aterat | Pulse 001

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Pulse 001

Speaking Crystal

[Mid-morning, a familiar voice rings out over the crystals.]

Good morning, everyone! We trust you've settled in well! We'd like to meet you all formally and invite you to join us in the fountain square this afternoon! We look forward to seeing you there!

Who; The Aspects (Halcyn & Athony) and YOU!
What; The Aspects welcome their new summons to Aterat
Where; The Fountain Square
When; Thursday; Mid-day
Warnings; None I can think of. Will update if necessary

The Fountain square remains unchanged from your arrival, the multiple tiers containing archways all dim save for the one from which Halcyn and her counterpart, Athony, step at the appointed time. Around the fountain, though, have gathered artisans, performers, and salesman as well as recruiters. People are looking for clerks, delivery persons, and people to run small tasks for them. There are leatherworkers interested in hiring intrepid individuals to acquire more exotic skins for their trade and various other ways to earn coin.

And then there is a larger stall built into the back of a large covered wagon pulled by two oxen. It's set off a little ways from the others, either to set itself apart from the vulgus or simply to afford it room. Two people dressed smartly stand a bit apart from it and will encourage any passersby to come speak with the clerk behind the desk. Emblazoned across the side in intricate gold leaf are the letters "MGB" and the callers will inform anyone inquiring they are representatives of the Merchant's Guild Bank, and that they are willing to negotiate investment in any business ventures newcomers may be interested in...for a modest cut, of course. They assure the contract is thoroughly negotiable and urge you to speak with the broker in the carriage.

All business dealings cease when the portal on the highest level of the fountain activates and Halcyn and Athony step through. She is tall, lithe, with flowing red hair and an aura of goodness and life that overrides any attempts to read her mind. He has a darker aura, clad in deep gray armor with a gem-encrusted sword at his hip and a formidable shield strapped to his back. The murk around his mind is just as difficult to pierce, and anyone sensative to the flow of time would sense these two seem to exist as though apart from it.

They descend the dias to stand at ground level, equal to the gathered crowd, but when Halcyn speaks, her soft melodious voice carries as though its amplified, though there seems to be no source of amplification save for a subtle vibration of magic those sensative to it may sense.

"I'm so glad you all came!" She claps her hands together, clasping them before her before spreading her arms wide. "We have so much work to do, as I've told you all already. We have been tasked with the reconstruction of this world, and we simply can't without all of you. The reason why is complicated, but I can assure you we require nothing of any of you that you are not capable of." She motions around at the square and all those gathered here.

"The people of Aterat are eager to welcome you as well, but Athony and myself will remain around should you wish to speak more privatly. Again, thank you all for coming!"

With that, the gathering dispurses into it's former form, though the Aspects remain should anyone wish to speak with them.

Feel free to post top levels to meet and greet your fellow arrivals and to explore the offerings of this strange new city.

Throughout the city, not only today, but at random times, a new rhyme seems to have been picked up by the children at play, skipping rope or playing hopscotch, or dancing in a strange circle. There's a haunting quality to it, but maybe that's only because no one's taken notice of its existence before:

Traveler, traveler, what do you seek?
Riches and fame make oaken souls weap.

Traveler, traveler, watch where you're led.
One turn left, three turns right will take you to bed.

Traveler, traveler, try not to get lost.
The dwellers in the mirk may well be the cost.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Enough that I get called in to consult occasionally." Very occasionally. Okay, it's happened twice, and once was as a favor, but she didn't need to know that.

"Wait, you make swords?" They were not discussing whether or not he found Athony intimidating, alright? Not at all.

Then perhaps he would be more useful than she had originally thought. Though she supposed that would all be determined by if he actually braved speaking to Athony or not.

"I can forge many weapons. You could say it was a talent I was forced to acquire for my ...work," she said with a slight shrug. When you lead an army of demons you pick up a few things along the way. "Though the most impressive weapon I made when I was very young and very desperate," she gave a slightly wicked looking smile. "I could show you that one if you wish."

Wow, 'work' there had enough air quotes around it to be palpable, and Jagger wasn't going to forget it. Most people had secrets, he had a few of his own, but this woman liked to dangle their existence in front of you like bait. What was she playing at and why did it feel like he was being tested somehow?

"Why do I feel like you're leading me into a trap?"

That actually got a chuckle from Illyana. It was a strange sound, not quite a laugh but also not quite a chuckle. Foreign sounding might be the best way to describe it. Like it came from someone who had not laughed in a very long time and was not quite certain how to any longer.

"Now why would you feel that way?"

There was something vaguely congratulatory in that chuckle. It felt good to help someone laugh who hadn't in a while, but that was Jagger for you. He was a helper. It's probably why he always ended up in so much trouble.

"You remind me of a cat teasing a mouse, but not in a bad way. It's only difficult to tell whether you're playing or if you're serious."

"You are not the first to say that," she replied with a tiny smile. In fact, many had pointed that out. Though, most of them had been decidedly annoyed at that fact. This man on the other hand did not seem bothered by her teasing, which managed to peak her curiosity about him ever so slightly.

"You did not answer my question. Would you like to see if it is indeed a trap or not?"

In his relatively short life, Jagger has gotten himself into his share of trouble, or more to the point, his curiosity has led him into more than one situation that could have very easily led to his untimely demise. Even in the face of things nearly incomprehensible, that curiosity had never wavered and it wasn't about to start now.

He crossed his arms in meager and likely vain preparation for whatever it was she was going to show him.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, pet. Let's have it."

"You seem so concerned for just a sword," A smirk spread widely across her face as she gave a nod of her head. She took a second to look around to see if anyone was actually watching them. It seemed as though all of the onlookers had dissipated, wandering off in different directions to attend to their own things. It was not that she did not wish for people to see what she could do, but rather that she did not want to cause a scene. Who knew what might cause these people to panic or become unsettled. After all in her own world people never really looked on her kind with any positive light.

When she was satisfied they were relatively alone she began to summon her soulsword. There was a smell of brimstone as she reached into her chest and pulled out a large glowing sword made of white swirling energy that flickered every now and then with hints of pink and blue.

"It is called the soulsword."

"I just showed up here, in another reality, and I didn't even know that was possible a few weeks ago. I'm concerned about everything." It was meant to be a joke, but then she began her summoning and his eyes grew wide. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it certainly wasn't for the petite blond to reach inside her chest and what? Pull a sword from nothing? He was acutely aware of two things in rapid succession: that no matter how much he'd prepared, this place was never going to make any sense, and that he did not, under any circumstances, want to touch that sword.

"I wager it's not called that because it sounds catchy, yeah?" The question was jesting, even if his voice wavered with uncertainty as he said it.

"I went to my first alternate dimension when I was six years old," she said with a casual shrug. If she was were less trained at the act of showing no emotions her expression might have shown the regret and anger she actually felt towards that. Thankfully she had perfected the ability to hide her true feelings about pretty much anything. It seemed that he had not mastered that talent himself which at least gave her a a slight level of amusement.

"It is called that because I made it from the only remaining pieces of my soul I had left," she said with a strange grin that made it difficult to tell if she was joking or not. "Souls are so much more useful than humans realize." The tone of her voice was filled with amusement and slight jest. Though the truth was she meant every word she said.

"Sure, old hat then, yeah?" Sarcasm could smooth over the strangest of revelations, if only his voice weren't wavering slightly. He'd always known there was more to the world than his limited experience allowed for, but for someone to casually state they'd forged a sword from their own soul? No, 'the pieces of her soul she had left'.

"I suppose so, yeah. Maybe if we looked into that, things would be different."

"Very old hat," she repeated what he said with a tone that said the saying was very foreign to her lips. She understood it, but it was not one she had said on her own before. So many things were foreign to her it seemed. At least her explanations seemed to leave him confused. It balanced out then, did it not? Besides she was pleased that he did not seem to be the type to ask too many questions. It allowed her to keep her mysteriousness up, which for some reason amused her.

"What things do you think would be different?"

"That must be tiring." In his experience, making comments which sounded interested but not pushing got people to talk more often than direct questions did, at least at first. Once you earned a degree of trust, that's when the questions were warranted and welcome. It was better to observe where conversations went, and which ones were avoided, to get a sense of who someone was.

"Value. People tend to put more stock in things they can touch, feel, ya know? Hell, most 'religious' people really only pay lip service to the Almighty because it makes them look good. They've gone and made even the intangible tangible."

Edited 2020-08-22 16:20 (UTC)

"Not nearly as tiring as time travel," she replied with a completely straight face. It was not a lie either. Teleporting through time used quite a lot more energy than entering and leaving the pocket dimension of Limbo. There were times at this point that she wondered if Limbo was not her true home. That was a thought she had to quickly push out of her mind quickly least she show more emotions on her face than she was currently comfortable with.

She chuckled at his comment. "Most pray in the hopes of receiving a blessing of some kind." She paused for a second and then added something else in a more sinister tone. "Or to avoid a punishment." How many timelines had she entered where the Elder Ones ruled simply out of fear of punishment? Too many. Far too many. "It is best humans do not look too far into the use of a soul. Mortals are not meant to know what power it can become. Demons are bad enough."

"Not nearly as tiring as time travel' she says." He nearly moved on to teasing her if her expression hadn't given him pause. "Hang on, do you have time travel in your repertoire, too?"

"Yeah, that's my point. They pray because it makes them look good, or because they want to get something out of it. There aren't many true believers anymore. Maybe that's why the world's going to shit." But her words weren't lost on him either, and he narrowed his eyes at her further explanation. "That doesn't include you, then, 'mortals' that is?"

Edited 2020-08-26 04:24 (UTC)

She hesitated before she answered, as if she were trying to decide whether she wanted to give a real answer or something elusive like she had been. For some reason she felt a strange pull to give an actual answer to his question and she was not certain why. "My stepping discs allow for more than just teleportation," she said with a shrug. "Recently I was stepping through timelines in pursuit of a great enemy. The Elder Gods." Her voice almost sounded strangely confused. It was not particularly like her to offer too much information and yet here she was.

"There are many reasons the world is going to shit," she said with a bitter little scoff. "No. It does not. Not any longer." Now she had no idea what she was. Was she a girl again? No. There was still too much missing and too much tainted. She shook her head and then made a poor attempt at changing the subject. "Mutant. That is what I was born as. The discs are my power."

Jagger, in his dozens of meeting with people who claimed to have had traumatic experiences with the otherworldly, had heard many things: Bigfoot, Poltergeists, Demonic possession, aliens, it was all visited. This was an entirely different story. "I'm sorry. Did you say Elder God? As in...what? Eldritch horrors?" He was willing to believe anything at this point.

"...Mutant? It...sounds like an insult in itself."

"Yes. Ancient eldritch beings that wanted nothing more than to devour all they ruled," she replied. "The former ruler of my realm attempted to use my soul to release them upon the realms." She gave a slightly twisted smirk. "I found a way to erase them from existence." So, in the end, she'd won. It had cost quite a lot, but from her perspective it was worth it.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at his comment about the word mutant. "Why would that be an insult?"

"I thought their motives were less intelligible than that." It was callous, really, to make a joke at the time, but when one is suddenly told all the Old Gods from fiction were real, what else can they do but sarcastically joke about it?

"I dunno. Because to 'mutate' is to change from the normal into something else?"

"Is wanting to devour all really that intelligible?" She inclined her head slightly. "They desire nothing but human fear and suffering. Not worship. Not a kingdom. Just chaos, fear, and pain." And now she was finally rid of them. No longer did she have to settle for simply banishing them over and over again. Finally, they were just gone from existence. It was such a strange relief.

"Mutants are born with the X-Gene," Irritation seeped into her voice as she responded to his other comment. "We are never normal. And what is wrong with being abnormal?"

"Sure. It's brutal and completely without thought, and the actual scope's hard to grasp, but it's still direct, to the point. You can understand what's driving that sort of desire. It's monstrous but not indescribable."

"...if you're born with an X-Gene, wouldn't that mean you are normal, just not human?"

"In our world there are many tiers of Elder Gods," she said with a slight smirk. It wasn't an untrue statement, but it was vague and offered little more information. For some reason she found some a strange amount of enjoyment from being vague with Jagger.

"What a strange way to look at it," she said with a slight chuckle. "Simple. In my world, humans hate us. They consider themselves the baseline for normal and thus we are freaks to them." And that was why she found it mildly irritating for him to question whether or not being called a mutant was an insult or not.

He was catching on, albeit slowly, that Illyana was toying with him somewhat, but it didn't seem cruel more mean-spirited. In fact, if anything, it came off to him as the sort of teasing banter one might make with a friend. Lord knew he and Carl had their share of traded barbs and teasing comments. Hell, if he had a nickel for every time he'd led his partner by the nose to a conclusion rather than just spelling it out, he wouldn't need to moonlight as a police consultant. In the spirit of things, he decided to play along.

"So, only some of the are unintelligible, that it?" He was smirking when he asked, though that smile quickly wavered as she continued, his eyes darkening. He didn't know what it was like to have powers like hers, but even his, minor as they were, labeled him similarly.

"People fear what they don't understand so hard they try to deny it exists, or...convince you you're crazy, or...somehow wrong." He was having difficulty understanding why the topic of a word was offensive to her, at least at first, but her explanation made things clearer for him. "Mutant was a slur, wasn't it, but it's your word. I'm sorry. I didn't mean any insult."

"Ah, you can catch on," she said with a hint of a smile on her face. "My Elder Gods were more...well, I suppose it does not matter. They are no longer an issue." Which seemed to leave her quite pleased in tone. The thought that she was finally rid of them was quite a pleasant one to have.

She shrugged in response to his attempt at an apology. "Mutie is more offensive. So try to not use that." She shook her head. "Humans are...generally unpleasant to deal with for our kind. Many think we are abominations, demons that are being punished by their God. There is some enjoyment to be found in teaching them what demons are truly like." She couldn't deny that she found enjoyment in dropping them off in Limbo and letting them see what Hell really could be.

"Just went down to the local feed store, eh? Got some Elder-God-Away, or is that something you hire a professional for?"

He grimaced at the term. He wasn't even familiar and it sounded offensive. "I'll do my model best." He didn't have a reason to use it in the first place. He cast a long gaze at her. There was no mistaking Illyana had a malicious streak, but if even part of what she implied regarding the treatment of mutants was true, could he blame her for wanting revenge? Wouldn't he?

Yeah, he would, and he wasn't even sure he'd feel bad about it later. He even had an idea of how she might go about doing just that. "That's...a way to go, I suppose."

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