Personification Life - IC Part VIII [open]

[Swith Witherward]

(OOC: in the spirit of odd spoiler titles)
The voluminous purple ostrich feathers laying beside the throne parted just enough for Fram to peer out at Swith and.....

"OHMYGODOHMYGOD! You brought Reverend Henry Kane!" Fram gushed.

He noted Swith's expression and huffed. "Oh you are a stick in the mud. Henry Kane. The leader of a Satanic, 19th century utopian cult who held an apocalyptic view on the world, sealing himself and his followers inside a cave system in order to die until they were dead."

The succubus on top of Fram grunted as he shoved her aside. He rose and positively beamed at the Reverend Fred Phelps. "I can't tell you what a pleasure it is having you here. Do sit down, silly beast. I'll whip up some cocktails!"

By that he meant he'd shout "brandy!" until glasses materialized in everyone's hands.

Collab w/Cer

"I'm an old time bible preacher," Fred glared at Swith. He'd already jumped to conclusions about Fram. "I'm not the antichrist Catholic church. I'm Baptist. And that foul creature is nothing but a fag. God hates fags."

Swith narrowed her eyes. "He's not. He's all genders. Orientation doesn't mean anything to him. But he's a god and doesn't hate himself."

"Which god hates me?" Fram interrupted.

"God," Swith and Fred said in unison. She stamped her foot for emphasis and added, "Elohim. The Abrahamic God."

"And his son, the Lord Jesus," Fred professed.

"Who?" Fram was never one to look too closely at humanity unless it was to corrupt their carnal sides. He was mildly irritated at some unknown being hating him for no reason.

"Jesus!" Fred and Swith said in unison, although Swith's statement was more of an expletive.

Fram wrinkled his nose. "You needn't shout. I'm not deaf. I just haven't heard of this hateful man."

"Ugh," Swith rolled her eyes. "He's not hateful. How can you not have heard of him? Honestly Fram, you need to sober up at least once a millennium. Hebrew prophets spoke of a messiah's coming. Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah. And don't you even try to weasel out and say "who?" to the Hebrews. It wasn't my damn golden calf those Hebrews were dancing around!"

"Thank you," Fram bowed his head demurely. "But I still don't see what this man has to do with it."

Fred, on the other hand, tilted his head towards Swith. "You're a god of chaos?"

"Yes."

"And you know of the Lord Jesus?"

"Well yes, doesn't everyone? Your chosen pantheon is so pervasive... no offense to Elohim... that very few people haven't heard of Him. Except Fram. Fram is a moron."

The pastor's face reddened, mostly from frustration and anger. "How can you, a demon false god, know anything about my Lord and Savior? How can you claim to know-"

Swith held up her hand. "It's dae-mon, not demon. I'm not a false god. I'm just not your god. As for Jesus? I was there when they nailed him to the wood. Many of us were there, representing our various pantheons. I'd thank you to speak more respectfully lest I smite you. You assume nobody outside your pantheon knows about him. You assume we don't even acknowledge Elohim. Let me tell you what I know."

She tipped her chin up to stare into Fred's eyes, and held up her hand to hush Fram (who was about to interrupt with yet another silly thing that Swith's handler insisted on removing during collaboration efforts.)

"Elohim is as real as the other gods. He's more powerful than many of them. He's a Greater Being. We respect that. Don't for an instant assume we don't. Not all of us like him. He's a bit of an ass to his followers. Now as for Jesus? Iesus...Iesous.. Yeshua... Yehoshua. I don't care what name you choose to use. Let's stick with "Jesus" for common ground. The Jews don't believe in him. The Muslims think he's a great prophet. Most, but not all, Christians believe he is both God and man. He stilled the seas and walked on water. With a touch of his hand, he cured incurable diseases. He restored life to those who had physically died. No biggie. There are plenty of people in this very building who can do that. Jesus personifies love. Well, so does Naomi. But Jesus paid the ultimate price so that people like you could live with him forever. He sees humanity through the eyes of love.

"He loves you in spite of every hurtful thought, every harmful word, and every wrongful action. You believe these actions are all a result of sin, which contaminates everything you do. You believe it is behind every broken home, every empty life, every infirmity, every damaged emotion, every sorrow and grief. And as your Bible says, the end result of sin is death. Romans chapter six, verse twenty-three, I believe. But Jesus was sinless. Only he could pay the penalty for your sins. Out of love for human beings, he suffered, died, and rose again. He forged a new covenant between Elohim and you. Elohim forgives. Those who believe in Jesus are guaranteed eternal life with Him in heaven... as long as they're not assholes who turn their backs upon him. I mean, if you reject a god you really can't expect that god to say "welcome home" when you bite it. But that's theology, and I don't debate theology with mortals. I don't even debate it with Anubis after our tennis matches."

Fram raised an eyebrow. "You honestly believe that?"

"I was there."

"And you don't believe in God?" Fred interrupted.

"Ass. Didn't I just say Elohim is real? I don't follow Elohim. I'm a god. I'm in my own pantheon. Elohim didn't make a new covenant with other pantheons, or with demons and angels or other deities. The whole gig is yours. You, a human being. He's all about you. You want to condemn people because you feel Elohim hates them. He doesn't. Nowhere in the bible does it say he does. You're free to believe people's actions are sins, and you profess to know that Elohim hates sin. However, all the world was in sin when they nailed Jesus to the cross, and yet he still died for humans. So hush with the "God hates fags" nonsense.

"God hates fags!" Fred reaffirmed.

"Excuse me," Fram interrupted, "But this brings be back to my question. What the fuck is a fag?"

"A homosexual man," Fred and Swith replied in unison.

Fram snapped his mouth closed, irate at being accused of having an orientation.

"Now you've pissed him off," Swith whispered Fred. "He hates it when humans misunderstand his nature. He's fully male and fully female, you see, but also neither."

It was Fred's turn to raise a surprised eyebrow. "Fully? But neither? That's an abomination!"

"No, it's just Chaos. He and I are the same thing. Hedonism. The emotions of lust, carnal desires, delight in excess, pure perfection, you know. I chose to take female form. He just looks male. If you pull down his pants, you won't find any genitals. He forms them to suit his needs, and to suit whatever species he wants to frolic with."

"That's DISGUSTING!" Fred growled.

"Not really. You see, you're judging him because you're assigning human attributes to him. He's not human. Also, this train wreck of a conversation has taken us off the tracks. You're here to exorcize him."

"I get plenty of exercise," Fram huffed.

Swith snarled. "Ex-OR-cize, not ex-ER-cise. I want you gone."

Fram looked around his beautiful new Lair, and at his minions (who had actually woken up and were listening to the entire conversation.) He'd perfected the place. It was now worthy to be home to She Who Thirsts. It was fabulous. "You want me gone?"

"YES. This is MY lair. I formed it. Ogoti binded it, Elohim blessed it. It's sacred and holy ground. I said you could stay the night, not take my place. You're only allowed to be in the material plain when summoned, but you figured out you could stay in here because it's sacred. Fram, I've asked very politely for you to leave. Go set up your own Lair somewhere. Your actions in here upset Ogoti, and offend Elohim. You're going to cost me business contracts with Him. Please, just... find a new place to dwell. I'm sorry, but you know the rules."

Fram was crestfallen. He did know the rules, of course. He also knew long before now that he'd overstayed his welcome. He'd been squatting on purpose just to see if Swith would Manifest and challenge him. But this? A funny preacher from another pantheon who turned out to not be the Reverend Henry Kane? Charumati didn't need to manifest - she had connections. Not only that, but his own daemons had perked up their ears in interest when they heard the testimony. They hadn't attended the crucifixion. They were curious about Elohim's offering to humanity. Oh, enough! He wasn't about to let his hosts be corrupted by absolute heresy.

"Alright," Fram said at last. "I admit I was in the wrong. I'll vacate and return to home. Can I still visit?"

"On occasion," Swith replied, "with invitation. Maybe Christmas?"

The pastor pulled himself from his stupor. "Christmas? You celebrate Christmas?"

"Yes. Naomi taught me about it last year. Lovely holiday. I still don't understand about the barn, but the plastic sheep were tasty."

"Christmas!" Fram cried. "Oh, that messiah! Why did you just say so in the beginning?"

"Oh, enough!" Swith was quite finished with the bantering. "Just go. NOW!"

A loud pop heralded the disappearance of Fram, his minions, the opulent decorations and tapestries, the statues of himself, the statues of male genitalia, the various beds, the decadent food, the alcohol and all other Fram-related items. Swith was left with an empty Lair. She sighed happily. "Finally!"

"What the fuck is this?" Fred's head was beginning to ache.

"A bad dream. You won't remember any of it tomorrow." With that, she sunk her teeth into his shoulder and they vanished. True to her word, he'd wake up the following day with nothing to show for the events that night... except for a very sore shoulder which he'd assumed happened because he'd slept on it funny.

[Urran]

Anew had to think of a story fast. As an Innovater she wanted world peace through conflict but peace nonetheless. She would go with that. She twiddled her lavender hair and smiled, looking around the room. "I'm the Urranese goddess of peace but it isn't very peaceful there a the moment and I came here until my brother, War, gets down doing his thing." She wasn't really lying, Beside Pain was in Urran and all of the Innovaters saw themselves as brothers and sisters.

"Oh yeah, the whole goddess thing would protect you but my body would have been screwed." Tieria chuckled. Even if he and Kei weren't together anymore, he still loved her, though more like a brother would a sister. He saw no reason that they couldn't do stuff together.

[Swith Witherward]

OOC: I'm sorry this is so long overdue!

To Fortu the charade might of been just for show, but he hoped that eventually it would be real. Leaving the madness behind and staying with Monique was always the plan so far, but he was nervous, worried that somehow something would ruin it. The writer points out that Fortu never smokes, since he likes to keep things maintained, neat and clean, even his internal components. Now back to Fortu's thoughts, something ruining it would be inevitable, he would do everything to delay that as long as possible and cherish every moment they had. Right now, he savored the moment, caressing her hair as Monique rested on his chest. A drifting thought suggested that he shouldn't go with the suggestion of being an accountant specializing in tax codes, since being from the Hamptons would mean he would know American tax codes not Bielefeld tax codes. But those were small details. His more focused thoughts considered at what point would the fantasy, hopefully, become a reality.

"The Davenports..." he whispered happily as the cab neared he Japanese restaurant.

The rain was still coming down heavily when the cab pulled to the curb. Monique swatted Fortu's hand away and payed the cabby herself, and then grinned at Fortu as if to say "well, because I wanted to, so there!"

They'd have to get a little wet as they stepped onto the curb. Umbrellas were only good when fully deployed. The restaurant was inviting and the windows lit up with a golden glow. The scent of good food was on the air despite the weather. Monique sighed. She loved Asian food.

She tucked her arm into his and they made their way up the stairs and into the restaurant proper.

It was a traditional Japanese restaurant. Patrons were asked to remove their shoes and given socks to wear (if they lacked their own.) They were seated at a low table in a room partitioned by rice paper panels. The waitress, clad in traditional kimono and other attire, brought menus to them and bowed as she left the room.

"This is nice," Monique said once they were alone. "Do you remember the restaurant we went to on our first date?"

[Swith Witherward]

"Of course," Luce said, as mildly and tranquilly as ever, with an answering bow. "I could not let you remain as you were, in good conscience." He didn't know if cultists could get sick, but that wasn't best left to chance.

"As for myself, I..." He thought for a few moments. "...I will start with my Sister, to see if she has any insights on why she received a cane; and then move on to her one-time lover, the demon/goddess."

He bowed slightly again, and then headed off toward the stairs.

---

Chrys' eyes narrowed in concentration, and she nodded in response to Hans' initial warnings on what the others should do with Bane. And unusual - that would be hard, she thought, in this building. She opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question on that, but paused as Hans continued and covered her hand with his.

"Not to worry, I like my limbs right where they are," she replied in her usual light chime, even as chills snaked up and down her spine at the idea of confronting someone who shared at least one power with her. She gave Hans what she hoped was an encouraging look, and squeezed his hand lightly.

It was at that point that a key turned in the lock and Luce stepped inside, stopping short as he saw Hans.

"Hello," he greeted the cultist, somewhat surprised to see him. The door shut with a soft thud.

Misaki politely waited for Luce to depart before descending down the stairs to visit the Bomb Shelter, as she told Luce she would do several pages ago before her handler got tied up IRL.

She knocked at the door, brushed a strand of purple hair from her eyes, and waited.

--

Hans smiled in reply, relieved that Chrys was taking it seriously. The only thing anyone could do with a dead battle maiden was poke their corpse with a stick. It wasn't exactly an exciting pastime.

The cultist turned his head as the door opened but didn't pull his hand away. Luce was another entity that had come into his world. Everyone else was just a blur, beings that went about their lives without any clarity in his sight. Somehow, Luce had also been accept by Hans as being "one of us", although if you asked him, Hans wouldn't be able to define "us" clearly.

"Guten Tag, Luce," he said, finally drawing his hand back. "Chrys and I have been having a discussion that will interest you."

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

The rain was still coming down heavily when the cab pulled to the curb. Monique swatted Fortu's hand away and payed the cabby herself, and then grinned at Fortu as if to say "well, because I wanted to, so there!"

They'd have to get a little wet as they stepped onto the curb. Umbrellas were only good when fully deployed. The restaurant was inviting and the windows lit up with a golden glow. The scent of good food was on the air despite the weather. Monique sighed. She loved Asian food.

She tucked her arm into his and they made their way up the stairs and into the restaurant proper.

It was a traditional Japanese restaurant. Patrons were asked to remove their shoes and given socks to wear (if they lacked their own.) They were seated at a low table in a room partitioned by rice paper panels. The waitress, clad in traditional kimono and other attire, brought menus to them and bowed as she left the room.

"This is nice," Monique said once they were alone. "Do you remember the restaurant we went to on our first date?"

OOC: It's fine, take all the time you need.

Unfamiliar with traditional Japanese etiquette, Fortu did as he was told to be polite. Feeling the floor beneath his feet, it reminded him a bit of walking around with claws, especially the sensation of the details and grooves of the floor.

"I believe it was Wu's Diamond Garden. Although it wasn't the first date, that was...." Fortu thoughtfully looked a bit up and to the right as he sorted through his memory.

"...Could we call Vegas a date? It's all sort of a blur, a very wonderful blur." Fortu said recalling the year's events. Some were good, and some were bad, but he loved every moment with Monique, except for the parts where he thought she was an assassin those were terrifying at the start when he met her.

[The BranRiech]

"Well . . . That's very unfortunate, you know? We were displaced from our homeland I suppose, well, we're traitors to them. I was a fighter pilot who deserted, and Bran, well he came here first, but he was a mechanic in the Air force." Rylli said. She knew the feeling of leaving her homeland quite well, remembering the long, and lonely flight to Vaffleheim, as it was at the time, not knowing if she was being followed or not. But then she somehow met Bran there? It made it worth it.

"Yeah, it's a sad feeling, to be pushed out of your home."

--

"Yeah, if you poisoned my food, you're either dumb, or asking to be turned into a cheese statue. Heh, I think I did that to your hair when you were possessed. Yeah, that was funny, although I suppose I was drunk, and I broke a picture frame and the door . . ." Kei started trailing off. "Yeah, no, not too funny then."

--

The door slid open for Misaki. Bran, who was seated at the old command booth (Where he'd always greet the apartment with the intercom, and moniter security cameras, and you know, open the door and stuff) with a polite smile as he noticed Misaki. "I don't believe we've met before . . ." He said. While he was pefrectly fine with letting random people in who didn't seem to be drones or robots, he was still a bit suspicious about strangers.

[Germanic Templars]

In the lobby, a portal torn open, flying out of it came Lucius who smacked into the wall. Following him came Superbia who slammed into Lucius rear end first.

"Sups."

"Yea?" The demon asked as he looked down at Lucius.

"Can you please get off of me?"

"Eh, sure, whatever. " the demon then jumped into the ceiling and sat up there while Lucius stood up to dust off his robe.

[New Aksarben]

"It sounds a little bit like apotheosis to me," Giovenith climbed carefully up onto the counter again to put away the dishes she had washed, gently placing them on top of others. "Not harsh or obsessive enough to be a cult of personality, though."

"It's not like we run around screeching their names at the top of our lungs and blood-sacrificing our first born foals to them," commented Willow with usual cutting-edge sarcasm, propping up his head on the table with his hoof. "They've been around for as long as any living pony can remember, they are the leaders, and they have some of the strongest magic we know of. Considering the troubles they've managed to lead the country through over the centuries, I'm quite sure we're not mistaken to put as much reverence into them as we do."

"Troubles?" Giovenith honestly didn't imagine that a world full of ponies had all that much to complain enough, so she secretly figured it was most likely something like a drought.

"Just a few." Sterling confirmed with a firm nod of his head. The unicorn deftly caught his fez with his magic as it fell off again, and placed it back on his head before continuing. After all, it was his favorite piece of headgear. "How about I give you a few examples of some of the trouble's we've had?

"The princesses are the reason we ponies can live so happily and freely. Before their joint rule, a malevolent spirit named Discord ruled Equestria in anarchy in Chaos. He tortured and messed with ponies constantly; doing things like changing the very fundamental laws of nature, make it rain chocolate milk, or mess with our personalities; just to get entertainment. He was a nasty draconequus. I do not even know how long he was in charge, but his reign was ended by the arrival of Celestia and Luna with the Elements of Harmony. They imprisoned him in stone to keep him from harming ponies again. They brought order back to Equestria with that act.

"There are many other things they helped us through. But more recently, The Princesses helped protect us against an invasion by these nasty insectoid horses called Changelings, Discord returning from stone, and a few more minor things by comparison. More of the troubles recently have been handled by Celesta's protege, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, though. The Princesses seem to be taking a more indirect rule recently, it seems to me. They still take care of matters of state and the problems on the fringes of Equestria like encroachment by Dragons and the bigger creatures of our world, of course. Not many ponies can take on fully grown dragons after all, and They love stealing gems from ponies to eat." Sterling shook his head, and decided to end his little lecture.

"Willow could probably give some more detail about those things, or correct me if I'm mistaken about anything. I can forget things sometimes, or get them mixed up. That's the danger of reading as much as I do, I tend to not pay attention to the real world at times." He chuckled a bit, before looking over at Giovenith again, and then Willow.

---

"You're being quite the stick in the mud right now, unwind, man!" Drova chuckled. It was a fun time, she figured, to wrestle with friends. Yuna and her would always do it as smaller children, but now? She hadn't been able to do so in a very long time.

"How do you propose I do that with you sitting on top of me? There really isn't much I can do to relax when I can't move very much." Octavian replied, continuing to look up at Drova with his red eyes which were currently rolling at his friend's silliness. He didn't really seem to realize that Drova wanted to wrestle still, seeing as he wasn't doing anything. He normally would have reacted violently to someone suddenly tackling him, but the Prince didn't hurt friends intentionally. So he was mostly waiting for Drova to decide to get off of him a this point.

---

"Um" Yoshi blushed a bit. "I-I thought it was obvious by my eye color. I-I'm not human. I'm an Urran. Homo Urus. We share about 98% of our DNA with humans though." he probably wasn't the best example around. Blue and green eyes were common in humans but not practically glowing like Yoshi's were. And Yoshi's black hair was also common among humans, not like the blue of his mother's or the purple of his dad's.

"Yeah, Yoshi's not human, Ray. His body just can't handle those things he mentioned earlier. So make sure to not ever accidentally hand him alcohol without telling him, or he may die" Jacob said with a glance back at the others as he pressed the button to summon the elevator. His tail was still wagging back and forth. Then again, when didn't it do that? Jacob was happy quite often, anyway.

"I'm not getting too hungry, by the way. We can go get something to eat somewhere first, but I thought the idea of wandering around was to find a new place to dine further away from the apartment? I only really know the businesses in this area, after all. There must be quite the variety of foods in a city such as this. Seeing as it has such a diverse population and contact with different universes."

[Swith Witherward]

Meanwhile, Swith had enjoyed a relaxing morning at the local zoo. She took the twins to see the exhibits and then allowed Sydney to take pictures of llamas with a cheap digital camera. They returned home for lunch and Swith spent a good hour trying to figure out how to work Thriller's old laptop... specifically how to turn it on. Siduer bailed her out by uploading the pictures by himself. Word had already reached her that Blythe and Xanthe had gone off to help their companions on some sort of quest, and she realized the building was a lot more quiet... and possibly a lot more safe... without the purple menace running around.

Klaus set the heavy bag down. He could have fashioned it into a hammerspace item but then he wouldn't draw pleasure from the inhabitant's protesting screams.

"Schaddap." He gave the bag a small kick.

He was fairly certain the angel-turned-succubus-turned-angel-again would be along any minute. He'd had a few fun fun weeks of hide and seek, but Xanthe was undoubtedly miffed. He wouldn't take the chance of Bane finding the Purple Menace however. He wasn't that heartless.

Klaus untied the top of the bag and shook the contents onto the lobby floor. Blythe would most likely wheel around and claw his face. He'd prepared a counter attack for just such an occasion.

Blythe did wheel around, of course, once she'd retaken her bearings and adjusted to the sudden light. It didn't take her long... only a fraction of a second. She didn't go for his face, however. It was an incredible feat of godmodding usually shared between good friends, naturally.

"Asshat," she hissed and, totally neglected his face or even the use of her claws, she threw herself low to grab a calf. Her sharp, oh so sharp teeth latched onto his family gems and her daemonic physiology accorded her the wonderful ability to lock her jaw in place.

It was Xanthe... she'd followed, as Klaus' handler had so nicely implied... who hurled herself at the back of the war god's head and shoulders with the sole purpose of clawing his face. Trapped in angelic form, her wings beat furiously and stray feathers scattered everywhere as she impacted him. The writer assumes Klaus was so preoccupied with genital mutilation to really have a chance to throw off or dodge the second furious attack.

Neither one of them noticed the timely arrival of Lucius and Superbia.

The door slid open for Misaki. Bran, who was seated at the old command booth (Where he'd always greet the apartment with the intercom, and moniter security cameras, and you know, open the door and stuff) with a polite smile as he noticed Misaki. "I don't believe we've met before . . ." He said. While he was pefrectly fine with letting random people in who didn't seem to be drones or robots, he was still a bit suspicious about strangers.

Misaki bowed. "You are Nikanor-san, adopted son of Charumati? I am one of her cultists. I have come to ask a question."

[Swith Witherward]

OOC: It's fine, take all the time you need.

Unfamiliar with traditional Japanese etiquette, Fortu did as he was told to be polite. Feeling the floor beneath his feet, it reminded him a bit of walking around with claws, especially the sensation of the details and grooves of the floor.

"I believe it was Wu's Diamond Garden. Although it wasn't the first date, that was...." Fortu thoughtfully looked a bit up and to the right as he sorted through his memory.

"...Could we call Vegas a date? It's all sort of a blur, a very wonderful blur." Fortu said recalling the year's events. Some were good, and some were bad, but he loved every moment with Monique, except for the parts where he thought she was an assassin those were terrifying at the start when he met her.

Monique began to giggle. "That was a fun time. Except for that guy. The one who kept following us. I had to fry him, but then his head popped off. I still wonder if someone with a grudge against the raptors didn't go and build him to mirror you. And it still gnaws at me that he's out there still, lurking perhaps?"

The waitress returned and took their orders, departing again with a bow.

"Do you remember the island and tour bus? I ran off into the jungle when I thought Gretta was going to eat me. Honestly, if we do another holiday there, I'm going to avoid that base. I'd like to go there again for Christmas, though. That was such a relaxing time."

[Cerillium]

Blythe did wheel around, of course, once she'd retaken her bearings and adjusted to the sudden light. It didn't take her long... only a fraction of a second. She didn't go for his face, however. It was an incredible feat of godmodding usually shared between good friends, naturally.

"Asshat," she hissed and, totally neglected his face or even the use of her claws, she threw herself low to grab a calf. Her sharp, oh so sharp teeth latched onto his family gems and her daemonic physiology accorded her the wonderful ability to lock her jaw in place.

It was Xanthe... she'd followed, as Klaus' handler had so nicely implied... who hurled herself at the back of the war god's head and shoulders with the sole purpose of clawing his face. Trapped in angelic form, her wings beat furiously and stray feathers scattered everywhere as she impacted him. The writer assumes Klaus was so preoccupied with genital mutilation to really have a chance to throw off or dodge the second furious attack.

Neither one of them noticed the timely arrival of Lucius and Superbia.

"SONUFFABITCH!"

Klaus was distracted by the excruciating pain radiating from his groin. Xanthe hit him full force from behind and they toppled over. The only thing that perhaps spared Blythe from absolute wrath was Klaus' own body. Restored matrix, ability to reform. He did so. Quickly.

He snatched her by her skull and his pants tore as he flung her away. She sailed through the air directly towards Superbia and Lucius.

Xanthe was another story. He soundlessly vanished and took her with him. They reappeared a heartbeat later covered in ice. Trails of vapor wafted from their skin and clothing and from Xanthe's drooping feathers. Jupiter's moon, Europa, was a cold and inhospitable place void of breathable atmosphere. The conditions didn't affect Klaus but alas for the angel.....

[Erucia]

"Yeah, Yoshi's not human, Ray. His body just can't handle those things he mentioned earlier. So make sure to not ever accidentally hand him alcohol without telling him, or he may die" Jacob said with a glance back at the others as he pressed the button to summon the elevator. His tail was still wagging back and forth. Then again, when didn't it do that? Jacob was happy quite often, anyway.

"I'm not getting too hungry, by the way. We can go get something to eat somewhere first, but I thought the idea of wandering around was to find a new place to dine further away from the apartment? I only really know the businesses in this area, after all. There must be quite the variety of foods in a city such as this. Seeing as it has such a diverse population and contact with different universes."

"Hmph. That's....interesting, actually. Interesting. Wouldn't have actually noticed otherwise. So, Yoshi: I suppose you're the first....um....Orran? Yourran? Uhran?", Ray went on with trying to pronounce it correctly before giving up and instead allowing himself to learn from the consistent use of the word. "I suppose that I'd actually like to ask what the differences there are, besides alcohol. This is disappointing, because I wanted to take Yoshi to a bar and have a true man's night out.

"But then again, I'm on a time budget. So, let's not wander too far, alright? I'm OK with walking for a bit, but I still have to go back to Defender CS in a few hours."

[Swith Witherward]

"SONUFFABITCH!"

Klaus was distracted by the excruciating pain radiating from his groin. Xanthe hit him full force from behind and they toppled over. The only thing that perhaps spared Blythe from absolute wrath was Klaus' own body. Restored matrix, ability to reform. He did so. Quickly.

He snatched her by her skull and his pants tore as he flung her away. She sailed through the air directly towards Superbia and Lucius.

Xanthe was another story. He soundlessly vanished and took her with him. They reappeared a heartbeat later covered in ice. Trails of vapor wafted from their skin and clothing and from Xanthe's drooping feathers. Jupiter's moon, Europa, was a cold and inhospitable place void of breathable atmosphere. The conditions didn't affect Klaus but alas for the angel.....

"EEEEEEE"

It wasn't a shout of joy. Blythe tumbled arse over wings with the velocity of a round from a M240, clipping Superbia on the ceiling and then ricocheting into Lucius.

Xanthe, on the other hand, dropped to her knees and gasped for air. The very tips of her flight feathers shattered from the soft impact and her frozen wings drooped further. "You... filthy... beast..." she wheezed between gulped breaths. She was completely unaware of his reclaimed status and broken curse, and so she thought he was still just a daemon-host cultist.

Her face tipped upwards to stare at him. She sensed a change. She recoiled a bit. He felt like Atosh, but a bit differently. It was... inconceivable.

[Tiltjuice]

Hans smiled in reply, relieved that Chrys was taking it seriously. The only thing anyone could do with a dead battle maiden was poke their corpse with a stick. It wasn't exactly an exciting pastime.

The cultist turned his head as the door opened but didn't pull his hand away. Luce was another entity that had come into his world. Everyone else was just a blur, beings that went about their lives without any clarity in his sight. Somehow, Luce had also been accept by Hans as being "one of us", although if you asked him, Hans wouldn't be able to define "us" clearly.

"Guten Tag, Luce," he said, finally drawing his hand back. "Chrys and I have been having a discussion that will interest you."

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.

---

"Yea, we could celebrate.", Katya agreed. "I rarely celebrate nowadays, and it would be a nice....bonding experience, I suppose? I'm sorry."

She patted her belly. "I think it'll be around....march? April? Sometime. It's been a few months. I'm dying without a smoke or some wine."

"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?"

"Ponies?", Torii thought. Something wasn't right with it. She knew it.

She'd ask Gio later. Noting Tasia's look, she shrugged and kept following. Not long to her room, anyway.

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.

---

Iridescent

Abel looked with surprise at the jovial elderly man who was a far cry from the lobby receptionist within the Apartment building.

Closing his novel calmly, he grinned from under his mask and replied, "Nice to meet you too....my name is Abel and yes....I just arrived at Bielefield only yesterday so I'm not surprised that you haven't seen me before. I heard that this was quite a popular hang-out area for the other residents in the apartment building so since I still have some free time, I decided to come and explore this place a little and hopefully get acquainted with a few of the said residents."

"Ah! Well, you've come to the right place; though at the moment there's not many of us around. Only myself and a few friends." Cuisine straightened up, and a moment later with a red and blue double flash, MB sat on his shoulder. The rabbit looked down at Abel and waved an ear in greeting.

"I'd be happy to answer any questions about the city or the building you have, until more people show up. And cook for you, of course." He laughed.

There was a sudden loud hissing and steam began billowing out from underneath the kitchen doors.

"No!"

[Swith Witherward]

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."

[The BranRiech]

"Get me off of you then." Drova giggled with glee. But then again, the part of her still in control decided to not piss off Octavian, so the girl got off of him and frowned. "Well what else do you want to do? TV is boring, to tell the truth, Octavian." She said and shrugged. It was a bit confusing, Octavian never seemed to want to do much, but she supposed he was acting the same as if she were a guy.

"Eh, I guess I'm sorry I pounced you."

--

"San? Oh, wait, nevermind. Yes. I am." Bran said, at first confused by Misaki, but then he figured it out and quickly regained his calm, questioning look that could almost be confused for a stare, but he wasn't.

"What is it you have come to ask about?"

[Cerillium]

"EEEEEEE"

It wasn't a shout of joy. Blythe tumbled arse over wings with the velocity of a round from a M240, clipping Superbia on the ceiling and then ricocheting into Lucius.

Xanthe, on the other hand, dropped to her knees and gasped for air. The very tips of her flight feathers shattered from the soft impact and her frozen wings drooped further. "You... filthy... beast..." she wheezed between gulped breaths. She was completely unaware of his reclaimed status and broken curse, and so she thought he was still just a daemon-host cultist.

Her face tipped upwards to stare at him. She sensed a change. She recoiled a bit. He felt like Atosh, but a bit differently. It was... inconceivable.

Klaus left them to their insanity. He pushed open the front door and disappeared into the rain.

"It's unlocked in the morning for my training, said it's for my safety that I'm locked in here. But yeah, when I'm gone, it's unlocked." Yuna responded and pointed to the door. "Fair enough about your face, but why the menacing mask then? Why not a smiley face or something?" She joked. Truth be told, she thought it would be funny.

Picture it, a huge, imposing figure . . . With a happy little smiley face mask.

The man grinned behind his mask. "Don't you know what goes on out there while you're locked in here?"

He slipped a hand into his pocket but withdrew only a slip of paper. His gloved fingers carefully pried the backing off a small sticker. He placed it between his mask's filters: a smiley face.

"Better? Now, why are you here?" he asked as he sat on the corner of her bed.

[The BranRiech]

"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."

[Urran]

"Um..let's see, I can see better than you can, hear better too. I'm faster and more agile but not as physically strong. My blood is more of a midnight blue color...I-I think that is pretty much it." Yoshi explained to Ray, forgetting the hair and eye thing but he would probably figure that out on his own.


"Oh you poor things" Anew said. She could pull off the nice girl routine with perfect ease. She was nice as far as Innovaters go. "Truly tragic...I am not sure what to say." she seemed at a loss for words almost.


Tieria chuckled. "Actually is was rather amusing, I only wish it were me and not a daemon." he said with a smile. He thought that he liked Kei better as a friend anyway. She seemed more tolerant for some reason.

[Torsiedelle]

"Yea, we could celebrate.", Katya agreed. "I rarely celebrate nowadays, and it would be a nice....bonding experience, I suppose? I'm sorry."

She patted her belly. "I think it'll be around....march? April? Sometime. It's been a few months. I'm dying without a smoke or some wine."

"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?"

"Ponies?", Torii thought. Something wasn't right with it. She knew it.

She'd ask Gio later. Noting Tasia's look, she shrugged and kept following. Not long to her room, anyway.

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."

[Giovenith]

"Just a few." Sterling confirmed with a firm nod of his head. The unicorn deftly caught his fez with his magic as it fell off again, and placed it back on his head before continuing. After all, it was his favorite piece of headgear. "How about I give you a few examples of some of the trouble's we've had?

"The princesses are the reason we ponies can live so happily and freely. Before their joint rule, a malevolent spirit named Discord ruled Equestria in anarchy in Chaos. He tortured and messed with ponies constantly; doing things like changing the very fundamental laws of nature, make it rain chocolate milk, or mess with our personalities; just to get entertainment. He was a nasty draconequus. I do not even know how long he was in charge, but his reign was ended by the arrival of Celestia and Luna with the Elements of Harmony. They imprisoned him in stone to keep him from harming ponies again. They brought order back to Equestria with that act.

"There are many other things they helped us through. But more recently, The Princesses helped protect us against an invasion by these nasty insectoid horses called Changelings, Discord returning from stone, and a few more minor things by comparison. More of the troubles recently have been handled by Celesta's protege, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, though. The Princesses seem to be taking a more indirect rule recently, it seems to me. They still take care of matters of state and the problems on the fringes of Equestria like encroachment by Dragons and the bigger creatures of our world, of course. Not many ponies can take on fully grown dragons after all, and They love stealing gems from ponies to eat." Sterling shook his head, and decided to end his little lecture.

"Willow could probably give some more detail about those things, or correct me if I'm mistaken about anything. I can forget things sometimes, or get them mixed up. That's the danger of reading as much as I do, I tend to not pay attention to the real world at times." He chuckled a bit, before looking over at Giovenith again, and then Willow.

Willow merely nodded along with most of what Sterling had said, letting the unicorn go on uninterrupted. Everything he said was true, from the madness of Discord, to the observation of the princesses' willingness to allow the local 'Element girls', as he personally called them, to handle things lately. As far as Willow knew for sure, they just happened to be six normal mares, though he wondered on several occasions if they possessed some sort of political status that simply wasn't spoken of.

Giovenith paused for a moment to consider some of the things the ponies had said. "... Eat gems, huh? That's quite funny, as I do almost the complete opposite." The godling arched over without warning and began to make horrendous little hacking/hissing sounds, at first similar to a cat trying to cough up a hairball, but slowly became darker and with more pronounced hissing.

What the Tartarus was she doing?

"Are you sick or something?" asked Willow, not bothering to hide his squeamish disgust. Did all hyoo-muns do this? Since Giovenith didn't answer him, the pegasus took the opportunity to scoot backward and just let her do whatever it was she was doing.

The hacking eventually stopped with a retch-inducing spit-up sound, as the girl spat a large blob from her mouth into her hand, then grabbed Willow's front leg/arm and placed the drippy blob in his hoof.

"There you go. See? Dragon pearls," explained Giovenith casually, as if it was perfectly normal and dandy to go placing goop into other's gripping limbs. In the goop there were however, indeed, five multicolored little pearls. "The dragons I know make those kinds of gem, and don't eat any kind. There are lots of types of dragons though, so you probably just have a different one."

Willow just stared in semi-horror at the glob and pearls in his hoof, mouth ajar.

"... Willow?" prodded Giovenith, waving her hand in front of the pony with no results. "Willy-Willy-Willoooooooooow!"

"... Uuuuurrrrrgggh," groaned Willow, finally snapping out of his shocked stupor, and shakily scraping the gunk off. "What was that?!"

"I told I'm a godling, and dragons are an associated creature, so I can do that."

"But it... why... how... that doesn't... I..."

Willow knew that didn't make sense, but he didn't know how it didn't make sense, which didn't make any further sense... nothing made sense! Uggh... now he couldn't stop recalling the haunting voice of Discord in his head. 'Make sense, oh, now what fun is there in making sense?' had been what the Draconaquis spirit had chuckled out during his corruption of Ponyville, just about right before he'd used Willow and several other ponies as bowling pins (that stood up as the ball rolled away, then were knocked over again, and again, and again, and again, and again...)

"And as for this individual you call, 'Discord'..." began Giovenith.

Oh boy.

"I do hope you can understand some of the other residents here, who could, say... arguably fall into the same category," Giovenith looked to the side a bit, contemplating the right words to gently deliver the necessary information.

"Category...?" repeated Willow, wiping the last of the moistness off on his sweater. "What do you mean by category?"

"Chaos. The Ones who are it, and use it, probably in not entirely the same fashion as your Discord. Mostly everyone has their own unique flair to what they do, you know?" breathed Giovenith nonchalantly, puffing her bangs from her eyes. "I'm sure you'll meet them eventually. You've already met one, the kindly man on the steps who called you gentleponies, remember?"

"Him?" said Willow, looking from side to side, attempting to sort out all this new information. "But... I don't understand. He seemed normal."

"Aw, Willow," Giovenith tilted her head and rested her chin upon her loosely folded hands, looking disappointed. "We're both artists, yes? I would think you should know better than to judge things by what they initially seem. I assure you that he is very, very kind, and will not torture you for fun as this Discord did, but many of the people here... hm, well it's a bit tricky to explain. You've stepped into a world where there are less restrictions on leaning about certain truths, I guess would be a good way to put it, for now. It's always 'for now.' And anyway, you said it was my turn to ask questions."

For what was not the first time, Giovenith was scaring Willow. But it was fear of a different breed that iced his blood this time around, it had a name that lurked in some previously unnoticed shadow the pony could not penetrate, yet teasingly danced on the frays of his conscious. Perhaps it only stayed there because he didn't truly want to know. Willow didn't ever want to be at the mercy of anything like Discord again, so Giovenith's remarks that there was something of a similar kind lurking about this home of her's did nothing if not horrify him. He remembered the warnings of Rudolf, which seemed to grow heavier and heavier the longer they walked in this place. For someone so bright and whimsical in nature, Giovenith seemed to be but a piece in a very complicated, demented existence, one that she was apparently adapted quite well to... Willow wanted to ask himself what this said about her, but actively pushed away the question, not wanting to give up trust in one of the few hyoo-muns that they seemed to be able to give it to.

"... I-I see." That was all the pegasus could give.

"Do you?" Giovenith giggled the question.

Willow didn't answer.

It was a rhetorical one anyway, as Giovenith continued: "Anyway, please tell me if you can, what about the pretty pictures on your flanks? The things you call Cutie Marks. Are you born with them?"

[Cerillium]

ATTENTION PLAYERS We are moving to the new thread early. I won't be on this weekend and I expect us to eat up a lot of pages during CREEPFEST 2013 A reminder. Creepfest is an encapsulated event. Players have signed up in advance. DO NOT POST THERE if your name isn't on the list. The thread will reopen after the event. There will be no other stories run during the event. Refer to OOC if you have questions. New IC Link: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=267202. Thread Lock Requested: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=17114206#p17114206 Players, do not post HERE.