon with interest; it was a little strange and kind of hard for him to swallow what Tian Yue was saying about wanting to be devoured (though, that hadn't really happened to Crispin...) by a deity. And about how many of the earlier gods had "willing" hosts. "So...I guess that kind of puts me and Silence in the middle." He had wanted power, but now not at the cost. "Darker gods huh? Why's that?" The blond scratched at his left hip absently - it always itched when Endiovar was doing...whatever...in the "background". Sosiqui "We are living now in an Age of Destruction - Lord Harmodius, the Twin Crown who fashioned All... he is Creation and Destruction both. His aspect shifts depending on which sphere he is in at the moment. After... a certain incident," Tian Yue said, with a slight backwards tilt of the ears, "the balance of his aspect tilted towards Destruction, and it dwells there now. Those deities aligned to Destruction are being reawakened in force now. If you have met Nebula, doubtlessly you know of Phaedra... Greed is one of Destruction's domains." Syrie "Oh, I didn't -- well, I had no clue." He knew that Lord Harmodius was Destruction...but that hadn't really clicked in his head as something effecting the gem-parasites as a whole, honestly. "Wait, so...does that mean than Endiovar -- Silence is one of his domains? Like Phaedra?" No way. How..what happened to Lord Harmodius?"
Curious, so curious. Truth be told, the blond was a little enamoured of the Destruction God and what Tian Yue was saying was interesting to himself and to Endiovar. More so than thinking about his dream had been! Sosiqui "Oh, not at all. The Seven Domains are War, Greed, Lust, Famine, Envy, Sloth, and Plague. And not all gems appearing at this time are so aligned - I myself was reborn in the Age of Destruction, and the Dragon Kings are sworn to neutrality." Tian Yue shifted to lay down, sphinx-like in pose, his tail waving behind him now.
The next question was... not entirely unpredictable, but it did make Tian Yue twitch his tail a little bit. But he had a right to know. "Forgive me, it is a hard subject - the role of the Worldshield is to protect the gods, and while I was not reborn at the time this happened... Shaiming, my predecessor, felt very personal guilt about the circumstance." He took a deep breath. "Lucius, Universe... sought Lord Harmodius' love for his own, and drove a blade through his heart to steal him away and make him listen... make him respond as Lucius wished." Tailflick; twitch. "Lord Harmodius was Creation at the time, but Universe's rash action resulted in the scales tipping and turning. I was not there; someone who was could likely give you a better rendition of the story, but that is the gist of it." Syrie Tian Yue's tail was eye-catching and slightly distracting because it moved when the Dragon King was otherwise mostly still; Colin did catch all of his words though, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a little bit easier to deal with losing one's body when one didn't think it was going to be used to torment people.
"Right...because everyone knows the way to a guy's heart is to stab it." The dancer shook his head a little and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, fingers closing about his cell phone absently. "I've met Lord Harmodius...I --" He wet his lips a little, thinking about the last two encounters he had with the imposing deity, "I can't really...see him getting pushed around like that." Then again, he knew absolutely nothing of this Universe - Lucius - so...he was likely thinking lopsidedly. Sosiqui "From what I understand, the attack was a complete surprise - who would think that Universe, of all gods..." Tian Yue's voice trailed off and his ears canted backwards for a moment. Then he shook his head. "Lord Harmodius was far from being pushed around. He meted dire punishment upon Universe for his sin, and for Love as well, who aided him... I have not spoken to her. I do not know what was done there, but Lucius was branded Sinned, and his treasonous blade melted to wire that bind his hands even now." His jaw worked for a moment; the dragon could not deny that Lucius's foul actions deserved such a punishment, but the entire situation was so... so completely <******** up. Syrie Here he nodded, Endiovar's consciousness floating very close to the surface so that they were as too with one set of eyes; so intent that host and deity barely noticed one or the other. "Love, huh? Dangerous stuff." Colin well knew what love was capable of driving a person to doing...it only made sense to him that the goddess Love would be so impulsive. "Wires? He's got wires in his hands?"
The look on Colin's face said plainly that he too was thinking that was "******** up". Sosiqui "He does," Tian Yue said, and his tail lashed back and forth powerfully enough to stir up a cloud of ash. Then the dragon looked sheepish, and tugged his tail to rest under his front paws, where it would not be able to move and do that again. "I'm sorry... Universe was my.. Tien Lung's lover of old, before the Fading. Finding him in such a state, having done such a thing, was quite... quite difficult." Syrie "Oh, yeah...I can definitely see how that would be hard to handle." There was a pause as Tian Yue's words sank in, as the realization slowly budded and blossomed in his brain; "So wait...you're a gay dragon? Or, you were?" Being far more interested in males than females himself, Colin didn't sound appalled or anything too untoward; he was simply...curious.
It did make him wonder what Endiovar's sexual orientation might be -- something that was smoothed out with a quiet thought sneaking across his mindscape: gods do not gender obsess. They desired, regardless of gender, as was their wont or whimsy. Sosiqui "Uh..." That actually gave Tian Yue pause for a moment. He hadn't ever thought of that, truly; Lucius' gender didn't matter one whit to him. "I, uh, hadn't thought of it, really. I suppose... either is as well. It does not matter much, to gods." He tried to lift his head up, lofty, but there was still a flush of pink in the delicate membrane of his ears. Awkward~! Syrie How funny! The dancer couldn't help but be slightly amused by the reaction he was getting from the Worldshield -- he could almost swear that Tian Yue hadn't thought of that before (which made sense, with what he'd gotten from Endiovar as well). "That's kind of what...ah, Silence just...er...well, that's what I got from him too." Colin chuckled a little bit and shook his head; to think he'd be talking sexuality with a dragon.
"Sorry I asked, it just kind of came out before I thought about it." Bad habit from the guy carting around Silence's deity!
"So, Tian Yue...what were you doing, hanging around here? It's really dead and boring." And quiet. Sosiqui "Flying - I do that a lot, just to see how things are doing, or to visit others." Penny hadn't been at the Cosmodrome; the Bandit had shipped out on some job or another. "It's comforting even with the state of the world today. And a reminder of what it is I'm sworn to protect, once my power grows enough that I can actually do so." His tail twitched under his paws, and he scowled at it. How dare it do so unbidden, and betray his emotions. Bah! Syrie That made sense, certainly. As a human here he would have met people (human - host...same difference, dammit) and then once he'd been changed...well, since the dragon king Shaiming had merged with his host, it wasn't too hard to imagine that Tian Yue still cared for those people..or whatever.
Thinking about all the weird-a** relationships that people had around this place was giving him one helluva headache, and he had other things to worry about. The Forest.... "Oh hey, since you fly...can you tell me if you've ever come across a really weird, soundless forest?" Colin shifted from foot to foot and pulled his hand from his pocket to brush back a few stray curls. "Endiovar's really interested in this place, but we've only ever seen mention of it on a map Nergal -- Underworld -- had."
'There, happy now?' Those internal words were shot towards his parasite, not spoken aloud to the dragon. Sosiqui Tian Yue tilted his head slightly to one side, thoughtful. "Not that I have seen... there is a large forest being maintained by another god not too far from here. The Hunt, I believe. But it is far from quiet. A silent forest... it might be further away than I have flown. I tend to fly more up, less out." He chuckled. Syrie "Hmm...well, thanks anyhow -- I'm not really expecting too many people I meet to know anything about it." He grinned and shifted on his feet a little bit; it was still weird to be talking to a living, breathing dragon...and with the only pressing question answered (Endiovar's curious query about the Silent Forest) he was kind of curious to see what Tian Yue looked like as a person.
"The Hunt? Haven't heard of him. Her. Whatever." Not surprising really, the only other gods he'd "met" were Nergal, Phaedra and Dagny...two of which were still buried inside their hosts, just as Endiovar was. "Oh, hey -- what's flying like? I mean, y'know...like you can do." Curious sucker. Sosiqui "The Hunt is male," Tian Yue said absently, "though I haven't met him either." His ears perked, though, at the mention of flying.
"It's wonderful," he said, with fresh enthusiasm. "That is... coming from someone that used to be mortal and isn't anymore... I can fly in dragon form and in human form both, though I tend to keep to dragon form when I need to go somewhere. It's simpler not to have to worry about clothes and things. And about what to do with one's arms." He snorted, amused. Nothing he'd pulled from comic books had really worked on that score. It had been fun, but rather silly, and not at all dignified. Syrie Colin wouldn't remember that so much, but Endiovar certainly tucked the informational "tid-bit" away for later use. There was no telling when they would need to know these things.
"You can fly as a human too? That's pretty awesome, I have to admit." Boys. Pfft. Always so excited about certain aspects of things -- but on the one hand, it was hard to not pick up on the Dragon King's enthusiasm; it was infectious. Clearly, flying was a major perk from Tian Yue's change. "Oh hey, yeah...what would you do with your hands?" The blond tried picturing what the media had shown him was "proper" (a la Superman, Captain Planet, etc) and it just made him shake his head and laugh a bit. "I think I'd fly in dragon form too. Better than looking like some cartoon superhero come to life, right?" Sosiqui "Scales are tougher than skin against the elements - and I can't fly beyond the atmosphere unless I'm in dragon shape." Tian Yue tilted his head up to look at the sky again. "I am celestial by nature... but enough about me." He shifted to look at Colin. "What of your god? I fear I have been neglecting his company." Syrie It was strange just how much made sense...even coming from something so fantastical as a dragon (Colin still could not quite get past that one piece of pertinent information about his current companion). "Oh, don't worry about him, he doesn't say much anyway...god of Silence and all that." The dancer shifted a bit on his feet and got this odd, far-away look, then made a long-suffering sound. "Okay, fine...thanks for asking this time."
"It is an honour to speak with you, Lord Dragon." Endiovar's voice came from his host's throat and passed across his lips. A sense of dulling, dimming...of "not-sound" and "not-words" accompanied the exchange, as did a slight inclination of his head. "I do not mind...my host has not had enough contact with ones such as yourself." Meaning, he'd only really seen those that had been taken by force or were unhappy with having a parasitic gem inside them.
Silence was more than happy to let Colin see that sometimes, it was a good thing! Sosiqui Tian Yue inclined his head in acknowledgment of the other god. "Be welcome among the Pantheon, Silence... the traditional greeting of the Worldshield also included welcoming into Tien Lung's coils of protection, I believe, but unfortunately I can't offer that just yet. Still, what I can is yours."
The dragon remembered something then, and his ears flicked back just a bit, but in amusement this time. "Your host may wish to know - I startled his friend rather badly with my power. A small anecdote." Syrie A ghost of a smile tugged at the blond's pirated lips; neither were at their best -- no where near, in Endiovar's case -- and yet they were doing a dance eons old for their kind. "My thanks to you; the sentiment is returned, I assure you." Endiovar was annoyed he could not make an offer to match Tian Yue's. He had not knowledge (for he had lost that) nor power with with to assist (he was yet powerless over any save his host)...none of the things that had once touched him in the past.
"I believe the alien spoke of that, briefly." It had amused him as well, even the little bit they had been told; he was curious to know more. "Would you mind...what happened?" Sosiqui "We had... words. Not an argument, precisely... debate is a more accurate term, I think?" The dragon canted his head to one side. "We met when I was in my human shape, which vaguely resembles the physical traits of another race from his world... he didn't believe in the gods. I tried to convince him, but in the end we sort of agreed, unspoken, to disagree. At least I think so..." Tian Yue shrugged, the movement rippling down his long body. He had been right, of course, but there would be no point in grabbing the young alien by the shoulders and shaking him until he acknowledged that. That wasn't the point. "But in the course of our conversation, I demonstrated my power... the lack of Destruction's influence affected him, I could see that. That is all, really." Syrie Endiovar agreed with Tian Yue's assessment; arguing further with Illario at that point would have done the Dragon King no use, display of power or no. "The boy views us as...parasites, I believe." Colin's body sighed under Silence's control; a much harsher exhalation than he would have wanted to give but he was clumsy yet and simply "borrowing" the host's body at the moment. "he is very bright, but lacks faith. I would not trouble yourself overmuch." He is experiencing gods very intimately now...and yet he still retained his belie
Even "infected" by the Lady Science, Illa could still claim that they were not gods at all but parasites...which was both comical and sad in a way. Sosiqui "Well... his definition is, strictly speaking, true... but only up to a point. The point when we subsume and consume and change and become something new altogether..." Perhaps Tian Yue himself was more new than most, but no god he had met was entirely the same as they had been before, insofar as his memory went.
We have all changed. We are not so much reborn as we are simply... born. Syrie Again, Silence found himself nodding the curly blond head of his host, blinking through jade-colored eyes up at the dragon king and agreeing with what was being said. "I believe you are correct that we become something new altogether now." He didn't have memories of old, merely torturous flash-backs and dreamscapes that haunted both he and his host.
A wave of tiredness hit Endiovar and he sighed again. "Forgive me, Lord Dragon...I am...tired. It wouldn't be too much longer before he would have to retreat and allow the dancer to have his body back. Pity, he happened to be enjoying himself. Sosiqui "Of course. So are we all, so... early." Tian Yue nodded and stood, then slowly bent into a stretch. For a moment his fan-tipped tail waved in the air, the movement a bit absurd on such a noble creature, the pose seemingly stolen from a domestic dog or cat. "If you and your host ever come to the Pantheon, seek out the door with the dragon on a field of stars and it would be my delight to welcome you both." Syrie "Thank you, Worldshield - Tian Yue, it would be an honor." Endiovar had watched the dragon king stretching, cat-like, and been amused -- had he not seen and felt his own host do much the same? The difference being one was dragon and the other human. "But for now, I think...perhaps it is time to return home."
Colin was thrust back into control of his own body with such speed and force that left him unbalanced and slightly out of sorts. "******** -- I hate that." He was tired; drained. But he'd be able to go home once he'd sat and rested a bit. "It was nice to meet you, Tian Yue. I hope I get to see your other face sometime." 'Before I'm gone' he added silently. Sosiqui Tian Yue smiled. "Perhaps. Safe journey to you both." With that, he crouched low and sprang into the air, whipping his long, scaled coils into the sky, towards home.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:35 pm
Whisper of a SongSosiqui After meeting Colin, Tian Yue decided that it might be good to walk for a while - true, one could go far and fast soaring through the skies, but it was also easy to overlook things. Miss things. And that meeting with Colin and Endiovar had been enjoyable... perhaps there were other godlings newly come, wandering and lost. Needing help. Needing... rescue?
Well, maybe not rescue. But guidance.
So he found an excuse. "Toki, which way is this tea shop of yours?" the dragon asked, pausing on a ruined street corner. He was aware that an apparent human and... well, an apparent crazy with bunny ears on... were not terribly imposing, but he was utterly unconcerned about being accosted or ambushed. Starfang was at his side, and if need be he could shift and become very, very dangerous indeed.
The Aoide tugged at one bunny ear. "Where... where... oh! Yes. I remember. I found it just the other day." He beamed.
Tian Yue suppressed the urge to sigh. "Yes, you told me that already.... so where is it?" he prompted again, after the Aoide gave him a confused look.
"Oh!" Goodness, he is having a scatterbrained day, isn't he... "Yes, yes, right!" Toki flapped his wings and flitted up a good ten feet over Tian Yue's head. "Right. It is past the park. A small place! It has been buried behind rubble, but I found it. Me! Toki!" The Aoide smiled broadly and flapped his way towards a clearing ahead... that might have been a park, in a better time. Now it was battered, bruised and wilted.
As Tian Yue followed Toki, he suddenly stopped. Was that... He tilted his head to one side, concentrating. Yes... no, I didn't imagine that! Music... someone is playing music...? "Toki... let's take a detour." The dragon didn't wait for his Aoide's reply, but instead immediately turned his steps to enter the nearest park gate, listening, trying to follow the melody to its creator. Zero Dream What the dragon king was hearing, in fact, was the sound of a violin - and not so far away, at that. Eventually his steps led him to a clearing of sort in the park, where there where seats and a scene of short - in a slightly better shape than the rest of the equipment there, as the scene seemed to have recently received a fresh coat of black paint, which hadn't had time to start chipping under the influence of decay just yet, but it probably wouldn't be long.
And on that scene, there was a figure that the young dragon king might recognize. The goddess played her violin, in front of no crowd but two winged figures further back. The instrument's playing seemed to get a bit... more heavy, with feelings that where not quite allowed to be let out as they where.
Nergal was still gone and missing...
And then, her voice rose. Clear like crystal, deep and powerful, a voice that could almost not be connected to the small form standing in the middle of the scene.
"Wherever you will go, I will find you, I will love you, hopelessly, endlessly, even should this dream end..."
Thankfully, her long coat allowed enough mobility to allow her to play and stay warm at the same time. For the concert, she had went for pretty, and pretty had been a bit chilly - perhaps one of the cause of her tiredness on the days that had followed, and a reminder that she wasn't quite whole yet. Not quite herself, but perhaps she would never be so again. Not after everything she had done and lived in this new life.
If everything was to be different, then why should she be the exception ?
"Even should this dream ends... I will stay behind, for you."
Eventually, she allows the sound of the instrument to die down, staring at the rows of seats for a moment before she sat, her "tail" of string shifting, as if they had a mind of their own, to avoid being sat on. The bow of the violin, as well as the instrument itself, went to rest on her lap, her hand going to a notebook there to write down something - the song was obviously unfinished - before her head tilted to watch her two present aoide - Concerto, while he now allowed himself the luxury of coming back home and staying more often, had again gone to cater to the need of Rio and his daughter. They where both speaking in sign language, possibly squabbling - as if the goddess would not notice ! It brought some some sign of amusement to a face that had been rather blank before. Sosiqui Tian Yue stilled as he realized he was at the edge of the park's amphitheater, and that it wasn't empty. Spellbound, he listened to the song, and after a moment he realized that he knew the player. Echo. No wonder, he thought, with a soft smile. Such a gift, to listen to a song spun by Music herself...
The emotional draw, the feel of the song seemed to go on longer than the actual music itself, and after a thoughtful pause, Tian Yue began to clap, offering a half-bow to the goddess. "Pardon, Lady Echo... I could not help but listen." Zero Dream Echo perked a bit in apparent surprise when she heard a voice she did not instantaneously recognize. He did seem familiar, and he definitively knew of her, but... ? Hm, she could have sworn she had teen those hairs and those glasses somewhere, but...
Ah ! There it was. She gave a soft smile. "Thank you, lord Tien Lung. It is quite an honor to have one of the dragon kings as an audience, I must admit." She slid the violin and the bow back into the base, protecting the instrument as she gave herself a push and allowed herself to land on the ground safely. Sosiqui He was recognized! That was somewhat gratifying, but also reminded him that she didn't know about what had happened, since they had met before the merging... still, he couldn't possibly see Music reacting badly.
I should print out cards with explanations on them, and hand them out. It'd save time.
"It is an honor to listen," Tian Yue replied, pleased, his tail waggling briefly under his robes. "I am called Tien Lung Tian Yue now - the host and god you knew have become one, as you can see. Oh, and this is an Aoide in my service, Toki." He waited for the Aoide to speak, but when no sound came, the Dragon King turned around. "Toki?"
The Aoide was nowhere to be seen, and Tian Yue's brow furrowed. He was sure Toki had followed him... "Where did he get off to?" Zero Dream And, just as the dragon king expected, the goddess did not react badly. After all, if she was to condemn him for it, she might as well do the same for herself, first of all.
"I see. I am pleased to meet you anew then, Lord Tian Yue." It did seem a bit non-similar than what she and Zero had done - especially with something as radical as a new name for the whole. But then, if the dragon wanted to explain, he would do so as he wished - she did not need to bother him with questions.
Perhaps Echo's expression was part of what had clued Tian Yue to turn, an eyebrow raising idly as he mentioned an aoide. A gesture that seemed oddly.. human, on a goddess, as she caught herself wondering if he had an invisible aoidei for a moment and doing her best to repress the amusement that thought had caused. "Should we go look for him, then ? The park is large, and he may have gotten lost, with what is left of the woods." Sosiqui Tian Yue sighed, looking slightly put out - though at Toki, not at Echo herself. "Perhaps it might be wise," he admitted. "Toki can take care of himself, but he's... er, slightly... odd. Slightly off. He was... awake and alive even after the Fading, keeping watch until this day." And that much time could do something to a mind, even to one kept as close to divinity as an Aoide's. "He is an excellent servant, though," he added quickly. "Don't feel obligated to come with me if you'd rather not, though... I don't want to interrupt your practice." Zero Dream "I see..." So devoted... but he had paid the price. "My own sealed themselves in crystals, they told me, triggered to break should I walk the world again. They sealed themselves... in what remained of my temple after my passing." The goddess had a visible shiver. "I... haven't dared to go there. Not yet. Eventually... I will have to. If only to see, and to have a chance to truly understand myself. But not yet. I do not dare yet." In truth, she was... afraid.
"I would be glad to come with you - Even I should do something else, every now and then." The goddess said with a smile. "A little walk would do me some good, my legs are getting cramped from standing so long in one spot." Sosiqui "I would be glad of your company, then," Tian Yue said cheerfully, and offered her a half-bow. "Your Aoide were perhaps less optimistic than Toki was. For better or worse. I've been to a place like a temple, once... somewhere precious to me that lies in ruins now, though not quite as badly as somewhere here might be. Outer space has its own troubles, but it has far fewer lifeforms to rot and chew." Zero Dream "Perhaps they where... But I believe I would have done the same, if I had been in their position." Echo answered, leading the pace toward what was left of the forest that had once surrounded the amphitheater.
"I figure my temple would have been the most precious thing I had... Which is why I feel that I will need to make my way there, eventually. If only... because I can." She nodded to herself. "And to see if anything remains, even after so long. I doubt it, but..." Sosiqui "I would like to restore the Gallery someday... but not for some time. The worlds need restoration before my own concerns." Tian Yue reached up and snapped a brittle branch easily off of a half-dead tree; the leaves crumbled to dust with the movement. He frowned, slightly. "But we won't have to put up with much more of this... not here. Not when I come into my power again. I will protect this place. The return of life will draw mortals and followers, and we will thrive." Zero Dream "I must admit that I will look forward to the day... I will help, as I can. If I can." It almost seemed silly - Music, extending her help to one of the kings ? She could do nothing next to what they were capable of.
"I have been holding small events here - a major concert on Christmas Eve, and I hope to have more to follow. I cannot repair, I cannot protect, but, perhaps... Perhaps I might bring hope, give the mortals the hope and will to live long enough so that your shields will protect them. It is all I can do for now, so I may as well do it... The first one was a success even I hadn't anticipated. Everyone loved it. I saw smiles on their faces, twinkles in their eyes, that I had only seen through eyes not my own." Sosiqui "No, that is something, something very important..." Tian Yue shook his head and let the stick in his hand fall to the ground. "I used to think that the only way to save the world was to do momentous and mighty things, and I made myself very frustrated and feel very worthless when I couldn't do things like that... but someone helped me realize that wasn't what I needed to do." He smiled, and fiddled with the edge of one sleeve. "Anyone can save the world if you look at it in bits. One bit at a time." Zero Dream Save the world, hm ?
"I think you would be better at this whole "saving the world" business than I would, lord. But, I can make them dance, at the very least." There was a smile in her face, until she looked upward with a small frown. That was in situation like this that being gifted with flight might have come in handy... The waves on her back gave a sudden shift as her conscious thoughts shifted to it, but she was, of course, grounded. "I hope he did not go too far..." Sosiqui "A dance is a step. A single moment of joy is a step. Hope is a step... and you can do all that, believe me." Tian Yue followed her gaze upward, then sighed.
"I guess that would be more effective, wouldn't it? One moment." The Dragon King crouched for a moment, then leapt into the air, his robes flapping awkwardly as he flew upwards, gaining height over the treetops. "TOKI! Toki, where the hell are you? Toki!" he yelled, pivoting in mid-air to try and catch a glimpse of the wayward Aoide among the distant trees, or perhaps the streets surrounding the park.
Nothing.
"Damn it, where is he?" Tian Yue grumbled as he descended, heading for the ground.
"Yes?"
Tian Yue jumped upwards several feet and hovered there, whirling. Toki was on the ground a few feet behind Echo, looking up at him with a completely innocent and confused expression.
"How long have you been there?!"
Toki tilted his head to one side. "A few minutes?"
"For the love of-" Tian Yue shook his head and landed next to Echo with a thump. "Toki..."
The Aoide's face took on a look fo distress. "My lord?"
"Nevermind." Tian Yue sighed, resigned. "Toki, this is Lady Echo, Music. Echo, this is Toki."
Toki immediately dropped to one knee in an elaborate bow. "Lady Music! An honor." Zero Dream Well, that hadn't exactly been something Echo was expecting to see, sapphire blue eyes going wide and tailing him as he lifted off.
So he could, in fact, fly without wings. How interesting, and a bit odd, she had to admit. It made a twinge of jealousy rise, but... she shoved that as far back inside herself as she could once the dragon king came back, misplaced aoidei in tow. A glint of amusement danced in her eyes, but she did her best to keep that hidden as well.
....Where those bunny ears ?
"Pleased to meet you, Toki." The goddess said with a smile. Sosiqui "Toki..." Tian Yue hesitated. He wasn't entirely sure the Aoide needed to be involved in the conversation he was having with Echo, but it seemed stupid to send him home after making such a fuss over looking for him. After a moment's thought, the dragon settled on a compromise. "Please go back to the amphitheater and wait for me there. I would talk with Echo a while longer - if she permits, of course," he added, glancing over to her with a questioning smile.
Toki got up from his kneeling position, then bowed. Zero Dream "Of course." The goddess answered, then cast a gentle glance on the pale aoidei. "My own await back there - if they are actually done squabbling among themselves..." The goddess' melodious voice was heavily dipped with amusement. "...And thus should they wonder where I may have gone, do let them know, if you would be so kind, that I have gone on a walk with your lord, and that I am definitively in safe hands ?"
It would do no good to send Tempo's overprotectiveness in overdrive, after all. Sosiqui Toki bowed again. "Of course, my Lady - I will do so at once!" He bowed yet one more time, the bunny ears on his head bobbing up and down, then turned and leapt into the air himself, his wings beating as he zipped back along the path, the way they had come.
Tian Yue sighed and shook his head, though he was smiling. "That's Toki for you. Faithful to the last, even if he isn't all there sometimes... he'll do precisely what you asked. Even if your Aoidei have gone to the edge of the earth, by the stars, he'll find them and inform them! He went six hours away once when I asked for a cup of tea." Zero Dream "Really ?" The goddess rose an eyebrow in surprise. "That is quite particular, I must agree." All that devotion... it was almost scary, in fact.
"Shall we carry on, then ?" She said with a smile. "Now that my own shall not worry about my whereabouts ?" Sosiqui "Of course - I have been too busy with petty troubles lately to really enjoy..." Tian Yue glanced around him at the brittle trees.
Well, at least there are trees. They could be gone, blasted, kindling. "To enjoy what pleasure can be found in this world. Your company included," he added, with a smile. "We divine beings are too hermit-like, it seems." Zero Dream At his last sentence, she couldn't help herself - she laughed, the sound pure, pleasant, and somehow uplifting, like a thousand tiny bells ringing at once.
"So it seems, doesn't it ? Perhaps our greatest flaw." She nodded, slowly, and softly. "I see so little anymore of my own kind... Partly my own fault, I must admit." Sosiqui "It is part of the Age that we are in, I suspect... it makes us disinclined to go and seek out others, perhaps. I know that if I don't pay attention, my Lord's influence can shove at my emotions, turning them down darker paths." He shook his head. "Much of what we see is wrong in us is truly just a sign of the Age." Zero Dream That seemed to have Echo's attention, head tilting to look at the dragon king in a mix of curiosity and thought. "Perhaps..."
...Her own uncertainty... ? No, that seemed too easy of a way out, in all honesty. Way too easy of a way out, she decided.
"It makes sense, that most of us would rather remain in what little we are able to protect." The goddess said with a sigh. Sosiqui "Once my power returns... right now, its area of effect is so small that I don't often erect it, especially since I tend to be within the Pantheon most of the time... and I suspect canceling the influences of other gods randomly would be considered somewhat rude." He made a face. Not that anyone had ever complained, but ever since Illario had reacted so dramatically to the shield, he was somewhat wary of springing it on other living things, let alone gods, without asking them first.
"But when the time comes, I will be able to protect this place. I will be able to fulfill my duty." The thought sent a thrill through him, and his grin to Echo had something wild in it. Something draconic. Zero Dream That did not surprise the goddess to much, and did not really scare her either - that was to be expected, given that Tian Yue was, well, a dragon king. His other form must be quite something to behold, she couldn't help but think. She couldn't help but envy him, a little - so beloved by the lord of all, with such a clean-cut path of action in front of him. Or so it at least seemed.
"I... must admit I am still a bit uncertain of what I need to do. I know what I am doing now, but beyond that... Not so much." Mostly because even herself couldn't even remember what exactly she had been doing before her own demise. Sosiqui "Heh..." Tian Yue glanced down, his smile softening, and kicked at a rock on their path, sending it tumbling into a tree trunk with a solid thunk. "My be-all and end-all right now is waiting for that moment when I can do what I was created to do... after that? I don't know. But does anyone know what to do for all their lives? Even mortals? I know I didn't, when I was Crispin." He made a face. "It's not a failing, I don't think." Zero Dream "Of course not." After all, who the hell could know everything ? Beside Fate...
"I just think it would be easier if I even knew who I was. I don't. But then... it would be useless, because I am not the same." The goddess looked pensive as she walked. "Even without my host, I wouldn't be exactly the same, I think."
It was so very easy to talk about something that was usually kind of hard to talk about, to an ear that had gone even deeper than she had. "Zero had no plans beside vague ones, and she couldn't have cared less. I wish she could have taught me that..." Sosiqui "I certainly don't think it's easier... but then, I've never been anything... well." Tian Yue made a confused gesture. "In a sense I've been both a Dragon King and a human, but in another sense I've never been anything but me, right now. It doesn't help that both dragon and human memories don't feel like mine anymore, not entirely... no. I have enough to give me guidance and sometimes make me hurt..." His smile took on an ironic cast for a moment. "But we are all changed. I know how someone who was not me would interact with someone who is no longer who they were. That's about as useful as a broken compass. We have to forge something new... I don't know. I guess, once I got it out of my system... it started to be almost exciting. We have more freedom than anything has since the First Days." Zero Dream "That must be quite confusing indeed." Echo answered, her tone sympathetic, but not pitying. At least what little shards she could recall she could identify as hers. Her host's memories she had discarded, sent to the void - mostly out of respect of the teenager's privacy. Maybe that didn't matter, but it had made the goddess somehow feel better about what she had to do.
"My flashes of clarity, sound and images, are few and far in between - I remember emotions much vividly. Voices rather than faces, I remember in Song and Music rather than shapes and brings." It almost made her wonder if, somehow, it was how she simply stored things in her memory. "I, also, remember enough to hurt." Her smile took a sad undertone.
Kore...
"...Enough to make me hurt even if sometimes there isn't really a reason for me to feel this way, but I figure this is who I am." She shrugged, sending the layers of clothes that formed her sleeves in motion.
"I might agree, if I had been there to see the truly first days. I know myself young, as far as deities go." Sosiqui "I didn't see them either - not me, not my predecessor either. Dragon Kings are young as well, really. The... Thirteenth Age, if the books I read in the library were correct... but that doesn't matter."
He paused. "I know what you mean, though. I can make plans and feel as gung-ho as I like, but the moment I think about actually carrying some of them out, I freeze - because I don't know what to do, and it almost seems better to not know and not do, then to try and fail..." Zero Dream It was almost odd, to think of how both Tian Yue and herself where similar, in despite being also completely different.
"Even with a book, I wouldn't be able to tell you. But then, this isn't exactly the most important thing of my past that I wish I could recall."
Then she smiled, almost amused. "Three days before the concert, I was so scared. If I had been a cat, I would have clawed my way to the celling and never let go. Such unfitting of a goddess, really." She said with a touch of playful sarcasm. "You could say I am also familiar with this "Make plans, then wish you could dig yourself a hole and stay there" business." Sosiqui "But it went well, didn't it? I can feel the slightest touch of your power around this place." Tian Yue stopped walking and tilted his head up, looking at the trees as they dangled brittle needles at him. "An... echo, if you would... oh, stars, I'm sorry. That was a horrible, horrible pun." Zero Dream Echo was silent for a moment, blinking... then she laughed again, that pure laugh. "Oh, that indeed did work out well in the end. I had nothing to worry about, but I tend to worry about everything and anything. Ill forgive you, even if that pun was indeed quite horrible." horrible... horrible...
There was a playful short of smirk on the goddess' face, visibly proud of herself. "I was wondering if I could still do that." Sosiqui Tian Yue visible paused at the echoes, then began to laugh. "And you are at least as horrible as I am - and a sight more clever." Zero Dream "Ill take that as a compliment." Sapphire eyes seemed to almost glow with her whole amusement at the whole thing. The goddess was clearly happier than she had been in quite awhile. "You are such pleasant company, you realize that, yes ?" Sosiqui "Am I?" Tian Yue looked surprised for a moment, then grinned. "I only echo your own pleasantness." He took one step back away from her, impish. Zero Dream Ohhhh, reaaallllyyyyy....
Echo pondered her next move, equally impish and clearing her throat before speaking. "You're so naughty, lord Tian Yue, perhaps ill have to echo you instead ?"
The shift was slow, deliberate, and quite controlled - and awfully close, but no cigar. His voice was a bit too masculine for her to pull it's tone perfectly, being a woman and all, but she'd come close enough to be boggling. "As you can see, I am not a one-trick pony." She said with a grin. Sosiqui Tian Yue actually jumped as her voice flowed into a passable imitation of his own. "Hmph... so you're not," he said, with a bow. "Since I'd rather not ruin the robes I'm wearing, perhaps I should call myself bested... unless you want to turn around." He clasped his hands behind his back and shifted back and forth, his tail wagging lightly at the tip. Zero Dream Echo rose an eyebrow, amused expression still intact. "Only if you promise not to do anything funny while I'm not looking." She said in a sing-song voice, but played along and flipped around, staring at a tree like a good little girl, the strings of her tail waving along with the slight breeze. Sosiqui "I won't do anything weird," Tian Yue promised, then grinned as she turned around. It's not weird. It's quite natural - for me, anyway. He quickly untied his robes and let them fall, then shifted into his dragon shape, moving as quietly as he could and holding his tail up so he wouldn't make any telltale noises that would indicate the shift to Echo's ears.
He tip-toed (inasmuch as a dragon can) up behind Echo, then sat up in his best 'looming' pose.
"Boo." The word was said quietly, almost laughingly. Zero Dream It was a good thing that he couldn't see her face - or how her ear twitched as she heard the robe fall down. Honestly, he was quite lucky that Echo wasn't that evil. But she remained still, like a good little girl, trying to contain her laugher when she heard him attempt to stealth about, her mental image of the whole quite hilarious, until he finally spoke and she peered aside to catch a glance without turning.
"That should be considered cheating." She said with a mock-pout, trying to look as serious as possible, but falling. Very badly. Sosiqui "But it isn't, I assure you," Tian Yue rumbled, amused. He shifted to give her more personal space, then laid down, his ears perked. "It seems we've walked quite far, Lady Echo. Could I offer you a lift back to your Aoidei?" Zero Dream "I don't quite have anything to counter that, so I shall admit myself bested." Then, her face turned from amused to a look of almost child-like wonder. "You would ? Really ?"
This was exciting. She had only flown once, with Beryl. But that had been Zero, not her. Sosiqui "Unlike my brother Zhijian, who is sworn to bear only the Twin Crown, I can carry who I like, where I like," Tian Yue said, with a toothy draconic grin. "The best place to sit is just above my forelegs, with your legs in front of mine - or so Morgan tells me." Zero Dream "Morgan ? You know her ? How is she ?" Echo couldn't quite stop the influx of question that assaulted her mind. She'd only met the girl and her goddess once, offered them shelter, and they where gone early the next day, yet she still found herself worrying a bit.
She hesitated for a moment, but moved to go and sit, positioning herself as well as she could with her skirt being in the way and all. Sosiqui "You could say that," Tian Yue said, with an amused snort. "Morgan is my lover. And she's doing well... the goddess grows stronger, but they are together, not fighting within. A good thing." He could never have borne it if Tien had ended up being like Phaedra.
He quieted as Echo seated herself, then stood up slowly, careful not to startle her. "Are you seated well?" he asked, shifting from side to side a little bit on the ground, getting the feel of her weight and the way she moved. Zero Dream "I am glad to hear that. Oh, a woman of taste then." Echo said with a playful smirk.
Her grip lightened lightly when he stood, but the goddess remained calm, confident. Tian Yue would not drop her. "I think so... Am I hindering your movements ?" Echo had a bit of experience with riding, but that was with Aria, not... well... a dragon. A dragon of her own kind. Sosiqui "No..." He shifted his weight again. "It's fine. Hold tight to my mane!" Tian Yue lifted his head and roared playfully at the sky, then crouched and leapt up into the air, his tail lashing up a small flurry of fallen needles from the ground. Within moments they were high above the trees. Zero Dream And Echo clung on the best she could, mindful to not pull on his mane too much.
But she had to admit... it was amazing - completely unlike anything she had ever felt before. With Beryl it hadn't been the same - mostly because Zero had been the one to truly experience it.
But now ? It was her moment, and she enjoyed every second of it. Sosiqui Tian Yue rumbled, pleased at the goddess' reaction - the view could be depressing to some, seeing as it allowed only a fuller understanding of the extent of the destruction around them, but flight itself remained a simple joy.
He did not disturb the silence with words; instead, he turned and coiled lightly towards the amphitheater below. It was not very far at all, but he circled around a bit more than was really needed. Just to make it last longer. Zero Dream Likewise, Echo did not dare speak, afraid to break the moment if she did. The only sound was a soft hum of her wings, which circled in trails in between goddess and dragon. The view was a bit depressing of course, but it was easy to overlook in light of experiencing something truly new.
Another thing surprised her, and that was just how soft Tian Yue's scales where. She hadn't ever touched scales before, and wasn't quite sure what she had expected them to feel like, but it wasn't quite like this. Sosiqui Quietly, then, Tian Yue gently spiraled downward into the open clearing that held the amphitheater. He landed as softly as he could on the clear space between the front row of benches and the stage, then lay down on the ground to allow Echo to dismount easily. "And here you are, Lady Music. Was it to your liking?" he rumbled, flicking one ear back in her direction, amused. Zero Dream The goddess let herself slide off the dragon's scaled back, and allowed herself a gentle rub along his neck. "That was even better than I had expected." She answered, all smiles. "Thank you." Sosiqui "You are quite welcome - ah," Tian Yue raised his head and stood up as Toki scurried towards them.
"My lord! Oh - I was worried when I saw you in scales. Did something happen?" The Aoide looked flustered, then blushed when Tian Yue threw back his head and laughed.
"No, you silly creature - I was simply giving the Lady Echo a ride back. I could hardly do that in my other shape, could I? Well..." He glanced over at her. "I could, but it would lack grandeur and majesty... and dignity..." Zero Dream "And I would probably have been a bit heavy for your lord to carry me at arm's length." Echo said with a wink, head tilting as she noticed her own aoidei peering from the back. "Ah, done bickering I see ?"
The look on Alto and Tempo's face, as well as their blush, was well worth it, and Echo laughed. Sosiqui "I thank you, Lady Echo," Toki said, bowing low to the goddess. "I do not often get to talk with other Aoidei." He glanced over at Alto and Tempo, then waved one hand shyly at them.
Tian Yue laughed again. "Did you have a good time?" Sometimes his Aoide was so childlike... it was strange, yes, but also a bit endearing. Zero Dream "That is no problem at all - I am sure they where quite honored themselves." The aoidei echoed the goddess' words with a nod, and Alto waved back with a grin.
...A grin which made Echo wonder just -what- they had been talking about... but nevermind that. Sosiqui "Well, then." Tian Yue shifted a bit, then held out the bundle of robes he held in one foreclaw to Toki, who took them and carefully refolded them to be neater before hugging them to his own chest. "We should probably continue on our errand before it gets much later - but if you should be in the Pantheon again, Echo, you and yours are more than welcome to come and visit. In fact, I would be rather put out if you didn't! Toki too."
Toki's eyes grew bright at the thought of having visitors of his very own. Zero Dream "We should probably do the same as well, shouldn't we ?" Echo sent a glance to the two aoidei, and they leapt off the scene to get closer. "And ill have to do that. Feel free to think up some cruel and unusual punishment if I skip it... ...is that what they say ?" She said with a grin.
"We'll see you soon then." Echo said with a smile.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:36 pm
One Last GameSosiqui Tian Yue hummed to himself under his breath as he searched around under his bed, his tail waggling comically; if anyone had been in the room to see the dragon tail protruding out from beneath the dangling bedcovers, they would have been hard pressed to realize that the being currently rooting among dustbunnies and boxes was really the Dragon King Tien Lung.
Aha! "Ow!" Tian Yue winced as he banged his head on the underside of the bed, but he had his prize - his bag of dice and character sheets. They'd been shoved under here at some point. He wasn't exactly sure when...
Probably when I decided being a god meant I had to be Serious. He made a face and squirmed out from under the bed, brushing the dust away from his clothes. He was still wearing robes, but these were much simpler than his elaborate court hanfu. But enough of that. More than enough of that.
Tian Yue gathered up the dice and papers, then headed for Morgan's room. He tapped on the door, hoping she was in - her time wasn't entirely her own after all, not anymore. "Morgan? Are you in, love?" He grinned, wondering what she'd think about what he'd brought. It had been quite a while. mistalina13 More than one voice could be heard from the opposite side of the door. A moment or two later the door to Morgan's room opened and Asherah slipped out and bowed politely to Tian Yue before disappearing out the door to the pantheon corridor. "Come in, love." The voice he heard through the open door was Morgan's. She got up from her desk chair and stepped into the light of the doorway. "Greetings, Worldshield."She took a half step back and motioned for him to come in. Sosiqui Tian Yue nodded to Asherah as she passed him, still faintly startled by the other Aoide's similarity to Nebula - but that was another thought to stomp on. Wherever Nebula had gone, her welfare was no longer his business, and it did him no good to worry.
Fortunately, Morgan was a very good distraction. "Good morning - and to you as well, Tien," he added, walking over to the desk and putting the papers down there. "Both still doing well, I hope?" mistalina13 "Mhm." Morgan closed the door and followed him back into the room, embracing him after he dropped the papers onto the desk. "Mmm...I missed you." She nuzzled against his shoulder. What did he bring with him?Hm? She pulled away from the Dragon slightly and looked back over your shoulder. "Character sheets...and your dice." A little smile. "Did you want to play?" Sosiqui "No, I thought we'd do a bit of origami." Tian Yue grinned, then reached out and ruffled her hair lightly. "Of course! We haven't gamed for a while, and well... there's more important things than trying to manage what can't be managed, and fret over things that worrying won't fix." He made a self-depreciating face. "Help me remember?" he added, impish. The Dragon was definitely in a playful mood. "Tien, if you'd like to play, I would love to have you join the game. It's a simple diversion, but fun, and you might enjoy it." mistalina13 "Sure." Morgan reached up and stroked his cheek. "She'll probably take you up on that, she's been asking enough about it." She laughed a little. "I'll join you.""It's settled then, where did you want to play?" She smiled softly. Sosiqui "How about the living room? It's a bit more spacious, and we can use the table... and I can make Toki attend us. Remember that one time when he went to get us drinks, and he didn't come back for hours." Tian Yue laughed, but there was a soft warmth to his smile and a flush of pink in his cheeks. That had been the day they'd first kissed. Fallen in love. So many things. mistalina13 "Yes, I remember." Morgan blushed too. It was a treasured memory for her. "I'll get my notes and we'll be ready to go." She gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Could you go get the table and chairs arranged, love?" As she looked up into the Dragon's eyes she felt a wave of sadness, maybe even with a hint of guilt, though it was not her feeling. I am sorry, for what's been done.I appreciate it, though nothing can be changed now. She smiled up at Tian Yue again, more reassurance for herself that she was alright then for him. Sosiqui "Oh, sure thing." Tian Yue gathered the gaming supplies back up and, giving Morgan a grin, scurried back to his own chambers. He deposited the papers on the coffee table and tugged an armchair over so that it faced the couch on the other side of the table. Perfect.
He had needed this, he realized. Finding Beryl's gentle advice was an excellent tonic for his divine self, but his still-human nature needed more than just ambrosia. Forget high and mighty notions of divinity. If I can't remember things like this... He shook his head. Then I won't be me anymore. Whatever me I have become. mistalina13 The Trickster's presence felt closer then it had ever been. The shadow the goddess had been in her dreams had recently flooded with color offering a muddled hint of her appearance. More of her memories had resurfaced as well, though not quite complete. He's waiting for you...remember?Ah...yeah. Morgan shook her head and grabbed a shoulder strap of her backpack, slinging it someone ungracefully over her shoulder. "Now where are...oh yeah." She pulled open a desk drawer and rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a large dice bag. That's everything...isn't it?Yeah.She left her room, pulling the door shut behind her, and headed to the common room where Tian Yue waited for her. "So, did you want the chair or the couch, Love?" Sosiqui "Oh, either is fine with me... hmmm." Tian Yue was shuffling through the character sheets, brow furrowed in thought. Then he looked sheepishly up at Morgan. "I don't know if this is telling or not, but... I'd rather play the character Shaiming rolled. Ting, that human mage... is that strange?" He gave her a wry smile. mistalina13 "No...it's not strange at all." Morgan smiled and slid the strap of her backpack off her shoulder, leaning over to set it down on the floor. A slight, almost dizzy, sensation caught up with her when she righted herself and she nearly stumbled as she went to put the tackle box down. Must've gotten up too fast.Sosiqui "Funny how things work..." He missed seeing Morgan totter, so absorbed was he in reading over Ting's character sheet. "What about Tien? A rogue as well, I assume?"
Tian Yue smiled, amused at the thought. Tien was curious too. Maybe Gianfar would like it - it was so full of rules and lore and bestiaries and all manner of minutiae that Knowledge might well be fascinated by the game. Perhaps... perhaps they could even get up a little gaming group! In the Pantheon....? Well, it might ease tensions to be allowed to smite pretend mortals instead of being tempted to go for the real thing...
Surely everyone couldn't be serious every minute. There had to be some room for just being. mistalina13 "Perhaps...but, that's like being myself..."Morgan settled herself on the couch and began shuffling through papers, trying to convince herself that the dizzy sensation she felt a moment ago was nothing. "Try something different then?" She pulled out her own character sheets as well as a blank one. Once the characters were decided she would choose a campaign. "Hn...what would you recommend, Dragon?" Sosiqui "Hmm... I understand what you mean. I- er, Shaiming - came up with the character I'm going to use. A human, something different for him." Tian Yue's smile was a little bit sad for just a moment, remembering. He would have loved this. "I'm not really sure why he picked a mage, but... well, there are lots of choices. I guess it's a chance to behave like something different from what you really are..."
Maybe that's her job, though. Trickery. Maybe she does that all the time... He wasn't sure. "How about you, Morgan? Are you going to GM today?"
Oh, stars, she's got the goddess of Trickery in her head.
We're all going to die of horrible, horrible traps. mistalina13 "Perhaps a bard, but I'll think about it."I can if you wish, Love, unless you would like to try your hand at it?" Morgan smiled softly and rolled her eyes as Tien rummaged around in her memories for descriptions of the classes. Shall I get the book for you, to make it easier?That would be most helpful.She giggled and pulled out the Player's Guide. "It seems she can't make up her mind." Sosiqui "I'll leave it to you - you have a sneakier mind, and with Tien's help... I fear for Ting's life, I really do." Tian Yue grinned, impishly. "Then again, Tien will be on my team..." mistalina13 "Alright then...." Morgan giggled. "...though you do not know if she will be help or hindrance." "A Bard, I think."A small dizzy sensation came over the nerdling and she snapped the player's guide shut. "It's settled then. Now to find a suitable game." She closed her eyes, shaking her head gently in the hopes of ridding herself of the dizziness. Sosiqui Tian Yue noticed that time; he tilted his head at her, curious. "Are you okay? Need some coffee or something?"
"A bard, huh. Bard and a wizard... let's hope we don't have to come down to a muscle vs. muscle fight, or we'll be doomed! Still, wits will out... with any luck..." He picked up his dice bag and opened it, peering inside at the polyhedrons within. "Behave, you lot." mistalina13 "I'm alright..." Morgan nodded and adjusted her glasses. "I think I have a game that will work...." She smiled softly. "Bards have ways to protect themselves...and others. More than you might realize." "Asking dice to behave? You might as well try to collar Chance herself." An impish playful laugh came from Morgan's lips, but it was definitely not her own.Unlike before Morgan did not seem startled when Tien spoke or did things through her. She simply smiled again. "How does an escort mission sound?" Sosiqui "Oh, you'd be surprised, my Lady Trickster - with all the importance and superstition surrounding dice, I wouldn't be at all shocked to find that we have a God of the d20 somewhere in our Pantheon." He grinned and tipped his dice out of the bag, into his hand. "An escort mission would be fine, provided the person we're escorting isn't some insipid creature who can't take care of herself..." Tian Yue made a face. "I had enough of that with video games back on Earth, thank you." mistalina13 "I learned a little of it from Morgan..."It was Morgan who laughed this time. "I assure you, it's not." She retrieved her own dice pouch from the backpack and emptied them carefully onto the table, peering at the numbers that came up. "They are angry with me...I think." The nerdling wrinkled her nose. "Oh yes, are we playing this round with miniatures or just maps?" Sosiqui "Angry dice, hmm? That could be good for us... but if Tien's using your dice, hmm. I wonder if they'll know who is who?" Tian Yue peered curiously at the dice. He didn't quite remember if Crispin's dice had seemed different when he was rolling for both himself and Shaiming.
For that matter, would they 'know' that he was a different person now? Sort of?
"Hmm... maybe just maps. Less complicated for the newbie." He grinned at Morgan, though the sly look was solely for Tien. mistalina13 "True." Morgan smiled softly and reached down to push her miniatures tackle box out of the way. "Take a couple of minutes to look over your sheet and pick which spells you would like to prepare; I have to help Tien get her character sheet filled in, alright?" She picked four three of the d6's and let them fall onto the table. The dice were slightly kinder to Trickery, but the rolls didn't come out great. The nerdling sighed softly and scribbled the numbers down on paper. Sosiqui Tian Yue made a face at the dice rolls; not quite as good as they could be, not for his future companion-in-arms. He forced himself to look at his character sheet, not at the dice, and after a moment began marking with his pencil to remind himself what spells he had chosen for that 'day'.
"Okay," he said when he was finished. "I'm ready, I think." He held up the character sheet so that Morgan could see as well. "How fares the bard?" mistalina13 "Not much use for heavy labor...but good at what she does." Morgan nodded and tried not to frown at the sheet. Angry...angry dice. "Strength...11....Dexterity....13....Constitution....13.... Intelligence....14....Wisdom....15....Charisma...16." She glanced over Tian Yue's sheet as well and nodded. "Looks fine to me..." Not everyone can be perfect...even in games...I know...She set the character sheet for Tien's bard on the table and picked up her notes. "Time to begin." Sosiqui Tian Yue nodded, retrieving his character sheet and pouring the rest of dice out of his hand and onto the table with a soft clatter. "So where are we adventuring today, oh Master of Games?" He grinned. It really had been too long since they'd last done this. mistalina13 "Since your last mission to retrieve the pendant, you've attained a sort of fame among the magical community. The pendant you retrieved was an ancient relic, containing powerful spells that wizards of this age have only read about." Morgan paused for a moment, glancing down at her notes again. "But it seems this pendant also contained a great evil, that is now loose in the world. This time, it is your job to escort the High Sorceress as she travels to the source of the evil now contained the Wizarding Academy's walls, to destroy it." Hn...why a bard and a mage for that job."You two were chosen for this mission because you blend in with her traveling entourage. Any other questions?" Sosiqui "Pendants. It's always pendants, honestly." Tian Yue grinned. "Someday, someone should write in a mystical toe ring or something... anyway. What kind of terrain are we covering? What's the details of the mission?" mistalina13 "The terrain is mostly what you would expect: very hilly, with roads and forests dotting it. Though, the school itself is actually in a peculiar place. It's on an island in the middle of a large lake. So, time on a ship will be required to reach it." Morgan glanced down at her notes before picking up the dice to roll again, cringing a little at the result. "According to the seer traveling with you, there will stormy weather a fair portion of your journey. Good for the crops, not so good for you as you will not be able to make so much progress on those days." Tien listened attentively, doing her best not to snoop through her host's thoughts for clues about the game.Sosiqui "Duly noted. Okay... let's get going, then. Dare I assume our employer has provided adequate supplies, in the interest of brevity? If not, let's take care of that first... if so... then let us proceed, hm." Tian Yue peered at the character sheet. Maybe playing Ting wasn't the wisest course of action, tactically speaking, but he'd made his choice and it would have to do. mistalina13 "Basic supplies and mounts are provided. However, any special supplies you need, like material spell components, are not provided for you. Most are easily required on your way out of town, bear in mind if this mission lasts too long and you run out of components you cannot use some of your spells." Morgan skimmed her notes. Rarely, most simply use your voice or your instrument.No, just your voice and your instrument.Very well then."There are other hirelings, mercenaries, among the entourage as well. So you are not alone in this mission, however they do not know all of the details. They are clothed as servants. Keep an eye on them, in case one double crosses." She rolled the dice onto the table again, glancing at the numbers. "After a couple of hours, the caravan is ready to leave..." Sosiqui "Okay, let's get this show on the road, then." Tian Yue picked up his d20 and rolled it absently around in one hand. "Ting takes a position near the front of the caravan - not in the very very front of course, let's put some people with swords between the mage and anyone looking to stick sharp objects in him - but enough so that he can watch the road ahead and keep a subtle eye on said people with swords." mistalina13 "Karin takes a position near the High Sorceress, strumming her lute idly as she rides."Morgan suddenly felt distant and dizzy as Tien spoke. The feeling only came closer, crashing over her like a wave hitting shore as she came back to awareness. The nerdling closed her eyes and took a deep breath, in attempt to steady herself before reaching for the dice again. Her hand shook as she dropped the dice on the table. They all came up ones. Uh oh. Sosiqui Tian Yue winced. "Ouch... I don't think I've ever seen a roll that bad bef- Morgan!" He jumped up and darted to her side of the table, then knelt next to her chair. "Love, you're shaking..." He reached up and cupped her trembling hand in his. "What's wrong?!" mistalina13 It's time, little Morgan."Dizzy...and sick." Morgan squeezed his hand. "Tien says it's time. I'm scared." Her voice was quiet and uneasy. "I need to lay down...help me to the couch?" She let go of his hand and forced herself to her feet and managed a few uneasy steps before collapsing on the floor. Sosiqui "Tien says- time..." Tian Yue's voice trailed off, and he made a small, distressed sound as she staggered away from him only to collapse on the floor. "Morgan! Oh, love..."
He lifted her up gently - much easier to do now, as the Dragon King, than it had been for Crispin - and carried her in to his bedroom. If the changes for her would be anything like his own had been... the couch might be insufficient, and she might fall off. The bed would be better. He thought all of this distantly, as if it was someone else entirely who was here, carrying Morgan, thinking clinically about how best to care for her as she...
Died?
No. Tian Yue laid her carefully down on the bed, then knelt at the side, reached up one hand to brush her hair away from her face. For a long moment he remained there, silent, watching her breathe, memorizing the soft shape of her features.
He'd known this was coming for months now. Why was it so hard? But if it had been easy...
Then I wouldn't be... me. I wouldn't be the Tien Lung that Shaiming wanted me to be.
He took a deep, shuddering breath, then reached up and took one limp hand in his, squeezing tightly. "I love you," he said, quietly.
Then Tian Yue made himself let go, made himself go and sit on a chair, though he couldn't quite bring himself to leave the room entirely. Only then, when he was seated, did he let himself cry.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:37 pm
Welcome the Trickstermistalina13 For her the transformation seemed to take hours, when in reality it took only a few minutes. The flesh on her back bubbled slightly; then a somewhat sickening pop and ripping of fabric followed as small pixie wings emerged. She clutched at the pillows and whined, vaguely aware of the pain but still sleeping for the moment. Streaks of deep orange ran through Morgan's familiar dark brown hair until it had changed totally. Her ears grew, shifting to acquire elvish points and few almost sickening bone shifting noises would reach the Dragon's ears as the rest of her body was forced to mature.
Tien stirred finally, once it had been silent for a few moments. She sat up and looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers and moving to make sure it wasn't a dream. She was here and her host was gone, mostly. The sound of crying drew her from her thoughts and her gaze flicked to the source at the side of the room. "Tian Yue..." Her voice was soft and gentle. Sosiqui Tian Yue had started from his chair when the change began, almost involuntarily - but he made himself sit down again. There was nothing further he could do that would make the morph of mortal to godling any easier. Instead, he tried not to look. It seemed a private, sacred sort of thing; even hearing the soft pops and cracks made him feel like an eavesdropper, even as he cringed. That couldn't be comfortable. His tail lashed, once, remembering how it had hurt when he himself became Tian Yue.
There was a sound behind him, and he turned to see Toki standing in the doorway, his hands clapped over his mouth. "My Lord..."
"Tien is coming," Tian Yue said, quietly, and tried to stuff the sobs away; he didn't entirely succeed. "Please bring an ewer of water-" he snuck a glance at the figure on the bed and winced. Wings - ouch. "And a soft cloth. Then go. Seek out Asherah and tell her that her mistress has been reborn in truth, if you can find her."
"Yes, my Lord." Toki whispered, then darted into the bathroom. A moment later there was a bowl of water and a towel on the nightstand; another moment and the Aoide was gone. Tian Yue took a deep breath, then let it out. Treacherously, a few last sobs came with it."Tian Yue..."He jumped, then got up, slowly. The voice was not Morgan's. Not anymore. "Tien. How do you feel?" He tried again to shove away the twist in his stomach. The newly reborn godling did not deserve to have her rebirth marred by his pain. I know what it is to have someone see your face and wish you were someone else...
Only too well. No, he would not wish that on Tien. She had been kind; she had done everything she could for Morgan. He walked over to the side of the bed and dipped the towel gently in the water. "I have sent Toki for Asherah." mistalina13 "He might have a time finding her...she has errands to attend to." Tien layed back against the pillows, wincing at the sensitivity of her wings. "Odd...but more alive." She looked over at the Dragon, offering a sad smile. "I thank you, for your kindness." Out of instinct she reached out to touch his hand. "I can give you a chance to talk to her...if you wish..." To say goodbye. It was all she was could offer, in hopes of soothing his sadness. Sosiqui "Here - for your wings." Tian Yue held out the damp cloth to her, then paused. "I could... could talk to her again? Just for a moment?" His voice was quiet, trembling. "I do not begrudge your rebirth in the least, but a chance to say goodbye... if you would allow it, it would be a great gift." His heart was beating hard.
He could say goodbye.
She had gone through this, too. He knew he was not the same as the young man she had fallen in love with. She had been strong - yet he had not been able to offer that gift to her.
"Please," he said, barely audible. mistalina13 Tien reached back and brushed the damp cloth against her wings gently, down onto her back to where her wings sprouted. "Very well." She smiled softly and let her head lull back, eyes closing."Love...?" Morgan shifted awkwardly, surprised she still had any control of her former body. She reached out, brushing her hand against his cheek. "Are you...going to be okay?" Sosiqui "Morgan..." Tian Yue held one hand out; trailed his fingers gently down the curve of her - Tien's - cheek. "Don't worry about me... I will..." He had to stop for a moment. "I will be fine, love. In time. I knew this would happen... I knew..."
One way or another, she would have been lost; if not this way, to a deity, then to simple mortality as the immortal Dragon King outlived his human lover. He swatted away the distant whispers in his mind that spoke of years stolen away by Tien; they were wrong. He would not travel down that path. And perhaps... perhaps this was better. In a way.
If it had to be.
"I will miss you terribly," Tian Yue whispered, "but you - you and Tien - you are a beautiful goddess..." mistalina13 "I love you and I will always be with you....here." Morgan put a hand over his heart and blushed faintly at the compliment. "I don't regret the day I fell into this world, because it brought me to you and I don't regret a thing since then." She leaned a little further and pressed her lips to his, one last time. Sosiqui "I love you too... always..." Tian Yue whispered, then stilled as her lips touched his. He shifted and gathered her into his arms, holding her tightly as they kissed - hard. Desperate.
Last.
Goodbye, love... mistalina13 She hugged him back tightly for a moment, then her embrace weakened and her head lulled against his shoulder for a moment. "I'm sorry, Tian Yue." Tien whispered and drew away from him, fresh tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry." She covered her face with her hands, trying to keep more tears from coming. What's done was done and couldn't be changed.Sosiqui Tian Yue stilled as he felt the shift, then gently let Tien fall back to rest against the pillows, fighting to keep his own tears in.
So. That was it.
In one sense, it was almost a relief - the thing he'd been dreading, that had been lurking on the edges of his thoughts for months - had happened. It was over. In another...
Of course it hurts. It's supposed to.
"Tien - no. No. Don't apologize... if it hadn't been for your call, I probably would have never met her in the first place! And for that, I have to thank you. I really, really do - a little time is far better than never knowing-" He smiled at her, then cursed inwardly as a treacherous tear snaked its way down his cheek again. "It's not your fault for doing precisely what every other reborn deity has done... it's not. Your life has begun again, now - go and live it! Flourish! Do... whatever it is that you do... I don't really know. But don't waste what she gave for you!" He was crying entirely now, talking through the haze of tears, but meaning every word of it. A strange blend of encouragement and tragedy. mistalina13 Tien scooted on the bed toward him and reached out to brush the tears from his cheeks. "I will take nothing for granted, you can be sure of that...and I will always be there for you, should you need anything." She smiled weakly and ran her fingers through his hair. You're such a gentle soul, I can understand why she loves you.
"Though, could I ask you for one small favor?" Sosiqui "Thank you." He reached for the towel Toki had brought and used it to wipe at his face as well. "I'm sorry for the display - it is... difficult, but I knew it would be." Maybe later he would cry some more. Probably. But not now. He was a Dragon King; it was time to be one, and be... human... later.
"What would that be?" He gave her a curious look. "If it's about the room, you can stay until Lord Harmodius grants you your own chambers or you find lodging elsewhere... oh, and you should take Paint with you, the little Akuti..." Practical matters! They were so... soothing, such a nice distraction from the ache in his stomach; maybe that was another reason why Shaiming had been so prone to tangle himself up in them, especially... later on. mistalina13 Tien nodded. "Oh...I need your help cutting this...my..hair." She had a hard time saying 'my', it was odd after so long with no body. The Trickster offered a small sheepish smile. "Thank you, Tian Yue." Sosiqui "Your hair? Oh... yes, of course." Part of him wondered why him, why not wait for Asherah - but she had asked him, specifically. "Scissors, er... I believe there are some in the desk..." He stood up and walked out of the room for a moment. The sound of drawers opening and objects being shuffled came from the outer chamber for a moment before the Dragon King returned, a pair of scissors in one hand. "I'm afraid they're not proper... styling... haircut... uh.... scissors." What did he know about beauty salons? Nothing. mistalina13 As the Trickster waited she twined her hair into a braid, to make it easier for the Dragon to cut. "That's alright." Her hair was braided loosely and she held the top so Tian Yue would have an easier job of cutting it. She smiled softly at him as he returned with the scissors. "Right above my fingers seems a good spot." Sosiqui "Okay." Tian Yue lifted the braid in his free hand, and for a moment was struck by the scent of it - still Morgan, still. Just for now. He carefully moved the scissors past Tien's own fingers, then cut.
Snick.
"There you are," he said, quietly. It helped, somehow. Made her look less like Morgan, but some of the now loose hair came away in his hand, and he held it uncertain of what to do. mistalina13 Once the braid was cut it faded back to a rich brown, the color of Morgan's hair. She sighed, this must be more salt in the wound for the Dragon; to have her scent linger and no longer be attached to her. "Thank you." Her gaze darted away and she fiddled with the ends of her now short hair. Sosiqui "Of course," Tian Yue said, then looked down at the hair in his hand. "Er... would you mind if I... kept a lock of this? As a memento...?" mistalina13 "I thought you might want to, it does not bother me. Her books and dice are yours as well, you would make better use of them than I could. Though, I would not mind playing from time to time." Tien offered a weak, if sympathetic smile.
I wish I could say time would heal this, but he seems as much a human still as he is a god...humans take longer to heal. Sosiqui "Oh... thank you," Tian Yue said, offering her a quiet smile. He wasn't really prepared to think about that, to divvy things up, but... it was something else that needed doing, wasn't it? "I'll have Toki come and pick up anything you'd like him to. Later, when he comes back..." He made a face. "You said Asherah was far away? He may not come back for a while."
He paused, then. "Is there anything else you need? Will you be staying here long, or do you have another home in mind?" mistalina13 "I don't think she would've gone too far, but she is quick and well practiced at disappearing." Tien bit her lip. She hadn't exactly thought of a place to stay, had she? "I admit, I did not plan this far ahead. I can go and easily find a place, I do not wish to be an inconvenience." Sosiqui "Oh, no, it's not inconvenient at all - you can stay as long as you like." I'll just need to remind myself that it's not Morgan there anymore, and that delivered another little twist to his stomach, but he made himself ignore it. "So long as you don't set traps in the hallways," he added, his face taking on a momentary impish expression. mistalina13 Tien couldn't help but laugh at that. "Only in my own abode would I do such a thing." Though she was tempted to play a few tricks on Toki before she left the Dragon's quarters. "It's settled then, I'll stay here for a time but venture out and see what I can to find my own lodging." Sosiqui "Hmm, remind me to be careful if I ever visit you in your own dwelling, then." Tian Yue stood up, then picked up the damp towel. "Is there anything else you need for right now? I can help you back to Mor- to your room if you feel strong enough." mistalina13 "I teach friends the way to pass safely." Tien hesitated a little on the word 'friends'; it felt wrong applying it to him. "Yes, that would be nice. That way I'm not depriving you of your room." She sat up and slid carefully to the edge of the bed. Sosiqui Tian Yue offered his hand.
Supported, guided, all the way back.
Smiled. Said goodbye.
He was so tired abruptly; wished he hadn't sent Toki off. Who knew how long it would take the Aoide to return.
The bed smelled of Morgan, overlaid with the somehow-spicy scent of the goddess. He hesitated by the edge, then turned away and went to curl himself on the couch, which smelled, blessedly, of nothing at all.
That would do. For now.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:38 pm
After
"My... my lord?"
The Aoide's quavering voice brought Tian Yue out of sleep. For a moment he was disoriented - Where am I...? Couch? - and then he remembered what sleep had temporarily driven from his mind.
Tien morphed. Morgan's gone- There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He sat up slowly. His sleep had been deep, but not kind; his head felt full of cotton and tacks, muzzy and painful at the same time. "Toki?"
"Yes, my Lord?" The Aoide was standing a respectful distance from him. Tian Yue paused for a moment, then moved to sit properly on the couch, resting his head in his hands.
"Did you..." What had he asked Toki to do? He'd brought water, then... ah, yes, find Asherah. For Tien. Who was here now. Not Morgan. The internal ache that came with that knowledge was dull, but persistent.
"I found Asherah, my lord, yes," Toki answered after a moment, and Tian Yue realized he hadn't actually finished his question aloud. "She received the news and moved about her business, or perhaps the Lady Trickster's."
"Good. Good. Thank you."
The silence seemed to stretch on forever, and Toki shifted awkwardly, then coughed once, the sound quite obviously fake and affected. "My lord-"
Tian Yue held up one hand. "I'm fine! I'm... I'm fine. I'll be fine. I just need a moment. Maybe some tea," he added. His mouth was dry.
"Lord," Toki acknowledged with a half-bow. "I am... I am sorry, my Lord..."
"I knew it was going to happen from the moment I saw the jewel in her arm-" That didn't make it easier; he had come to a new respect for Morgan's courage in Crispin's own last days, as Shaiming grew in strength.
"Tea, indeed. And a freezing bath; ice-cold, you'll want to wear scales for it. But first, you should fly. Fly and burn." The Aoide's voice was firm, and Tian Yue looked up at him in surprise. Toki's smile was soft, affectionate, but tinged with sadness. "This is not the first time I have offered solace to Tien Lung in times of grief, my Lord."
"Heh..." Still, Tian Yue had to admit that those things sounded good - to fly high and fast and angry, to roar and dive until exhaustion, then plunge down and let cold numb the rest. Heat and cold, to temper the scales and break away impurities. "Did I - Shaiming - do that much?"
"Time and again, my Lord. Not often, but..." Toki looked down. "The times when Tien Lung's roar echoed against mountain peaks grew more frequent as... they began to fall."
"They." Tian Yue knew what Toki meant; the Fading, when the gods began to crumble away and all the Dragons and the Twin Crown himself could do nothing to halt the decline. "Yes..." There was a distant echo of rage in his own memory now, faded but still present, of failure felt to the heart and anger directed both at the faceless, nameless Nothing and at Tien Lung himself.
"It is not even the first time I have tended you after the loss of love, my Lord," Toki added, quietly.
Lucius- But that memory was shrouded. He knew that Universe had fallen before Tien Lung, yet there were no details - only the far-away twist of a remembered grief so deep that it would likely drive a mortal to immediate suicide should they come to know it. Fortunately, Universe's rebirth was a balm over that ancient wound.
I could go to him- The realization brought with it a powerful urge, the urge to jump up and fly to Universe, seek shelter and solace under starbright wings. For a moment, Tian Yue trembled with that need - but then he forced it down, and away. No. We are not the same as we were then - maybe in time that will be appropriate, but not now... and Lucius deserves far better than to be my... my rebound!
"Shall I prepare tea, my Lord?" Toki's voice interrupted his thoughts, and Tian Yue looked up, grateful. That particular train of thought led nowhere good, not for the time being at least.
"That would be fine. Fly and burn, you said?"
The Aoide nodded solemnly. "Yes, Lord."
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:39 pm
Wild This Night
Fly and burn.
The Dragon King's prodigious energy was, at last, beginning to flag. He had flown far and fast, up to the edges of atmosphere and danced angrily with the broken auroras that crackled there; let himself fall until his scales were red with dull heat before lashing his tail and breaking out of each plunge. He had roared at the mountains until the sound made snow crumple and slide with a rush and crash, and then he felt a twinge of guilt and stopped.
It was primal, animalistic, and absurdly - Toki had been right. It really did make him feel better. To be dragon, to roar and rage against everything that vexed him. His human shape seemed ill-fitting, constraining; even his dragon form felt tight and shrunken. If only he had miles of tail to crack and snap against the battered sky!
He was soaring over the city that surrounded the Pantheon now; dim lights flickered here and there, marking what few sparks of civilization still held at the epicenter of Destruction's reign. To his surprise, a shadow detached from a building as he flew over it; a moment later, he recognized it. Shartha-
"Lord! You fly wild this night," the smaller dragon rumbled, beating her stubby wings as she rose up to his level. He could see the boy Evin sitting on her back; sitting up straight, not hunched and curled in on himself as he had been in the past. "May I match my wingbeats to the lash of thy coils?"
Her language was formal; it pleased him, and he tossed his head. "You may, my Dragon Star. Hello, Evin," he added, and the boy nodded respectfully.
For a time they flew in silence, then Shartha tilted her head in his direction. "Lord, why do you rage and roar? The sound of your anger echoed against the buildings," she added, when he gave her a surprised look.
"I had not realized it echoed so far." He was, absurdly, embarrassed about this for a moment.
"Only dimly, but I heard it." Shartha flapped her wings and rose above him; he growled a bit and ascended to match her, then surpass. He heard her make a pleased sound. "You are Tien Lung tonight, Lord."
That made him blink. "Oh?"
"Different face, different name. Same scent, but until now - different at the core." Her teeth gleamed white in what starlight remained. "A fumbling, a learning, but not the same."
"Of... of course not. Are any of us what we were?" He was embarrassed again. "You are always forward, Dragon Star."
"Then I have not changed," she said, impishly, then rolled delicately to the side to avoid the snap of his jaws. "I mean it as a compliment. Tien Lung you are in truth. I believe it now."
"Mmmm." Tian Yue rumbled low, pondering this.
"What has changed?"
The question made him shy away from her, but ever bold, she followed; it was a game. For a moment they swirled in the air as if playing tag, until he twisted his coils away in a turn she could not follow without endangering Evin.
"Lord?"
He sighed. "The mortal I called lover has been consumed by the deity she bore."
Shartha was silent for a long moment. "I see. I am sorry, and yet I am not." This time she didn't dodge his snap; she squealed a bit at the n**, then twisted away when he released her tail. Evin's eyes were wide. "If it has brought you to this night - then I am not sorry. For your heartache, yes; for your wildness, no." Shartha's own eyes were bright with her daring, with challenge. "I do not mean disrespect."
"I know that. Impudent Star."
A moment more of silence.
"Thank you."
He turned away then, angling his flight towards the Pantheon. Shartha did not follow, but hovered in the air until her Lord went inside, then added her own small roar to the echoes of her Lord's before curling back to home.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:41 pm
A Strange VisitorMeepfur Ashoka puttered around the absent Fangbridle's room, fiddling with things on this shelf and that. She'd taken the liberty of straightening up while he was gone...she'd taken the liberty of moving herself in, as a matter of fact. He wouldn't mind, she was sure; and if anyone could be sure of something, it was Ashoka. The poor god didn't have any servants at all, and so she'd taken it upon herself to remedy that. She liked him, though she didn't bother to think on why. She just knew that she liked him, and that she wanted to stick nearby. He was the sort of person things happened around...or the sort of person who was around when things happened. Well, whatever it was, it was enough to prompt her to not only move into his rooms, but to go about making them more room-like.
There still wasn't much there, but a few bookshelves serving duty as shelves for all sorts of things but books had gone a long way to making things better. At least there wasn't as much on the floor to trip over, especially with the eggs no longer free to roll around - she'd put them in a basket. Why he hadn't had the sense to do so in the first place, she had no idea! Sosiqui Tian Yue had been heading for the kitchen when he heard the rustling in Zhijian's room as he passed by, and paused. Was his brother back? That would be happy news indeed!
Grinning, he knocked lightly once in warning, then opened the door, knowing the other Dragon King would not mind his entrance - but no.
It wasn't Zhijian.
It wasn't even an Aoide.
Tian Yue spluttered and pointed one clawed finger at the interloper. "Who are you, and what are you doing in the Fangbridle's chambers?!" The sight of an intruder - and a large feline one at that - in Zhijian's rooms was so ridiculous, so unfathomable, that it threw his strategy all out of whack. Meepfur "Oh, hello!" The shifter pard didn't seem the least bit phased by this new dragon's finger-pointing or questions. She just giggled! "You must be looking for Zhijian. He's not here, you know - he's in a lake! I don't think that's really where he should be looking, though..."
Finger to her lips, Ashoka looked thoughtful for a moment as she contemplated the matter of where Zhijian was versus the matter of where he ought to be, tail flicking around her ankles. She actually looked a good bit like the Dragon King, when it came down to basic features - wings, antlers, ears, and tail - but had a distinctly more human look about her. Similarly, she wasn't wearing a single thing but jewelry. Sosiqui Tian Yue's brow furrowed, completely nonplussed. She - for this creature was quite obviously female, quite obviously, dear me - was not responding at all as he had predicted. Not in the least. "In... in a lake? No, wait." He shook his head, hard. "You didn't answer my question." Meepfur "Mm-hm! That's not where he's going to find it, though...at least, not in that lake. He'll still be a few days, I think. Less time than he's been gone already, anyway." It was so hard to tell! She was sure it wouldn't be all that much longer, though.
"Didn't answer your question, no, but that doesn't mean I wasn't going to," she replied with a hint of chastisement. Really, didn't gods have any patience? You'd think anyone who lived that long would learn. "I'm Ashoka." Sosiqui Tian Yue sighed, exasperated. "Very well, very well... Ashoka, then. Are you some kind of a thief, a servant of my brother's, what? I warn you, the gods don't take kindly to people just coming in when they're not home," he added, his tail lashing a bit. Still, his face and voice reflected confusion more than stern warning. He wasn't sure what to make of this odd creature - she seemed like Seppa had, before Zhijian had taken her, but the form was all wrong. Too... human. Meepfur "Some kind of thief?" Ashoka giggled again. "I'd be a very bad thief, standing here and talking instead of going out the window. He really ought to keep it locked...I don't think he realized it had one. I'll have to remember to tell him." Her ears waggled a touch while she filed that reminder away to be remembered.
"You must be a dragon, too. Which one?" There were nine, yes? She thought it was nine, but there were an awful lot of numbers it could be. Sosiqui "I am the Dragon King Tien Lung... Ashoka." Tian Yue tried to get some of his composure back; it was obvious the direct approach wasn't going to work on her, whatever she was. "Does Zhijian know you're here?" Meepfur "No," she answered, picking up the handled mirror she'd set on top of one of the bookcases and turning it over in her hand. "But he won't mind! He needed some help, and the ones he was waiting for aren't coming, not for a long time still." Sosiqui Well... now what? It seemed, against all logic, against all sanity, that this creature had invited herself in and taken it upon herself to... to arrange Zhijian's things?
How heinous, Tian Yue thought, sarcastically. Ashoka didn't seem to be doing any harm, but the possessiveness of the dragon rebelled against letting her do whatever she liked with his brother's belongings. "He might not like that one bit. He eats those who do what they like with his treasures, you know." True, they weren't talking about Ying Long's tack, here, but... well. Zhijian might well eat her if he was angry enough.
She seemed to mean well, but... Meepfur "He won't mind," 'Shoka said with a shrug, setting the mirror back down. For whatever reason, she seemed quite confident that she wouldn't come to any harm. "Someone needed to come and help. He was just waiting for someone who wasn't going to come."
"So I came." Sosiqui "Waiting for... who?" Tian Yue gave her a puzzled look. It seemed clear that he wasn't going to get her to leave without threatening her or physically forcing her out, and he wasn't ready to go quite that far yet. Meepfur "His..." Ashoka furrowed her brow. "Oh, I don't know the word. Servants, ageless servants. Living forever, but not gods. One is dead, the others are...are fuzzy. Shadows. I can't tell anything about them."
"That's why I like him, you see." She sat unceremoniously on the floor, crossing her legs and playing with her toes. "He's different...you're different. I can't see, can't see much at all. But things are going to happen, yes. I know that." Sosiqui "Aoidei... the servants of the gods are Aoidei." So she'd come to offer herself as a servant? a follower? He couldn't chase her out, then. Such things were precious, as he well knew.
"Different? Different compared to... what?" Meepfur "Everyone else." Everyone but Sabah, anyway. It had always been hard to see around her, too; but this was still different. "Is it going to end? Or is it not? I can't tell. It's like nothing is certain around here. It's nice. Different. Nothing is set here, with you. I like it." Sosiqui "And you are nothing but confusing," Tian Yue said with a sigh, but then he smiled. "I'm sorry, I didn't properly introduce myself. My name is Tian Yue." Meepfur "Everyone says that, but that's just because they don't understand it the way I do. But then it happens, and then they understand, just like Seppa. You just don't listen right, that's all. You think instead of listening." Sosiqui "Seppa? You know... er... knew her?" Tian Yue felt a slight pang of regret; he had met the pard once, before host and dragon had become one, and she had been kind. Yet he had never mourned her. Zhijian, his brother, had taken her for his own, and he would not reverse that for the world... but still.
It too was bittersweet, when he took the time to actually consider it. Meepfur "Mm-hm! Knew her, know her children. Same pride." Ashoka went from playing with her toes to picking at them. "You knew her too, didn't you? Before you were a dragon and your name changed. C...C-something. Yes?" Sosiqui Tian Yue was taken aback momentarily. "Yes... yes, I did." Before I was a dragon? Had Zhijian told her...? Seppa certainly hadn't known; Zhijian had morphed before he had, he was fairly sure. "How do you know that?" Meepfur "I just do. See things sometimes, or hear them or feel them. Even smelled and tasted, but those are harder." Smelling especially - she was never really sure if it was just a real smell or not. "I know because knowing things is my gift."
"Seppa worked metal, and Sirpa works metal, and Tori weaves song, but I know things. Sometimes, not always." Sosiqui "You know things... I see." Seppa could have told her, possibly, but there was no reason to be suspicious. Zhijian would sort her out if she was telling lies - the Dragon King who was even now tracking down his ancient lost treasures would have no problem reclaiming anything this odd creature might take.
Speaking of which... "Is my brother doing well in his search, do you know?" Tian Yue asked, curious. Meepfur "If by well you mean successful, no. He will be, but he isn't yet. But he's not in any trouble either, so well in that sense, yes." Ashoka shifted her attention from her toes to her bangly anklets. "I'd be ready, if I were you. He's going to want you to go somewhere important with him, when he remembers somewhere." Sosiqui Tian Yue's brow furrowed in thought. "Somewhere important? Where?" Meepfur "Somewhere old, very old. Older than now. His place of dying." Would this new place become a place of dying? It was a good question, though she didn't bother to ask it. Its answer was impossible. Sosiqui "His... place of dying..." A shiver ran up Tian Yue's spine, unbidden. The place where the Fangbridle had met his end, long ago in the Fading? Where could that be? Certainly nowhere good...
He remembered nothing of how Tien Lung himself had ultimately given his last - only that dear sister Qian Lung had fallen first of them all, bereft of her beloved Empress. Meepfur "Dragon bones, yes." She giggled then, irreverent. "Perhaps for medicine?" Sosiqui Tian Yue blinked, then frowned. "Not funny," he said, coldly, then shook his head. "Be that as it may... does your seeing mark the time of his return?" Meepfur Regardless of Tian Yue's disapproval, Ashoka continued to giggle until the amusement ran its course, and answered, "Soon, I think. Perhaps a week, perhaps two. Perhaps less or more. Not everything is certain, you know, especially with you." Sosiqui "Nothing is certain, huh. I'd expect it isn't... not when even the gods don't know." Tian Yue nodded.
Be that as it may... his stomach was reminding him again of why he'd been going to the kitchens in the first place, and now that he'd established that Ashoka didn't need to be thrown out (at least, not by him)... "Should you see Zhijian, tell him that I accept his offer. That ought to startle him," though not as much as finding you in his room, he added, to himself. Meepfur "He doesn't know he'll be making it yet," she chuckled. "He has to remember first!" 'Shoka finally looked up again, nodding. "Say hello to the girl with the glasses, hmm?" Sosiqui Tian Yue had already turned back towards the door, but he stilled at her last words. "I can't," he said, simply. "Your sight fails you there. She's not here anymore. Goodbye, Ashoka."
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:42 pm
Begin
Tian Yue ran one clawed finger down the cool metal curve of his old-fashioned gyroscope. The ring slipped from under his finger and turned, sending the whole mechanism into a brief fit of motion as metal circles twirled and orbited one another before falling quiet once again.
Despite his idle appearance, the Dragon King was deep in thought. So Zhijian wanted him to go on a journey... to somewhere old. His place of dying. That was ominous, to say the least. If Ashoka's seeing was correct, then Tian Yue would be needed.
But until then... what?
Shartha's words echoed back to him as well. You are Tien Lung tonight, Lord. Had he not been Tien Lung from the moment on Shaiming ceded his power to Crispin? Or was it that long and endless night on the Gallery of Celestia that truly marked that change?
He shook his head. It didn't make much sense. Perhaps it never would; perhaps in the grand scheme of things it was a very small pinprick, a non-issue. Yet still, his Dragon Star's words had brought a quiet realization to the fore.
There are many things I was not doing, many things I was holding onto, for her. He had not moved forward in any real sense; he had put a great many things on hold for her as he waited, desperately clinging to the last fragments of their time together. He had not left the Pantheon for any real length of time, for fear he would return and find only the Trickster waiting. He had not sought out any lengthly duties, lest he be called away.
He had not gone to Lucius-
Tian Yue shook his head again, a bit harder this time, as if to shake the thoughts away. But now she was gone, and here he was, at loose ends - all the threads he had allowed himself to ignore, waving at him.
I am Tien Lung... but it is time for me to claim title as well as throne.
Worldshield.
Starscale.
He shifted and got to his feet, giving the gyroscope one more deliberate spin. It was time to move; past time.
Perhaps now was another beginning.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:43 pm
Burning In The Light
Tien Lung had laid his coils on a hilltop a good way away from any civilization, resting his scales and claws on grass that crunched and snapped beneath his weight, the dry and brittle blades falling to dust if he so much as breathed on them.
Coils, dragon shape for a dragon's work. Step within the scales of Tien Lung.
Tian Yue sat on the hill and surveyed the battered land around him, the bruised sky above him. His tail lashed, once, sending up a cloud of dust from obliterated once-grass and parched soil. Then he slid down to lay sphinx-like, crossing his forepaws in front of him, and let his eyes drift closed as he turned inward and sought his power.
It came to him quickly as, it always did, and he pressed the aura outward, moving it out beyond his physical scales, feeling the texture of it - seeing, experiencing Beryl's own protection had helped him to sound out what made his own power different, what made his title that of Worldshield. It felt like scales, hard, overlapping and multiplying, stretching out as he ordered it to move. Strong, yet supple-
Then it stopped expanding with a warning creak; Tian Yue pressed at it, but quickly left off. He could not force it. There was pain if he tried, not precisely physical, but pain nevertheless. He could feel the protection covering the same amount of space that it always had, barely large enough to contain the Pantheon.
Useless...! Had he really improved so little? Not at all since his rebirth? Surely not... but all his force of will, all his prodding would not make the shield expand its diameter one bit. After several hard minutes of pushing and straining, Tian Yue let the shield drop and opened his eyes, his head drooping. He opened his mouth and let his tongue loll out as he panted.
How can I hope to protect the world like this, if I can barely protect the gods-
No.
One ear flicked as if an insect had landed on it, and Tian Yue slowly raised his head.
No. That wasn't it, was it. That wasn't it at all. Step within the coils of Tien Lung - or rather... step without...
What does the Worldshield protect?
He had always been - not afraid, precisely, but uncomfortable, with the idea of practicing with his shield within the Pantheon itself. Disrupting other deities' fields of power and influence was most likely rude, but...
But...
Tian Yue got up quickly, his claws scratching more dust out of the parched earth. An idea was buzzing, forming in his mind. Perhaps this whole time, he'd been thinking about this the wrong way... he was not supposed to protect the gods. Well, he was, but his scales were-
The scales, the border, the wall that surrounds the gods. Not for the sake of the gods. For the sake of mortals!
The Dragon King reared up onto his haunches and called his power forth once again. Again it stopped in exactly the same place, again it waited, englobing him at the center. He could feel the soft aura all around him as his power dampened out that of any other god - Destruction, here. His power was everywhere, inescapable, unavoidable.
This power is not for us.
With effort, he pressed, prodded, twisted - and turned the shield inside-out, radiating it out away from himself rather than focusing on himself as the center. The aura trembled under the strain and then collapsed, but Tian Yue found himself shaking with sudden realization.
That was it. That was it. He brought the shield up again. Up, out, twist- and this time he held onto it with all of his strength. It felt very different, and now he could understand how things were supposed to feel - why this was supposed to be tiring. The power wanted to encircle him, wanted to protect him, but that was not its purpose. He gritted his teeth and growled audibly at it.
It's... it's bigger. I can feel it... He opened his eyes very slowly, pouring power, mana, energy into the shield. And as he opened his eyes, he could see it shimmering around him, protecting not the dragon, not the god, but everything outside.
To a point. Only to a point. But the distance encircled, the distance in which Destruction's influence was muffled and even silenced, was far, far greater than anything he'd ever managed before.
Tian Yue shivered with delight and let the shield fall, then slumped as the expenditure of power took its price from him. But it had worked. It had worked!
He had grown.
I... I really am Tien Lung... after all...
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:45 pm
A Brief Interlude
The map was probably inaccurate by now. It showed the town as it had been once, before the Age of Destruction had descended over it with shattering force. The Pantheon wasn't even on it at all, and Tian Yue wondered how long the structure had been there. When had the Twin Crown set his plan into motion? Why in this relatively unremarkable place, of all places?
Still, even if some - many - of the buildings were toppled or crumbled or otherwise damaged, the layout of the streets should remain the same. There was Echo's park, and the abandoned hotel, and the museum-
Suddenly, someone knocked at the door. Tian Yue made as if to get up, but a white blur zipped past him before he could get out of his chair. "I'll get it!" Toki trilled, fanning his wings happily as he braked in front of the door.
Tian Yue shook his head. "Do your duty, then," he said, teasing.
The Aoide opened the door a bit, then paused. There was an awkward silence. "Um.. is this... er..." came a stammering female voice.
Tian Yue got up and darted to the door with a speed that nearly put Toki's efforts to shame. He pushed past the nonplussed Aoide. "Penny! I told you not to come here-" She opened her mouth, but he shushed her and tugged her inside, then checked to make sure there was nobody else in the hallway before closing the door.
Penny folded her arms and raised one eyebrow at him. "What? Are mortals not allowed on this floor, or something?"
"No, no... they are, but..." Toki shifted nearby, and Tian Yue realized the Aoide was giving Penny the hairy eyeball. "Stand down, Toki. This is Penny - she helped me on my journey to the Gallery of Celestia. She believes," he added, letting a bit of softness invade his stern tone.
The change was immediate. Toki squealed and hugged his hands to his chest. "Oh! That is wonderful news! Your first, your very first in this new life... oh, my Lord..."
Penny blinked.
"Yes, yes, Toki," Tian Yue said, quickly. "Leave us for now, though. I want to talk privately with Penny."
"Oh, of course! Of course..." Toki gave Penny a now adoring look and practically skipped away, pausing for a moment to flash a brilliant smile in their direction before vanishing into the Aoide quarters.
Tian Yue sighed and padded over to the couch, gesturing for Penny to follow. She hesitated for a moment, but when he settled himself on the couch rather than the throne, she took a seat gingerly on one of the facing armchairs. "Was he crying?"
"Quite possibly. That's Toki, one of my ancient servants. I forgot you two hadn't met- no, of course you hadn't! You've never come here before!" He frowned at her. "I told you not to come here..."
"And I told you I'd be careful," Penny said.
Tian Yue opened his mouth, then closed it again without saying a word. "Penny... look, you know how gods come into this world now, don't you?"
He was not surprised when she nodded. "Rio told me. About jewels, and hosts."
"See, that's why I want you to stay away from here. I don't want to-" His hands tightened, gripping the fabric of his robes on his lap. "I told you that my lover, Morgan, had become a host. She's gone now, and only the goddess remains. I don't want you to... go as well..."
She smiled, and reached one hand up to absently fiddle with the tip of her braid. "If a god really wanted me for a host, would it really matter where I was?"
"... No," Tian Yue admitted. Crispin had been called from another dimension entirely. To think mere physical distance would be a barrier was laughable.
"See! There you go." Penny nodded. "But I don't think any god wants me. It's okay."
"Then I shall happily keep you," he replied, relaxing a little bit and offering her a sheepish smile. "Just... be careful."
"I already told you I would be. Oh! See, now you've almost made me forget why I came here!" Penny wriggled one finger at him, mock-scolding. "You know the Bandit shipped out for a good long run?"
"Yes. Er. Welcome back?"
She raised one eyebrow. "Little late, there!"
"Sorry."
"Pft." Penny grinned. "Anyway, when we docked at Corvi, I went aboard the station for a while to do some errands, y'know, that kind of thing - and there was a goddess there! Panacea. Medicine. Do you know the God of Light?"
Tian Yue blinked. That was the last thing he was expecting to hear. "No, I don't believe I've ever met him. Or Lady Medicine. What was she doing there?"
"Healing people. She wanted to get someone to go after a really notorious space pirate to get something back that they stole from her. Sacred treasures, she said. And I'm to tell the God of Light that I saw her... you don't know him, huh?" Penny sighed. "Drat."
"I'll have Toki keep an eye out," Tian Yue said, sympathetically.
"That's it, I guess... I'm really sorry about Morgan, though." Penny bit her lip. "I know how it feels..."
"Yeah," Tian Yue said quietly. There was an awkward moment until a thought occurred to him. "Penny? Do you remember the magic I used to put a special shield around the Bandit when we made that trip?"
She tilted her head at him. "Yeah. What about it?"
"What was it like? I mean... that's a power I'm trying to work on, now, to remember. I'm more than a little rusty."
"Hmmm..." Penny looked thoughtful, then squirmed a little. "Well... to be honest, after you left to go out to that place, that Gallery, it got really... inconsistent?"
Tian Yue winced. "Really? Did Jax notice?"
"He did, but I convinced him not to care... and he was a little intimidated, y'know, by the whole dragon thing. He's not mad. Well, not any more mad than he usually is."
"Heh. Okay... so what did it do, exactly?"
"It slid around a lot. It didn't match with the ship's movements all the time... and it flickered. Sometimes it'd go away completely for hours and hours at a time... um... it shrunk once or twice..."
"Erg. That's... a bit discouraging," Tian Yue said, drooping a bit. "I bet when it went away completely was when I was sleeping... and the rest..." Well, he had had plenty of distractions at the Gallery of Celestia.
And now, it seemed, he had a laundry list of problems.
"Sorry," Penny let go of her braid. "But I'm sure you can do it - you held it just fine while you were in the ship..."
"Unfortunately, that was the easy bit." He made a face.
"Oh, well, fine." She grinned and stood up. "I'd better get going. I told Jax I was going out for a minute, and it's not easy to get over here. He'll be suspicious. More than usual, that is."
"Want a ride?"
Penny paused. "A... what?"
"Hang on." Tian Yue smiled. "Let me get my scales."
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:47 pm
Learning to Breathe
They'd spent the past two days working, out in an area that had probably been farmland, once. There was nobody out there to be bothered by his power. He'd practiced that peculiar twist, that inside-out flip that changed the nature of his magic, for hours and hours. It was like pressing a switch, he'd decided, shifting the shield from simply existing in a latent state to actively protecting something other than himself. It was an easy mental motion now, and he wondered why he hadn't figured it out more quickly.
The difference was immense. He had pushed the shield to its limits, until it burst (and that did hurt, unequivocally); Toki had gleefully reported a good twenty mile radius. He'd practiced moving away from the shield, maintaining it at a distance. The feeling was strange, a niggling in the back of his mind like he was forgetting something, leaving something very important behind. It was difficult to keep the shield active and fly at the same time.
At the end, before returning to his chambers in the Pantheon, he'd stopped and exerted his power over a very small radius, englobing one of the lava flows in the 'front yard'. The effect had not been dramatic, but the sight of the lava growing cool and hardening - a pool he had never known to do anything but roil and hiss - a distant thrill of meaning ran down his spine.
This is my purpose.
And now, here he was, exhausted but not willing to give up for the night just yet. Now that he had figured out how his power worked, now that he had shifted it from latent to active, the urge to use it niggled at him, like an itch he couldn't scratch. But there was too much that didn't make sense yet, too much to figure out about something that ought by rights to have been pure instinct. He ached, too, in a confusing way that wasn't exactly physical, as if he'd bruised muscles he didn't even know he had.
Maddening.
A door creaked open and then closed, somewhere behind him; Tian Yue didn't look up. A moment later Toki was at his side, looking confused. "My Lord..."
"What?"
The Aoide hesitated. "I'm just surprised to find you still awake, my Lord. We did work very hard," he added, as if Tian Yue might have forgotten, and needed reminding.
"I know. Did you find Light?"
Toki hesitated again. "I did not. I found his chambers, though, and one of his Aoidei within. I gave her the message."
"Good."
Toki squirmed for another long moment before opening his mouth one more time. "My Lord, don't you think it wise for you to sle-"
Tian Yue turned and glared at him; Toki squeaked and cut off mid-sentence. The Aoide's expression made Tian Yue relent a little bit. It wasn't Toki's fault,after all. "I'm sorry. No, I'm fine."
"My Lord, I..." Toki squirmed a bit more.
"It's not enough. Not yet." Tian Yue shook his head, hard. "It's... it's like learning to walk, learning to breathe - stars, can you imagine if we had to consciously coordinate every individual muscle movement, every shift of a tendon? We'd die on the ground, overwhelmed with the sheer complexity of drawing breath. And that," he continued, well aware that his argument had begun as somewhat profound but was now rapidly approaching absurdity, "is what this damned shield feels like." He folded his arms with a huff.
"Er... yes, my Lord?" Toki said, awkwardly.
"I'm tired of learning! I'm tired of not understanding this! I want it to come now. I want it to all work, and it won't. No. Not want. Need." Tian Yue got up abruptly and started to pace, his tail lashing behind him. "It's my duty. What I was created to do, the meaning of my existence... no, no, I don't want to go to sleep. I want to make it work." He scowled, frustrated. There was no way the Aoide could understand how it felt.
Toki blinked.
A moment later, Tian Yue stumbled to one side, victim to a sudden blow to the side of his head. For another moment he couldn't figure out what on earth had just happened, but one glance at Toki's shocked expression, his hands covering his mouth, was enough to give him some idea.
"Toki!"
"I- I'm sorry, my Lord!" the Aoide wailed, shaking his head back and forth. "But you said Lady Beryl- that it was helpful- I thought-"
Tian Yue rubbed the side of his head. Toki's expression was pure, mortified horror at his own temerity.
Then he started to laugh. "Toki... I appreciate the thought, but please, please don't beat me with your wings. Even if you do think I'm being foolish."
Toki slowly lowered his hands from his face. "N-no, never... I'm too impudent! I have struck my Lord!" There were tears in his eyes.
"Oh, for the love of- Toki, it's fine. I think we're both too tired to think. You're right. I need to sleep. You need to sleep."
The Aoide sniffled. "O-okay."
"Calm down, alright? Look, I'll see you in the morning." Tian Yue smiled until Toki tentatively smiled back.
"Y-yes, my Lord."
"Good. Sleep well, then." Tian Yue stepped past him with a nod, pulling the bedroom curtain closed behind him.
And yet, as he sat down on the edge of the bed, he had to admit - it had helped.
Just a little.
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