Lords of Creation, The Second Age

[Philote]

Golem Marv wrote

"Don't you mean with me?" Thorn thought, he didn't vocalize this thought as it rarely paid to argue with beings that referred to themselves in third person. Thorn liked to think he was pretty clever when it came to dealing with others, magical or not. His next statement proved this to be decidedly untrue.

"Er...who are you exactly?" he asked, his eyebrow cocked into a comical questioning look.

"Murozond is a creature of change. You wish for the same, yes?"

The coloration of the fog changes in patches, revealing a ghostly form.

"I can give you what you wish."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Vandal looked up from it's place in the gutter. It was hard to tell with Vandals but this one malnourished, and the intricate tattoo covering its right arms and upper chest was not only fractured, but had been defaced and overwritten in hateful black scribbles that made no sense and left the original color unrecognizable.

This pathetic wretch looked up at the god as though deciding whether or not it should speak, before turning its head back to the ground. "Go away. You have no business with an Unavowed."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"I'm more interested in what it was trying to do." Said the Reasonable, standing up. "You're the first thing I've seen it acknowledge. Those two attacked it and it paid them less mind." He gestures at Magnas and Gravas. "I had to pump out power just to keep it's attention, but you just walked up.

[Philote]

"Business and trade can be found where people least expect it"

Midas reaches into his robes and pulls out a fresh apple, extending it towards the Vandal. "For a moment of your time" he explains.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Something primal in her eyes flairs, and a brief war between hunger and something else plays out behind them. Whatever it's fighting is strong, but sheer animal hunger is a cruel feeling and in the end it wins out. She snatches the apple from Midas's hand, shoving it between her mandibles and wolfing it down in three large bites. She appears as though in a divine embrace for just a second, before whatever it was the hunger had struggled with resurgences, and and she hangs her head again.

"I am unavowed." she says, her voice tired and sad. "My negligence cost many of my sisters their lives, too many to forgive. Far too many. For my crime I was stripped of my name, my history," She gestures to the black scrawl across her arms. "and disowned by the Queen. My former sisters do not see me anymore, as it should be. I will die alone, here, for my negligence. What business is there to be had with the living dead?"

[Philote]

No name, no history. That would certainly lower the overall price of any trade that could be come up with. The poor always had more to bargain with than they expect though, so a good deal could possibly be scavenged.

"You could sell that to me" Midas says casually referencing and pointing to the tattoo on her body. "I believe I have a good offer for something with such significance as that."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

She side eyes him like he's some sort of mental patient around whom you must tread on eggshells, then gives a disdainful little laugh. "Even if you had the power to take this, no one would want it. It's what marks me as unavowed, my old unit tattoos covered in this scrawl so I don't shame them with my existence. Why if you could take this...if you could take this..."

What she says next is very quiet, as though speaking the unthinkable.

"It would be like a rebirth."

She looks up at him, suddenly very serious. "Can you? Can you remove this....thing?"

[Philote]

"I would be taking the old tattoos as well" Midas explains "I'm not offering you your old life back, you do not have the means to pay for it, but I am offering you a new one"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Midas sees it again, the Vandal making war with herself over the decision. "Take it." she says, extending the scribbled arm to him. "Before I come to my senses."

[Philote]

Midas takes a hold of her hand and waves over one of his servitors. This time, it is a tall and skinny creature, as bronze as the bronze coin planted in its forehead. The servitor joins its hand on top of the other two.

The ink of the markings peels harmlessly off the Vandal's and the intact image floats through the air before it is swallowed by a gold servitor standing nearby.

"There are many like you" Midas explains "Not all Vandals, but those with nothing to offer but themselves. I'm taking them to form a new community and I'd like you to lead them."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"And no one will know I was once branded?" she said, shock evident in her voice.

[Philote]

"Not from this community anyways" Midas says. "They all had something they were willing to give up. You will not be alone."

"Now, I need to give you a new name. Are there naming conventions your species uses?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"The first thing we see that stirs our hearts." She says, standing up.

[Philote]

"I'm going to need you watch for more than a single thing that stirs your heart if you're going to be the leader of my settlement of outcasts" Midas says.

"Lets name you 'Watches'"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

She rolls it over in her head, before nodding. "Yes sir."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

He doesn't have to go far. He's only a little ways into the jungle before seeing something slink out of the treetops and slither like a shadow into a nearby cave.

[Philote]

"Now, I think its time to go over my inventory" Midas says "I've had a good amount of deals today. Follow me dear."

Midas leads Watches to the edge of the city. A small group was already standing there. A mix-matched group of races. Some scared, confused or sad, but all being looked over by one of Midas' three servitors.

"Would you like to introduce yourself as their leader now?" Midas whispers to her.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

30 in the community, including Watches. 12 Male, 18 Female.

4 Vandals - 4 Females (Including Watches)
1 Dwarf - Male
2 Elves - 2 Male
1 Gill - Female
4 Milteos - 4 Male
2 Boquabian - 1 Male, 1 Female
2 Shifters - 1 Male, 1 Female
1 Lycanthrope - Male
4 Durhian - 1 Male, 3 Female
1 Goliath - Female
1 Centaur - Female
1 Shadow-Scarred - Male
4 Sea Witches - 4 Female
1 Zombie - Female
1 Human - Female

(If something in this list doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll update it)

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

It takes everything in her not to rush over the the vandal group and bask in solidarity with her sisters, but that wouldn't look good to the rest of them. The rest of them, looking over the assembled, were quite an eclectic bunch. She had never even seem a centaur or elf before, being two of the only races that weren't common in the city. They seemed to realize this,  sticking together.

The witches, while not being exactly a common sight in the city, were at least a known factor and they sat in a small circle with one another deep in conversation. Race didn't matter with a witch, they were basically a species unto themselves, but the one that was leading the conversation was an old Dwarf with a wispy grey beard and only one eye.

The Lycanthrope was a Drowning Dog, one of the Wolf Packs that took to the streets at night to fight it out over differences they'd brought with them in immigrating from Môsôorikan. She could tell by the torn blue bandanna and the patch on his shirtsleeve, a wolf locked in mortal combat with a shark. From the number of scars he had seen his fair share of brutality, which was sad because he looked only a bit younger than Watches herself.

The Boquabians stuck together too, but they had the distinction of being the only pair to be in good spirits. In fact, they were socializing, laughing and joking and trying to brighten up the mood of the Zombie and Shadow Scarred. They were being less successful and more annoying to the two.

The Gill had no group that it tried to stay near, instead restlessly making her way between the little cliques that had formed and speaking in the blatantly informal way that only a true Spectropolis native could muster up. The Dwarf had taken a seat in the middle of all this with the Human, the Goliath, and the two Shifters flanking him on all sides, directing a will to fight outwards toward the edges.

Looking at the edges, she inwardly thanked the little devil for whatever he had done. Durhians and Milteos sat at opposite ends of the congregation, eying one another in silence. Peoples on the brink of a civil war that had been building for years and years, just another problem added to the pile.

She stepped up and cleared her throat, loudly. Everyone stopped what they were doing, all eyes on Watches now.

It should be difficult. After all the shame, the grief, the need to just lay down and die, she always thought it would be harder to step back into the role. She was wrong. She stood as tall as she could, placed her arms behind her back, stalked toward, and it all just came flooding back.

She was in command again.

"My name is Watches, and I am your leader. That was the price of his service, if you have any complaints about that you can take it up with him. I personally don't care. I do not care who you are. I do not care WHAT you are. I do not care what mistakes you've made that lead you to this point, and you shouldn't either. Your history is your own business, and if you want to keep it that's fine. What I DO care about is making sure that this new venture goes off without a hitch, and that we are all working toward the same goal. For most of you this is no doubt a new start, a new life, and if you bring your hang ups or hatreds from your old one into it, and it disrupts this new life for the rest of us, I will come down on you like the wrath of Gilgamesh. Do I make myself absolutely clear?"

"MA'AM YES MA'AM!" Came a chorus of three voices from the back that almost made her shutter with delight. Dear gods how she'd missed that sound.

"What about the rest of you?"

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Jhella wandered the streets of Spectropolis, slightly bored. She'd tried out many of the games that mortals had set up for their own amusement in the city and found them to be far too easy for her to beat.

She looked around and then opened her cloak for a second as several of her Seekers flew out before closing it again. She stared at them before stating, "Entertainment."

And off the little lights flew to find something even slightly interesting.

[Philote]

A few from the group come forward, ready to air their initial complaints.

Midas stands reassuring next to Watches side and whispers to her. "There fears will be lessened if they know you have a plan." A scroll is taken out of his robes and passed discretely to her. "They are broken right now, but I've seen something special in you. You can bring them together during the times ahead."

The scroll contains a map inside of it with a location marked out:


The few groups reach Midas and Watches all at once, speaking over each other.

A Durhian male and female pair, voicing concerns for the safety of the other two Durhian females with so many Milteos about.

A Shifter sent forth as a representative to question Watches capability to lead.

An Elf, voicing concerns about food and shelter.

And the last of the first wave of complaints, A Lycanthrope complaining that he could not travel with this group while there were no other Lycanthropes to guard his back.