Personification Life IC IX - [Semi Open]

[Giovenith]

THRONG

The metal hoof came down. The giraffe rocked forward. Hollow eyes stared into space. It took another step.

Giovenith could easily find places to hide or to duck behind as she ran along.

A second set of footsteps joined her. Then a third and a fourth. The demons were playing too and in pursuit of her.

"Olly olly oxen free!" the call rang out as before.

There wasn't anymore opportunities to try to be careful in her escape, if she was to live or die, it would be decided now. Giovenith bolted and tried to block her mind from the demonic voices from her attention, reserving that for becoming hyper-aware of her surroundings, and the giraffe. Every crack on the sidewalk that could be tripped over was noted, every thing she could slam into, anything that might slow her. She figured she only had moments before the statue would follow, and the godling did her best to refuse the demons a reaction.

"What if I'm a snowstorm burning, What if I'm a world unturning, What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep!" she yelled out while running, making her own tune. If she was going down, she would go down the dignified way: Knowing her own voice. "What if I'm the kindest demon, Something you may not believe in, What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep?"

She knew something for certain. She knew that even if a godling fell, if anything fell, and they suffered the ultimate death of being forgotten, it was all Eternity. She knew that at least she had loved, and pained, and seen a world outside her own. She knew that she wouldn't have traded this chase now, knowing what she had been through, for a guaranteed immortality of the mundane and without feeling.

She did not know if she would make it in time; but these things she did know. This she knew.

[Cerillium]

There wasn't anymore opportunities to try to be careful in her escape, if she was to live or die, it would be decided now. Giovenith bolted and tried to block her mind from the demonic voices from her attention, reserving that for becoming hyper-aware of her surroundings, and the giraffe. Every crack on the sidewalk that could be tripped over was noted, every thing she could slam into, anything that might slow her. She figured she only had moments before the statue would follow, and the godling did her best to refuse the demons a reaction.

"What if I'm a snowstorm burning, What if I'm a world unturning, What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep!" she yelled out while running, making her own tune. If she was going down, she would go down the dignified way: Knowing her own voice. "What if I'm the kindest demon, Something you may not believe in, What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep?"

She knew something for certain. She knew that even if a godling fell, if anything fell, and they suffered the ultimate death of being forgotten, it was all Eternity. She knew that at least she had loved, and pained, and seen a world outside her own. She knew that she wouldn't have traded this chase now, knowing what she had been through, for a guaranteed immortality of the mundane and without feeling.

She did not know if she would make it in time; but these things she did know. This she knew.

The little godling's fingertips touched the Building's cool exterior. She'd run for all her life. She'd out-sprinted the demons. The giraffe was far too slow to even catch her. It was only meant to torment her.

A drum rolled in the distance. The wind conveyed the giggling of small children as they chanted, The sound of the drum calls for my life. Do you want to hide and seek?

All the world remained deathly still, so still that Giovenith's beating heart seemed to be the only moving thing in the whole world.


“You did it. You won.”

Naomi giggled. She stood next to Giovenith. Her hands were clasped in front of her. She offered a child's innocent smile.

“We didn’t think you would.”

Their stray hair was whipped by the soft breeze and dead leaves passed between them.

“I won last year. It’s good I did. Otherwise the Building would have died. But see? It’s still good. Even after the Drones killed it.”

Naomi’s pale hand directed Giovenith’s attention to the Building. Lights were on. Warm and inviting, they cast a cheerful glow onto the street below. Yet those weren’t electrical lights. They shone from figures standing at the windows. Minerva, Yoshi, Chrys, Natiya, the Dunmer, Octavian, Ogoti, Blossom, Luce, Jacob, Bran, NVE, Primordial, Insidious, Fortu, Torii, and Ray. They stood like sentries behind the glass, their pale faces drawn into gruesome masks of pain.

“You won. Now you’re It. Next year, you’re the demon. Next year, you’ll bring them in and we’ll play some more. That’s the rules. Won’t that be fun?”

[Giovenith]

Giovenith slowly blinked at Naomi, then turned her head from side to side to take in the faces of her friends, and the twisted version of the place she had learned to call home. Games. Games were kind of like stories, in a way, weren't they? They had a beginning, a middle, a struggle, an end, and the end always left you with a little something to take home. Giovenith had always been told she would be the one who stood to represent that which was taken home.

And most of all, like anything in Eternity, games and stories always, without fail, repeated themselves.

"Hmf," she humphed, looking back at Naomi in the eye. "You know I always preferred jacks."

[Cerillium]

Naomi nodded. "I like hopscotch myself."

Giovenith felt a searing pain as a symbol etched itself onto her chest. The symbol of the Building. The start and the end.

"Mr. Demens agrees," Naomi smiled at the newly marked demon. "Goodbye. I'm free."

---

We now return you to your regularly scheduled role playing.

Personification Life IX
[Open – Accepting New Players]

[Cerillium]

"Probably some sort of amount of sex drugs, and other types of debauchery?" Yuna assumed. Will had told her there'd be sex and drugs, so that's where she got that little tidbit from.

The priestess chuckled a bit at the smiley face. "Well, I was just joking, but now it says more of "I'm going to kill you, but look happy while doing it." Yeah, it's better." She said, while watching each movement of the stranger. At least he wasn't being loud like others could. Speaking of that, she hated humans for it, the one thing she didn't like.

"I'm in training, for what, for why? I have no idea."

"How did you know I was going to kill you?" the man questioned suspiciously. Perhaps the strange, winged creature read minds?

He picked his legs up and crossed them on the bed. Now occupying the entire corner and seated "Indian style", the man regarded Yuna with new-found interest. "You're a BranRiech native, ja? What did they call your country before the BranRiechians drove you underground? Why do you tolerate their presence? What do you eat underground? Do you farm? Do you catch blind fish? Are there winged cattle? What does your city look like? Do you live as primitives? What do you think of my tie?"

The last was a trick question; he wasn't wearing one.

[Erucia]

(Back at the apartment, right outside the elevator...)
---
"Oh....Well, I suppose those are certainly differences. But human blood is blue, but just not when exposed to oxygen (if I remember that right)," Ray shrugged. It was still sort of odd running into a new species that looked so similar to humans, although by definition, Albert and Jacob weren't really humans either. Nor was he, for that matter: at least not a pure human.

"But how did the....Urranese come about? Why do they exist?", Ray continued as he pressed the button for the elevator door, sending it right up to the group.

[Urran]

(Back at the apartment, right outside the elevator...)
---
"Oh....Well, I suppose those are certainly differences. But human blood is blue, but just not when exposed to oxygen (if I remember that right)," Ray shrugged. It was still sort of odd running into a new species that looked so similar to humans, although by definition, Albert and Jacob weren't really humans either. Nor was he, for that matter: at least not a pure human.

"But how did the....Urranese come about? Why do they exist?", Ray continued as he pressed the button for the elevator door, sending it right up to the group.

"There is an old legened that we are descended from the Moon Goddess, others say we evolved, and others say we were created by the God of the Bible. I-I'm Jewish so you know where I stand...fr-from what I understand about Jacob, you are technically mutants right?" Yoshi asked. He was very curious about Ray and his ancestry and what not.

[Tiltjuice]

"Don't be sorry. You don't have any reason to be. And - I'm neither of those, but one vice is good as another, isn't it?" Dora kissed Katya again, slowly and fully.

As she broke away, she looked at Katya. "Are you looking forward to it?"



Tasia paused and let Torii go first. With a slightly abashed look, she explained. "Where's your room, anyway?"

Her index fingers dug into the skin on the side of her thumbnails.

"Looking forward to it?"

Katya looked around a bit, contemplating. She shifted a bit, nervously, as well.

"Well....you mean for the baby? Well, I don't know. I guess I am, but I've actually been having doubts."

A hand slid back over Dora's.

"Do you understand? I'm excited, but...I feel like I may be a bit too young for this. I'm not going to let it hold me back from what I want to do."

.....

"My room?", Torii tilted her head. "Just down the hall, taking a left. I share it with my big sister.", She said, waving for Tasia to keep following. "I just need to grab my rifle, some ammo, and switch into my uniform."

"And what might that be?"

Dora sat back. Evidently Katya wanted to talk something through, and distracting her wasn't completely working. She waited patiently, merely enjoying the contact.

*****

"Sure, that sounds good! Uniform? Whose uniform do you wear?" Tasia padded along.

---

Chrys waved as Luce came inside, missing the warmth of Hans' hand. "That's right!" she called out, despite that Luce was almost standing next to them. He dropped into a third chair (he'd dried himself off as he was walking up the stairs) and scanned their faces.

"Right, what's going on?" he asked, and Chrys filled him in on what Hans had told her. The Roman thought for a few moments.

"Well...first, is Bane the type to - is he straightforwardly evil, or will he pack up his bags and go away temporarily or permanently if we win a competition against him, or something else altogether? I'd suppose that in any case, though, we should warn all the others, true."

In all the commotion, he forgot to mention the other matter that had brought him in search of Chrys.

"Evil?" Hans scratched behind his ear and thought about it for a moment.

"No, it's unfair to say "evil". Evil is profound malevolence when regarded as a supernatural force, ja? Bane doesn't seek to do evil. That primordial void sees us as an invasion. We're a cancer. We're a splinter. We intrude. It wants to purge us. Bane's been banished in the past but..."

Hans gave it more thought. His knowledge was rusty and drawing analogies was difficult. It was easier to convey thoughts through the bonds between cultists. He chewed his bottom lip and made a stab at it.

"Habituation. Touching the head of a low-intelligence animal like a crayfish or worm causes an alarm response, ja? It backs up. But over time, this response lessens as it perceives the stimuli as not life threatening. It doesn't back up. It stands there until you tap it hard enough to get a new response. At some point, it'll realize your taps could become life threatening because of the amount of effort you put into each strike. It tries a new tactic. It attacks.

"Bane is habituated. Our taps are meaningless. We can't hurt him. He's learned to come out fighting instead of tolerating our initial taps again. There isn't any contest to win, no challenge, no "sit down and play chess". We should warn the others, ja. We should because he won't wait until they tap. He'll attack straight off and without preamble."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Chrys jumped to her feet, almost overturning the table. It slid forward a few inches, wobbling. Luce pulled her and it back and gave Hans a half-apologetic, half-exasperated look, relieved the edge hadn't slammed into the cultist.

"So Bane wants us gone?" Luce asked again, just to make sure he was on the right track. A few extra seconds wouldn't hurt - he hoped. Perhaps foolishly, if Bane could step out of time just as easily as he and Chrys could.

[The BranRiech]

"So many questions, why? The name for the land before the Branriech has long been forgotten, now we just call it. "Home above." But to the other questions, no, we do not live as primitives. We live much like humans do now, only underground. We farm, we raise crops. It took generations to practice, but now? We know how to grow many different edible plants underground. But yes, meat tends to be blind, all the easier to catch." Yuna chuckled a bit. This man sure was curious!

"Well, wait . . . What tie?"

[Erucia]

"There is an old legened that we are descended from the Moon Goddess, others say we evolved, and others say we were created by the God of the Bible. I-I'm Jewish so you know where I stand...fr-from what I understand about Jacob, you are technically mutants right?" Yoshi asked. He was very curious about Ray and his ancestry and what not.

"...W-Wait, me? No, I'm not from where Jacob lives. I'm from...Well, somewhere else. Where Bielefeld doesn't exist. I like to call it a much more normal realm of existence, but I might be wrong," Ray scratched at his head and tried to backtrack. "...Actually, I am technically a mutant now. 2% Grey Fox, if I remember the total right, but it might very well be more.

"I was just a normal human a while ago. I ended up getting a surgical procedure done some years before now in which it made me look like a Grey Fox, but I was human by all means. Then...well, I actually got killed by a falling horse. It was rather violent, and I was brought back in this body. Not really sure if I like it more or not."

[Germanic Templars]

Last time on Sups and Luc...

Superbia shrugged off the clipping as Lucius falls on the ground ground again with a loud "Oof."

he looked to see Blythe out of his half closed eyes. "Hello?"
Superbia, on the other hand, laid flat on the ceiling as he looked down at Xanthe.

[Urran]

Tieria smiled to Kei. "So, Kei, what have you been up to as of late? And what direction do you think that your life will take now?" he asked, legitimately curious.


Anew sat down on the couch and folded her hands in her lap before turning to Rylli. "So, why did you and your husband defect from your country?" she asked.

Yoshi nodded, he found Ray's story to be fascinating. "Oh, I see... It's fascinating that so many people from so many worlds and universes find their way here." He ran his fingers through his hair and groaned. He really wanted to let his hair down.

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

Now as the horror story that did not happen came to a close, the Raptor faction continued their existence uninterrupted.

At the traditional Japanese Resturant, Fortu cheerfully recalled past adventures with Monique.

"Yes, I remember the bus. Don't worry about the base, they abandoned it completely. But it would be a smart idea to stay away from whatever got left behind." Fortu said. as he wondered where that bald fellow had gone to.

---

"Eggs are good yes?" Arthur asked his subject who still was in the orange jumpsuit.

"Didn't know they served eggs in hell." Koontz replied as he ate.

"They don't, and I have been there. And there is not here, and I'm not allowed back." Arthur said confusingly.

"Can I leave?" Koontz asked his host who seemed like a reptilian-human hybrid.

"Feel free to roam around, I have other things to do. But, you'll be back." Arthur replied.

"And why is that?" Koontz inquired suspiciously.

"Because, my associates can get you back home after a small observational period." Arthur said before he stood up and left. Leaving Koontz to finish eating. After a while, Koontz got up and wanted to explore where exactly he was, starting with the halls of the building.

---

NVE wandered around taking readings of the breakdown of reality. Such breakdowns seriously affected the accuracy of their teleportation and chronoportation tech. So many rifts in reality surrounding the building, it pissed him off that they now had to work around them.

[Erucia]

"I think it is. It's like a city for immigrants, only....Well, immigrants from many, many different places," Ray nodded back in return. It wasn't really much of a place to immigrate to in terms of raising a family, since it was just so crazy. But it was a place for adventure.

The elevator pinged at its arrival, and Ray entered in first.

[Urran]

Yoshi stepped into the elevator behind Ray and leaned against the wall. He was ready to get going, maybe get something to eat, and generally hang out with his friends. The boy had really come out of his shell since coming to the building.

[New Aksarben]

Jacob followed the other two into the elevator, smiling happily. "I agree with that, Ray. It is quite a diverse city, and has many, many interesting people in it. Most of whom seem to be concentrated in this building," Jacob observed, pressing the button for the lobby and leaning against one of the walls of the elevator. "I am glad I happened to fall into this universe from my own. It has been quite an interesting time living here, much more than it ever was back home."

[Torsiedelle]

Without hesitation, Katya replied with "I want to see the world. I want to live up my life, and go on adventures with my friends, and play my music, and not just he regulated to the role of a mother. I want to...be something. I'm highborn. I have to..."

Dora could understand this, right? She loved what she would be doing soon, and how things would change, but when she thought about it, she also bought about all the new duties and the expectations, and how other people turned out, and she didn't want to be like that. She was still young, and look at where she lived! She wanted to be adventurous like the other residents.

.....

"What uniform, you ask?", Torii said. "Why, the Junior military uniform of a Torsiedellie soldier! Actually, I gotta order a new one, since I'm seventeen now. I'll be getting a digi-camo mao-suit style uniform. Ya know, it'll be a nice change of attire, eh?"

[Erucia]

"I'm glad you fell here, too. It meant that I got to meet your cute brother, Jacob. Many thanks for that," Ray giggled as he hit the button for the main lobby and sent the elevator heading on down. Once it reached the lobby, it opened up with a ding: Ray allowed Jacob and Yoshi to exit before doing so himself.

In all honesty, however, it was a fairly good point that Jacob presented. A lot of the people who came from different realms and universes showed up and then came in to the apartment block. Perhaps it allowed the place to be a little more interesting, but it had to be presented as to why they didn't just pick any other locations to live. Perhaps it was because the place had good, cheap rent and nice apartments.

[Urran]

Yoshi stepped out of the elevator and smiled. He was really looking forward to spending some time with the guys. He was walking along beside Jacob when his phone vibrated. The sudden sensation of his phone shaking on his leg made him jump. Poor easily startled Yoshi. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out an older model Nokia slider and sighed. It was his editor. He pushed the talk button and held the phone up to his ear. "Hello?" he asked. A short conversation in Japanese ensued and Yoshi hung up and groaned, putting his phone away. He rubbed the back of his neck, he hoped that his friends weren't too disappointed. "H-hey uys..I-I have to go. that was my editor and I have some stuff to go do." he said with a from. He had been looking forward to this and of course the universe had other plans. Oh well, he'd just eat at home.

[New Aksarben]

Sterling could not help but stare as Gio doubled over and began hacking fiercely. It was just so odd and sick sounding, that he felt like he was going to throw up. He held a hoof in front of his mouth to combat the feeling. The unicorn hoped that she was alright, seeing as it sounded like the godling was choking on something, except for the hissing. That was just odd, and did nothing to make the unicorn feel better and less worried.

The noise of her finally hacking something up nearly made Sterling vomit, seeing as the sound was absolutely terrible and disgusting sounding to the unicorn. He barely managed to keep himself from retching, but luckily for Willow and Gio, he managed to keep it down. He had been about to say something, but then decided to not say anything for a while, otherwise the unicorn might actually vomit. He swallowed with some difficulty, and headed over to the sink to get some water.

While he levitated a glass out of a cupboard and tried to figure how to get water from the sink, Sterling listened into Gio and Willow's conversation. The news that there were other creatures of chaos in building worried the unicorn. His experiences with discord had not been very fun. Especially considering Discord had basically tortured him by removing his fez, and forcing the unicorn to chase after it while it was always suspended just out of his reach. While normally that wouldn't have been a problem, to make things worse Discord had made his horn vanish. Without that important part of him the unicorn could not perform any magic, thus Discord could do whatever he wanted.

The unicorn was just glad that Twilight and her friends had frozen Discord before things had gotten too insane. It had taken Sterling a week just to clean up the mess his house had been left in, and some of his books had gotten soaked in chocolate milk(not a very good thing to get books covered in, honestly) Sterling finally managed to get his water(once he figured out that he needed to turn one of the handles next to the spout), and after drinking some water to settle his stomach, the unicorn rejoined the other two in the Kitchen just in time to hear Gio asking about their cutie marks.

"Oh, these?" Sterling turned so his cutie mark was more visible. "No, we do not get our cutie marks until we discover our true talent and passion. Mine represents my skill with organization. I can easily organize anything into a logical manner, especially things like books and knowledge. I personally got my cutie mark after helping a librarian return books to their proper places in a library after some hooligans knocked them down.

"Most ponies get them between the ages of 12 and 18. Some get them earlier, and some later, however. I didn't get mine until quite late, honestly." Sterling turned again to sit down and look over towards the godling again, "Basically, cutie marks are signs that you've matured and grown up, and are nearly ready to set out on your own and get a job in the area your cutie mark shows. I've also noticed that families tend to get similar cutie marks, like foals with farmers for parents get farming cutie marks, while bakers get baking cutie marks. There are some exceptions though. I'm pretty sure that Willlow's parents weren't artists like him."

---

"You do, Yoshi?" JAcob said, looking a bit disappointed. He had really wanted to spend time with his friend. That never really seemed to happen anymore however. Yoshi always seemed to be with Katya, or busy with something else, or dead, and never seemed to have spare time to simply hang out and have fun doing things with friends. It was a bit dissapointing, but Jacob understood. Yoshi was a busy man, after all.

"I guess we can always do this later, Amicus. Work comes first, after all." Jacob nodded, and gave a smile to Yoshi. "Maybe when its not raining anymore, too."

[Giovenith]

"Heeeeeh," Willow mock-laughed in agreement with Sterling about his parents. It was true, they had been anything but what their son was, and nobody in the family ever forgot it, much as they all tried to pretend otherwise.

"Oh, I guess that explains why they're so important to you like you said before then," said Giovenith, tilting her head. "So it's kind of like a coming of age thing then? A confirmation of identity. That does sound a bit easier than the usual non-visual soul-searching we have to do here."

"That's what I said in the first place, no?" threw in Willow, now eyeing Sterling to see if the unicorn was about to get sick again at some point. Grim as he could be, Willow became concerned about his few friends very easily, usually becoming on edge as soon as something seemed amiss. "Are you feeling alright?"

[New Aksarben]

"Heeeeeh," Willow mock-laughed in agreement with Sterling about his parents. It was true, they had been anything but what their son was, and nobody in the family ever forgot it, much as they all tried to pretend otherwise.

"Oh, I guess that explains why they're so important to you like you said before then," said Giovenith, tilting her head. "So it's kind of like a coming of age thing then? A confirmation of identity. That does sound a bit easier than the usual non-visual soul-searching we have to do here."

"That's what I said in the first place, no?" threw in Willow, now eyeing Sterling to see if the unicorn was about to get sick again at some point. Grim as he could be, Willow became concerned about his few friends very easily, usually becoming on edge as soon as something seemed amiss. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm alright, Willow. The noises were just a bit much for me....." Sterling took a big drink of his water glass, and then smiled at Willow. "See? I'm fine. You don't have to be worried about me, Willow. Honestly, you don't."

Sterling then looked back at Giovenith to speak to the godling. "Well, yes, that's what it is, basically. It shows us what we are destined to do, and what we are the best at. My talent is quite general, honestly. Which is a useful thing, as I could get a job in anything that required good organizational skills. But I chose to be a librarian, due to my love of books. Most talents aren't as broad as mine though." Sterling nodded at that, and looked around again, to see if there was anypony else in the communal dining and kitchen anymore. There were others before, but apparently they had left.

[Giovenith]

"Well I think that's a really useful talent! So many people have problems that arise from disorganization," Giovenith nodded encouragingly. She of all people would know a thing or two about that. "Oh! Just one more question, pretty please?"

"What?" Willow half-groaned.

"Are you going to go back home very soon, or stay with us for a while?"

[New Aksarben]

"I have no idea, Gio. I would love to go back home, but to do that we would need some ingredients to recreate the spell. And I have no idea if they have said ingredients here. We would need some gems, manticore fur, dragon spit, volcano dust, and liquid ebony to create the portal again. And I have no idea if those even exist in this world. So I really have no idea. Like, at all." Sterling replied with a heavy sigh, before taking a sip of his water again. He dearly wanted to escape this crazy, strange world and return to here things made sense. Where the weather was controlled and normal, and the Sun was moved by Celestia. Things made so much more sense back in Equestria....

[Giovenith]

"Huh, well that is a tricky quandary," puffed Giovenith, tapping her pale cheek with her index finger and looking down.

"To say the least," added Willow, wishing the emphasize the serious nature of their situation. His feelings were similar Sterling's on the matter, and he didn't want Giovenith slipping into the perception that this was some kind of game that could easily be stalled.

"Well, I can provide the dragon spit," said Giovenith, smiling knowingly at the two ponies. "As for the other things though, yes, I am afraid they might be quite the challenge to obtain."