Lords of Creation, The Second Age

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Flash Street." Thither says instantly, his face lighting up. "We should hit Flash Street."

Hither looks dubious. "My brother is a dabbler." He says, by way of explanation.

"Flash Street. Come on, you've never been. It'll be fun. Yon! Yon, come join us! We're headed to Flash Street."

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Flash Street, in Entertainment, was well known for one thing: Magic. Ever since the Arcanocentric Academy of Sorcery had opened there 300 years prior, buying up several buildings and a park to create it's large campus, the cottage industry of magic had sprung up around it to cater to both students and those interested in the magical arts. On the best days you could find any manner of magic user selling trinkets, reading palms, and offering services on the long street on which the main hate of the academy sat.

Today was not one of those days.

As the Tomes brothers escorted the goddess down the street, the only things they shared it with were a few confused tourists. Thither in particular was looking agitated, turning this way and that, looking blindly for something. All he found was disappointment. All the shops seemed to be not only closed, but boarded as if in anticipation of a hurricane.

"And on the biggest shopping day of the year." He says in disbelief. He glances over and Sonia and awkwardly scratches the back of his head. "I mean, there's usually something happening. Hold on."

He breaks away from the group and walk over to one of the buildings, an small cottage set up. He rapped on one of the shuttered windows. There's the sound of many locks coming undone, not all of them of this world, and an old warted face peers out of the window at him. He flips a handful of coins into one of the pots hanging from the window. "Hey, what's up?"

"Ahhhh," The old witch says. "Well, word slipped out that Minerelle is going to go wild again. Apparently, Headmistress Knox payed her some great insult last year and she's been at revenge all this time."

A look of excitement washes over Thither's face. "Minerelle and Knox? Head to Head? You sure? Where?"

"Right in front of the Academy gate, from what I hear."

Thither whoops, leaping into the air. He slams a whole bill-roll on the Witches windowsill and runs back to the group smiling ear to ear. "Mage Feud. Come on, this is something you only see once in a lifetime."

Hither looks at the witch, who had hurriedly re-closed her window and, from the sound of it, was redoubling her defenses. "Yes, once a lifetime. That seems a correct estimate."

"Oh, quit being a downer. Between the three of us normally we'd be able to get out if things got to hot. That's not even countering our special guest." He says, wiggling his eyebrows at Sonia. "Besides, Flash Street will be open again proper once they're done and Ican really show you why I love this place."

[Philote]

"I can see how Gilgamesh's legacy has affected him, he is quite the skilled fighter. Which part of the cities fights is he trying to change? Are Gilgamesh's tournaments no longer common?"

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The Shifter picked himself up from his defeated pose on the opposite wall of the building. There was a nasty bruise growing over the left half of his forehead and his back would be sore in the morning after that last impact against the wall. He fished his bow out from where it had sank in the waters and travels over to his teacher.

"Thank you for taking the time to pass on your skills teacher during my stay at the embassy" Moss says with a bow to the Gill.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Once every year, during this festival. " She replies. "The frequency of official matches and street brawls has not changed. He seeks to change it's nature."

"There are many schools in this city, representing as many different fighting styles as the people that developed them. Lee went to them, studied under them, and found them wanting. He met others as well: a dwarf Goliath, a Boquabian exile, a Vandal maimed by the war, each one searching for something in the art of combat and being unable to find it. Working with them he developed a philosophy, that styles and schools are antithetical, that the fighter should take what works for them and throw out the rest, that every fighter should tailor make their own style."

"The schools have begun to fall from prominence. Everything is a blend now, and not just of martial arts. Flash Street has never received more business."
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Lee bows back. "I can only show you techniques. The skills come wholly from you, not me. I thank you for agreeing to take part in this demonstration."

[Zaleramancer]

Junior tilted his head as he mused.

"Well. On one hand, it's nice. Getting to be part of something huge and grand. Help turn something that should have been endlessly scarring into a reason to celebrate." He tossed the half-eaten fruit from hand to hand, "But.. every year, this makes me remember. And also makes me see how few proper mortals remember what happened. Remember why this festival exists. Oh, yes the hear the stories and go see plays but none of them were there. They never heard the screams or smelt the blood. I know it's better this way but.."

"Back home, it feels like something terrible is brewing. The nations bluster and push, constantly watching for weakness. The people are being changed into little soliders or being ground into the dust. Conflict hasn't broken out, and that feels like the problem. Like four hundred years of stifled arguments and little conflicts and small wars are just waiting for a moment to snap."

"I just think that if perhaps they had heard or seen.. then maybe they would be less quick to reach for axes or words of death."

The young god shook his head, as if to dissipate the mood, then continued. "And besides. The poncy robes would give me heatstroke if I was any brand of mortal."

[Zaleramancer]

The draemar bustled into the room, sandals slapping angrily on the aged wooden floor.

"-to much Alay. Thinks I'm drunk off my head, that insufferable old a-" Her eyes caught sight of the lamp.

"What.. is.."

A crackling blue hurricane of energy screamed within a metallic lantern. So much power within such a fragile device.

She stepped forward slowly, eyes firmly on the lantern.

It was so beautiful.

Her hand reached out to touch.

[Zaleramancer]

In the corner, a grinning woman sipped her ale.

Oh, this was going to be delightful. She wondered idly if they were looking for employment.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Uburra-Namall smiled at Duerkripe's presence.

"Almost as though you read my mind, I must say." The Fair Goddess tossed back silken black hair over her shoulder, "Take your pick. We have vegetables, fruit, pastries, crackers, breads, meats and all sorts of other tasty things."

Handing out a plate to an elderly woman, Uburra-Namall continued, "These we bring from the Plane of Creativity. And back there, are some things we bring from the Plane of Love and Life. Perhaps you'd like a mint pie? Or...a rainbow delight?"

She holds out two pies to Duerkripe, one stark white, and one undulating each of the different colors of the rainbow.

[Philote]

(@Vault: Dwarf Goliath?)

"A very interesting soul" Anima comments "I believe that I would like to have a word with him and learn how his race has fared since their birth"

Anima moves from the sidelines of the building, hovering over the water as he approached the prominent Gill and the embassy member. "Greetings, Lee. Tell me, do you recognize this being tied to your birth?" Anima asks with a crackling voice.

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(Glass lamp . Murozond = Glass, Anima = Metallic)

In response to the woman's touch, Murozond's cloud fogs out into the room, obscuring vision with a thick blue haze. Murozond's body takes form within the cloud, the only thing visible within the fog except for the woman herself.

"Murozond is pleased to meet you. A great work is about to begin."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

(Like a shorty. A small one.)

The crowed becomes very interested, murmuring to itself as Anima floats across the water. Lee looks at the approaching creature up and down, before bowing politely. "Greetings. I'm afraid I don't understand your question? My birth?"

He glances over at Moss, as id trying to pick up some sort of que.

[Philote]

Anima takes a glance at the Shifter as well.

Moss's eyes were wide, as a member of the Council of Heroes he had been well taught in the lore of the vanished Pantheon, but what he was seeing was something that should no longer exist.

"You can not be the one you show yourself to be" Moss says, wondering if it would be appropriate to draw his bow.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Duerkripe picked up the mint pie, looked at it, takes a bite, savoring in its pepperminty taste, and quickly retorted, "A pie? With mint? Quite interesting, though..."

She quickly pulls off the horn at her waist and lets it grow, countless different delectable treats within, "Anyone who wants one of these can have them as well. Treats from dozens of different worlds!"

Many people would be getting quite drunk or high off of Duerkripe's treats that festival night.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Babysitter frowns. She didn't want to bring up what she suspected: that her family was already, in some way, involved in the events taking place in Juniors homeland. Instead, she played it off.

"I don't remember requiring poncy robes. No one know what you were wearing when you danced through the street, infecting the beast of destruction to follow in your footsteps like little ducks."

She hadn't been there, but that's what she'd heard had happened from a very drunk Vandal. She decided that vertion was official, because it made for a better story.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Are you my father?" Lee asks, confused. "Because I know my father."

[Philote]

"He is saying he is your creator, or at least one of them" Moss answers

Anima watches for now as the two react to his presence.

"He is portraying himself as the Spirit Anima of Gilgamesh's Pantheon, the same pantheon that caused both our races to come to be" Moss continues

Moss decides that it is appropriate to ready an arrow on his bow, but he does not raise it yet. If this Anima was an imposter then it was his job to put down this mockery.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Lee looks from Moss to Anima, contemplative. Then, he begins to speak.

"The stories we tell, the very oldest we have, speak of churning waters and confusion. Then, after the waters had settled and we found one another, they speak of the emptiness. Cast into the deep blue, unable to see the light of the sun, knowing nothing. No purpose, or pride, or drive to build. My race would have perished that way, empty, were it not for the kindness of strangers."

"I've spoken with other races, learned the stories of their genesis. Each race knew itself upon creation. They were given drive, direction, or simply knew the reason for their being. Not us, the bastard race. Our culture was built with our own hands, taking cues from the other civilizations and fashioning them to our purposes. Our values, our culture, was shaped by our own hands."

"Thus I conclude: If you are you say you are, I recognize your role in our inception. Our birth, however, came about later."

[Philote]

"Bold, assertive, and unwilling to back down" Anima answers. "For all you know I could be coming with the intent to wipe out this misinformed race or with the goal of adopting and restoring that which you've noticed is lost. Gilgamesh surely would of approved adding the Gills to Eternus' ranks."

[Zaleramancer]

"W-what is this? Who are you?" The woman took a step back, looking at the crackling energy with more than a trace of fear.

[Zaleramancer]

"Well, yeah, but my father insi-"

Junior's words were interrupted by a sudden yowling scream from a nearby ally.

Despite the noise, not a single mortal in the crowd showed any concern. Paean was already flowing off, his body shifting mercurially towards the ally.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Your treats look pretty interesting, too." Uburra-Namall retorted, reaching into the horn for one of innumerable morsel, "Say, children, would either of you like to try--? Eh, children? Children? Arathet? Erganon? Forgara?"

Uburra-Namall turned around, looking all through the throngs, to hopefully spot the face of her young ones. They were nowhere to be seen. And not close enough to be sensed, through this whole other mess of emotions.

The Fair Goddess's expression fell.

[Philote]

"I am the great Murozond, the Grand Djinn, the newly born Spirit of Power. Fear not mortal, you are not in any danger. You are a very important instrument in the fulfillment of my plans. Together, we will slowly stabilize the domain in this world. Wish of me anything that you desire, and if it is within my will and ability, the power will be drawn forth. Three time you may draw on my power."