Re: The Battle Majestic (Round 2 - Firestar)
05-30-2010, 03:33 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Baphomet.
Vexmagog's eyebrows furrowed. He had always been a quick thinker. It seemed to him that that particular property had been conspicuously absent in the prior moments, only to come rushing back in a torrent of self-chastisements and frantic rebuilding, strand by strand, of his web. Lies, yes, but also lifesavers. He had, in the course of about an hour, gotten a feast in his honor from a group of people who wanted his blood. He had saved his fellow "contestants" from the same fate, and had high hopes that they would participate in the revelry alongside him. And this human woman, Mohea: he knew he was but a few words away from... well, regardless, that may have come tumbling down.
Tumbling down like the cavalcade of rubble -- stone, bas reliefs, statuary adorned with precious gems -- that Steven's gloves had caused when they literally punched a hole through the mountainside.
I have just turned what could have been a simple mistake into a failure on the part of this god I have created. I told them the shadows picked these beings, I know his gloves can create things. I should have told them the shadows picked this man for his power over the gloves, that the gloves have a mind of their own, and that they did this on...what was this, an accident? These are true, known things. I should have told them that, gotten an apology out of Steven, and left him to clean up the mess he made. The women wouldn't hurt him, they have given their word. He can create things. Things like walls and statues. It would have been easy, and it would have gotten me some time I could have spent with Mohea. Now...
...Well, now it's not an accident on the part of someone with supernatural artifacts he hasn't got any control over, it's the failure of the persona I've created to protect these people from the beings that it is that persona's purpose to protect them from. Shock. I must have been shocked, and let my guard down. It's happened before. Shock that these gloves of his can punch through a stone wall embedded in a mountainside, and would apparently elect to do so instead of going through the immediately adjacent open entrance.
Vexmagog's eye twitched as he felt a sizzle on the tender inside of his elbow. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
That I have made a mistake is a given. Now I must recover from it. To recover best, I need to calm down. I can calm down by taking a walk, which also serves to disperse the effects of Magog... if they are even active inside this temple. He cannot alter things on the home planes of my pantheon, and if another god is active here, it's possible he is unable to exact any changes here either. I also need to talk to Steven. He can walk with me.
The satyr opened his eyes after only a brief moment. He rotated his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. Mohea was looking at him with a concerned expression, and many of the other women were drawing towards him, no doubt with questions. He put on a mask of experience. His expression seemed to say that he'd seen this all before and it was little concern. He placed his alien hand tenderly on Mohea's shoulder and nodded to her. "Wait here. I'll take care of this."
He fixed his gaze on Steven, who looked shaken. He waved grandiosely towards the entrance, so that the natives would understand the intention of his english words as he spoke them.
"Steven, you deserve an explanation. Walk with us." He began to take a step forward, stopped, and backtracked. "Me. Walk with me." He turned toward the approaching crowd, who began to clamor in their native language for answers. He held out his arms an addressed them.
"The shadows sensed this man, and knew I have yet to place him under my blessing. I intend to use him as bait to draw them out. Please, do not concern yourselves. Though they may be powerful enough to destroy this stone wall, they cannot break my spear, they cannot break me, and I will see them die in their attempts!" He held his arm aloft and crafted the image of the spear in it once again as he wove through the crowd, which began to whoop in a native battle cry.
He addressed Mohea at his side, so that she alone could hear. "Keep them here. The battle may be dangerous. I am counting on you."
Vexmagog caught sight of the unsure Blitz at the back of the entrance chamber. Deciding that the benefit gained from having him accompany would be offset by the alterations to the story he would have to prepare to make it necessary, he merely nodded to the man and turned to leave.
The two otherworldy men descended the grand stone steps at the front of the temple. Several of the women craned their necks from inside the structure, hoping to catch a glimpse of the battle they were sure was about to commence. To ensure that they would not, Vexmagog had planned to wander deeper into the jungle, but was hampered by the growing crowd at the entrance surounding a fire pit. A boar was roasting over an open flame, and delicious-smelling smoke was rising from it. Vexmagog caught sight of Wolf in that circle, gnawing on a piece of cooked meat.
Looking around, Vexmagog elected instead to hike up the slope of the mountain on the side of the temple opposite the women. When they were out of earshot, Vexmagog launched into his explanation of the events as they were currently unfolding.
"Let me begin by apologizing for not filling you in earlier."
"What? No, it's fine. Uh, thanks for saving me. So, what are you doing?"
"Hopefully, I am changing the nature of this game we're in, starting with befriending these natives. There are a few lies I have told to that end, but I am insuring that they are mine alone to maintain." He took another deep breath and extracted a lump of charcoal from his flesh as he walked. "They were told that seven devils would come to their island and end the world. It was our captor's intention to set these people against us. I have, instead, told them that the seven devils are a separate group of creatures, which I have given them glimpses of in illusion. I said that I am a god tasked with protecting them from these devils, whose name and image they are unaware of because the devils trapped me and made them forget."
"Why didn't you just tell them the truth?"
"I assumed that they would take word from their shaman over word from someone as obviously alien as I. We were told in the beginning the nature of the lies this S told them. They did not know that we were informed of this. Rather than contradict them, I gave them a story that built on that. This way, it was corroborated by another source that I, as far as they know, should not have known about."
Steven nodded, following along. Vexmagog stopped his ascent and pried another inert piece of charcoal loose as Steven caught up. "Okay, so what do I do in all this?"
Vexmagog smiled. "Nothing, really. None of you can talk to them yet, and I'm sure to have had time to fill everyone in by them time any of you learn their language. My story leaves you all, in their eyes, in a very similar position to the one you are truly in right now. Taken from your home worlds unexpectedly, no knowledge of these people or their culture, no knowledge of this persona I've created or his role as a god of these people. I've set it up so that the only one with a lie to maintain is me. And I've got a lot of experience with this."
"Back up. Learn their language? That would take months, maybe years."
Vexmagog nodded and looked Steven in the eye. "Exactly. And we can stay here that long as long as none of us die. Do you understand? We can spend as much time as we need, figuring out how to stop the contest and go home. And if we can't find a way, this can be our permanent home."
He waited a moment for Steven to absorb this before he continued. "There are, however, several problems. Problem one: the being responsible for running this battle. He may see fit to interfere if we all cease to participate. I understand he is very powerful, but if we force intervention on his part, at least we're that much closer to subverting this twisted game we're all taking part in. Problem two: the shadow devils. My explanation is that they brought you all here so that there would be bodies unblessed by me that they could control. My arm created another entity on the beach, which I said was the seventh creature they summoned, coresponding with the seventh devil. I have 'killed' one of the devils already, and have to take a very active role in this farce until I 'kill' the rest. I would not presume us out of scrutiny until that happens.
"Problem three, Sen." Vexmagog sighed and clenched and unclenched his right hand. The indigo glow still lingered a bit below his elbow, releasing its hold on no loose stones. "Though the prophecy S fed these people may have been false, Sen has the power to make it a reality." Vexmagog pictured in his mind the image of the creature, which lingered overlong on the brown pods embedded below its skin. He shook his head absentmindedly. "I have told them the creature is to be captured because the shadows can only bring in seven otherworldly creatures at once, and that killing Sen would allow them to bring in something else potentially more deadly. Obviously, we do not want Sen to plant his seed, as that would likely destroy the island or even the world. We don't want to kill Sen yet, because that would cause us all to leave the 'arena'. I think the best course of action is to capture him. And that's where you come in."
"I don't like the sound of this."
"Hear me out. Your gloves can create things, right?"
"I...well, yes."
"Could they create a cage or enclosure big enough to hold Sen away from the ground?"
"They could, I suppose," he replied, considering the energy that would be yielded by the feast below, "but it would take me a while. I usually only make small things."
"What about a steel trap, or..." Vexmagog sought Steven's mind for a word that would describe the material used to hold up the bridges between the bouyant islands of his homeworld. He used the most similar substitute. "...Cable? Is that flexible?"
"Not really. If you want strong and flexible, you'd probably want chain instead. And yes, I could make those things. Again, it would take me some time."
"Great. We should walk back down now, and then you should have your gloves make me those things."
"I thought you told everyone that my gloves were demons? Won't they see them down there?"
Vexmagog smiled and patted the man on the back (using his left hand, of course). "They won't care in a few minutes."
After a pause, Amali looked up, and Nalu addressed her. "Strange day." The older woman met her eye but merely stared dispassionately. With a sigh, Nalu bowed low, stood again, and repeated herself. "Strange day."
"It is all in the interpretation. We find ourselves in the presence of the divine," she replied, with a hint of uncertainty. "Many things are above our comprehension."
"This," Nalu retorted, waving her arm across the room to indicate the men, "is above mine." The elder opened her mouth as if to reply, but furrowed her brow and allowed the insistent mumbling to fill the gap between them. "Are they talking about him? What do they say?" the younger woman asked.
The reply was the same: silence. The shamaness lowered her gaze and stared distractedly into the face of the man nearest her. Nalu leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms.
"I don't know," Amali finally answered. "I don't know anymore." Nalu smiled inwardly, and moved further into the room. She sat on the floor across from the shamaness and put her hand on her shoulder. Their eyes met again. "I thought I knew. I thought this was all there was, until this morning. Now, I feel that all I've heard them say in the past...it was all nothing. If they can speak plainly, then this..." Amali waved her hand dismissively into the air above her, as if gesturing to the words the men spoke, "...This is nothing, and it never was anything more."
The shamaness looked down again, bearing a pained expression. When she finally spoke again, her voice cracked as though she were about to cry. "Now... Now I listen, and I listen, and I pray, and I only hear them say one thing. False. False false false false. As though everything I thought I knew is..." She trailed off before finishing.
"Perhaps you hear them correctly," Nalu replied, "but you misunderstand." Nalu smiled as Amali looked up at her questioningly. "As you said, it is all in the interpretation."[/color]
Vexmagog's eyebrows furrowed. He had always been a quick thinker. It seemed to him that that particular property had been conspicuously absent in the prior moments, only to come rushing back in a torrent of self-chastisements and frantic rebuilding, strand by strand, of his web. Lies, yes, but also lifesavers. He had, in the course of about an hour, gotten a feast in his honor from a group of people who wanted his blood. He had saved his fellow "contestants" from the same fate, and had high hopes that they would participate in the revelry alongside him. And this human woman, Mohea: he knew he was but a few words away from... well, regardless, that may have come tumbling down.
Tumbling down like the cavalcade of rubble -- stone, bas reliefs, statuary adorned with precious gems -- that Steven's gloves had caused when they literally punched a hole through the mountainside.
I have just turned what could have been a simple mistake into a failure on the part of this god I have created. I told them the shadows picked these beings, I know his gloves can create things. I should have told them the shadows picked this man for his power over the gloves, that the gloves have a mind of their own, and that they did this on...what was this, an accident? These are true, known things. I should have told them that, gotten an apology out of Steven, and left him to clean up the mess he made. The women wouldn't hurt him, they have given their word. He can create things. Things like walls and statues. It would have been easy, and it would have gotten me some time I could have spent with Mohea. Now...
...Well, now it's not an accident on the part of someone with supernatural artifacts he hasn't got any control over, it's the failure of the persona I've created to protect these people from the beings that it is that persona's purpose to protect them from. Shock. I must have been shocked, and let my guard down. It's happened before. Shock that these gloves of his can punch through a stone wall embedded in a mountainside, and would apparently elect to do so instead of going through the immediately adjacent open entrance.
Vexmagog's eye twitched as he felt a sizzle on the tender inside of his elbow. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
That I have made a mistake is a given. Now I must recover from it. To recover best, I need to calm down. I can calm down by taking a walk, which also serves to disperse the effects of Magog... if they are even active inside this temple. He cannot alter things on the home planes of my pantheon, and if another god is active here, it's possible he is unable to exact any changes here either. I also need to talk to Steven. He can walk with me.
The satyr opened his eyes after only a brief moment. He rotated his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. Mohea was looking at him with a concerned expression, and many of the other women were drawing towards him, no doubt with questions. He put on a mask of experience. His expression seemed to say that he'd seen this all before and it was little concern. He placed his alien hand tenderly on Mohea's shoulder and nodded to her. "Wait here. I'll take care of this."
He fixed his gaze on Steven, who looked shaken. He waved grandiosely towards the entrance, so that the natives would understand the intention of his english words as he spoke them.
"Steven, you deserve an explanation. Walk with us." He began to take a step forward, stopped, and backtracked. "Me. Walk with me." He turned toward the approaching crowd, who began to clamor in their native language for answers. He held out his arms an addressed them.
"The shadows sensed this man, and knew I have yet to place him under my blessing. I intend to use him as bait to draw them out. Please, do not concern yourselves. Though they may be powerful enough to destroy this stone wall, they cannot break my spear, they cannot break me, and I will see them die in their attempts!" He held his arm aloft and crafted the image of the spear in it once again as he wove through the crowd, which began to whoop in a native battle cry.
He addressed Mohea at his side, so that she alone could hear. "Keep them here. The battle may be dangerous. I am counting on you."
Vexmagog caught sight of the unsure Blitz at the back of the entrance chamber. Deciding that the benefit gained from having him accompany would be offset by the alterations to the story he would have to prepare to make it necessary, he merely nodded to the man and turned to leave.
The two otherworldy men descended the grand stone steps at the front of the temple. Several of the women craned their necks from inside the structure, hoping to catch a glimpse of the battle they were sure was about to commence. To ensure that they would not, Vexmagog had planned to wander deeper into the jungle, but was hampered by the growing crowd at the entrance surounding a fire pit. A boar was roasting over an open flame, and delicious-smelling smoke was rising from it. Vexmagog caught sight of Wolf in that circle, gnawing on a piece of cooked meat.
Looking around, Vexmagog elected instead to hike up the slope of the mountain on the side of the temple opposite the women. When they were out of earshot, Vexmagog launched into his explanation of the events as they were currently unfolding.
"Let me begin by apologizing for not filling you in earlier."
"What? No, it's fine. Uh, thanks for saving me. So, what are you doing?"
"Hopefully, I am changing the nature of this game we're in, starting with befriending these natives. There are a few lies I have told to that end, but I am insuring that they are mine alone to maintain." He took another deep breath and extracted a lump of charcoal from his flesh as he walked. "They were told that seven devils would come to their island and end the world. It was our captor's intention to set these people against us. I have, instead, told them that the seven devils are a separate group of creatures, which I have given them glimpses of in illusion. I said that I am a god tasked with protecting them from these devils, whose name and image they are unaware of because the devils trapped me and made them forget."
"Why didn't you just tell them the truth?"
"I assumed that they would take word from their shaman over word from someone as obviously alien as I. We were told in the beginning the nature of the lies this S told them. They did not know that we were informed of this. Rather than contradict them, I gave them a story that built on that. This way, it was corroborated by another source that I, as far as they know, should not have known about."
Steven nodded, following along. Vexmagog stopped his ascent and pried another inert piece of charcoal loose as Steven caught up. "Okay, so what do I do in all this?"
Vexmagog smiled. "Nothing, really. None of you can talk to them yet, and I'm sure to have had time to fill everyone in by them time any of you learn their language. My story leaves you all, in their eyes, in a very similar position to the one you are truly in right now. Taken from your home worlds unexpectedly, no knowledge of these people or their culture, no knowledge of this persona I've created or his role as a god of these people. I've set it up so that the only one with a lie to maintain is me. And I've got a lot of experience with this."
"Back up. Learn their language? That would take months, maybe years."
Vexmagog nodded and looked Steven in the eye. "Exactly. And we can stay here that long as long as none of us die. Do you understand? We can spend as much time as we need, figuring out how to stop the contest and go home. And if we can't find a way, this can be our permanent home."
He waited a moment for Steven to absorb this before he continued. "There are, however, several problems. Problem one: the being responsible for running this battle. He may see fit to interfere if we all cease to participate. I understand he is very powerful, but if we force intervention on his part, at least we're that much closer to subverting this twisted game we're all taking part in. Problem two: the shadow devils. My explanation is that they brought you all here so that there would be bodies unblessed by me that they could control. My arm created another entity on the beach, which I said was the seventh creature they summoned, coresponding with the seventh devil. I have 'killed' one of the devils already, and have to take a very active role in this farce until I 'kill' the rest. I would not presume us out of scrutiny until that happens.
"Problem three, Sen." Vexmagog sighed and clenched and unclenched his right hand. The indigo glow still lingered a bit below his elbow, releasing its hold on no loose stones. "Though the prophecy S fed these people may have been false, Sen has the power to make it a reality." Vexmagog pictured in his mind the image of the creature, which lingered overlong on the brown pods embedded below its skin. He shook his head absentmindedly. "I have told them the creature is to be captured because the shadows can only bring in seven otherworldly creatures at once, and that killing Sen would allow them to bring in something else potentially more deadly. Obviously, we do not want Sen to plant his seed, as that would likely destroy the island or even the world. We don't want to kill Sen yet, because that would cause us all to leave the 'arena'. I think the best course of action is to capture him. And that's where you come in."
"I don't like the sound of this."
"Hear me out. Your gloves can create things, right?"
"I...well, yes."
"Could they create a cage or enclosure big enough to hold Sen away from the ground?"
"They could, I suppose," he replied, considering the energy that would be yielded by the feast below, "but it would take me a while. I usually only make small things."
"What about a steel trap, or..." Vexmagog sought Steven's mind for a word that would describe the material used to hold up the bridges between the bouyant islands of his homeworld. He used the most similar substitute. "...Cable? Is that flexible?"
"Not really. If you want strong and flexible, you'd probably want chain instead. And yes, I could make those things. Again, it would take me some time."
"Great. We should walk back down now, and then you should have your gloves make me those things."
"I thought you told everyone that my gloves were demons? Won't they see them down there?"
Vexmagog smiled and patted the man on the back (using his left hand, of course). "They won't care in a few minutes."
__________________________________________________ _____________________
Nalu sulked near the entryway, Mohea alternately keeping a close eye on her and engaging in some sort of pantomime with the scarred, otherworldly man. Nalu's attempts to rally the other women outside had been stymied by the shamaness's daughter. Not wanting to accuse the tribe's new savior until she could prove his falsehood to all of them conclusively, the young woman was forced to wait for the supposed god to return from his "hunt", no doubt victorious. Tired of the waiting game in which she found herself presently engaged, she meandered deeper into the temple towards the seeing chamber, where she encountered the shamaness deep in prayer amongst thrumming sounds from the throats of delirious men.After a pause, Amali looked up, and Nalu addressed her. "Strange day." The older woman met her eye but merely stared dispassionately. With a sigh, Nalu bowed low, stood again, and repeated herself. "Strange day."
"It is all in the interpretation. We find ourselves in the presence of the divine," she replied, with a hint of uncertainty. "Many things are above our comprehension."
"This," Nalu retorted, waving her arm across the room to indicate the men, "is above mine." The elder opened her mouth as if to reply, but furrowed her brow and allowed the insistent mumbling to fill the gap between them. "Are they talking about him? What do they say?" the younger woman asked.
The reply was the same: silence. The shamaness lowered her gaze and stared distractedly into the face of the man nearest her. Nalu leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms.
"I don't know," Amali finally answered. "I don't know anymore." Nalu smiled inwardly, and moved further into the room. She sat on the floor across from the shamaness and put her hand on her shoulder. Their eyes met again. "I thought I knew. I thought this was all there was, until this morning. Now, I feel that all I've heard them say in the past...it was all nothing. If they can speak plainly, then this..." Amali waved her hand dismissively into the air above her, as if gesturing to the words the men spoke, "...This is nothing, and it never was anything more."
The shamaness looked down again, bearing a pained expression. When she finally spoke again, her voice cracked as though she were about to cry. "Now... Now I listen, and I listen, and I pray, and I only hear them say one thing. False. False false false false. As though everything I thought I knew is..." She trailed off before finishing.
"Perhaps you hear them correctly," Nalu replied, "but you misunderstand." Nalu smiled as Amali looked up at her questioningly. "As you said, it is all in the interpretation."[/color]
Spoiler