With its instructions clarified, the arboreal beast assented to only interfere with those who used deep magic in a manner that was of genuine threat to the Tree. Given that Deep Magic was currently contained only within Arthos and focused within the Nyxies and Vix, it would keep an eye on them for now. "I am Crìslagh," the deepstalker whispered.

=

"You can call me Nigh, if you wish, short for Nine. Repairs is one thing; I've been making some improvements, and considering ways to replicate Vic. I'm the weakest Vix, sure enough, but still a good sight better at fabrication than anyone else in Arthos."

He gently took your stump into his hands, which were slightly rough in texture. "I can fabricate a prosthetic from living bioglass easily enough, but as for protection . .  I could make a magically enhanced cloak for you, as well as enchanting your dress. Layering will allow me to keep the modifications minor enough that the flow of your garments shouldn't be affected. You'll have roughly the protection of good leather armor from the dress alone, and the cloak will reduce the kinetic energy of incoming blows to reduce the damage done."

"Do you have a design in mind for the cloak? I imagine the aesthetics are important to you. Splendor would have my head if I made you look unfashionable."

"Pleased to meet you properly, Crìslagh!" She bows to the creature. "I'm counting on you!" She curtsies to her creation before turning her back on it -- primarily to go do something else, and partially to see whether it'll stab her in the back once she's not paying attention. Of course, being goddess of reflections, she almost literally has eyes in the back of her head... and everywhere else, for that matter!

---

"Nigh?" Anna asks. She turns the word over in her head, a finger alighting on her chin in thought. "Hmm, it lacks a certain quality..." Ninty-nine, nineteen, sixty-nine... hm, there's nine vix not counting her honorary membership, so Eternity could be Seven of Nine! Anna isn't sure why she likes that name, but in any event that doesn't help her with a nickname for Foundation. She spends a little too long thinking about it and realizes he's already speaking again.

"Recreating Vic Viper would be an incredible feat!" Anna says. "He was my first mythcrafted creature and even then I basically stole the hard work from Mythmaker Waelwick. I... kinda hope the blight got him, I sorta trashed his workshop, haha! Does that make me a bad person?" She hadn't considered the possibility of reprisal at the time. Yes, she had been on a mission from Vex, but looting the place was her own decision. "Actually, even making improvements is pretty remarkable. Maybe it's 'cause I'm still a newbie but I always had great difficulty changing my creations after the fact."

"I didn't realize Deep Magic was well-suited for long-term enchantments. Has Skeles' Artifice migrated to Arthos?" Anna thought she had seen bursts of her fellow gods' disciplines popping up erratically when she had unleashed magic on Arthos, although most of it was the wild untamed stuff. Taeltresin showing off!

Anna considers Foundation's suggestions, humming to herself. Lacking other references she tries to imagine herself in a fight with Bezzy, and whether a good suit of leather would be of any benefit at all. He was pretty strong and super fast, and everyone knows force equals mass times acceleration. A serious fighty type like Komatoa would probably be even more trouble. Then again, against such a hardcore enemy she doubted anything less than Deekin's shadow jewel would provide any meaningful protection. In any event, as undeniably and inarguably important as swishy dresses were to any intelligent being worth befriending Anna would want something a bit more practical once she leaves Arthos to tour the realms.

But a dresschantment doesn't really come with a downside, so she assents to that.

"Splendor knows what's important," Anna giggles. Having not actually met the dressy vix yet she reserves the nicknaming for now. "Simplicity might be for the best I think, since the whole point is to take the damage instead of me. Unadorned carbon fiber, or nanotubes if you can do it, perhaps edged with runes woven in decorative silver thread. How long will you need?"

"Nanotubes? I suppose it would be possible, but I would need Deep Magic assistance for the fineness of the work, and as you've guessed I'm skilled with Artifice, with my signature ability as a demigod boosting my natural facility with it. It might be best that one of the Nyxies help as well. Perhaps the lovely Liusna?"

Undies laughed. "I could help you easily enough with that, 8. I'm no 10-Crown or 2-Wisdom, but I'm alright with deep magic."

Liusna, who was distracted with some equation, blushed, and flew close to 9-Foundation and spoke in hushed whispers. "Foun, we've TALKED about this. If you like Anna, you should talk to her about it, and not flirt with me or any other girl! You have to show a girl you mean business or she'll not be interested even if she notices you!"

Foun whispered back. "She's never shown interest in anyone, why would she start with me? I may like her, but I serve her. I'll just put my feelings into my work and leave it at that. Sometimes it's better if you keep your feelings to yourself and just do your best to be good to someone and a loyal friend, especially if they're the kind to not take interest in others, like some of the Nyxies don't, right? And she's only just met me."

With that, Foun and Undies set to work on your dress together, which naturally meant you had to remove it. They'd only need it for a little while, though, so they just had you wait in the other room with Liusna.

She took this opportunity to further your knowledge of Deep Magic, by describing in detail the many dimensional matrices and their planar manifestations, and how they related to magic and the structure of the tree as a whole. Then she went further.

"It appears that the concentrated physics of the vault operate as a dimensional lock, preventing access to the fifth dimension. The Blight operates partially along the subreal, however, slowly decaying natural laws and causing distortion. It is possible that the Blight has not left Umbra precisely because it is stored in the vault, and thus unable to synchronise with the world-state of the Tree . .

Gods like you appear to operate in multiple timelines at once by exploiting the metareal. When something impacts your physical form, which is partially an emanation of your presence in the metareal, it creates a paradox that ripples through the metareal and to the rest of your instances . .  since Umbra is stored in a vault that is cut off from the metareal, that may be why it still retains blight-taint despite the blight having been destroyed . . .

The ascended refer to gods as quantum beings because the correspondences between your instances are partially governed by a form of large-scale quantum entanglement. This allows you to exist simultaneously in two dimensional matrices at once.

Deep magic is the magic of magic . . . with magic being a kind of tool that provides epistemological leverage for the will, in a similar manner to a rope-and-pulley system, allowing for manipulation of particular aspects of the real, deep magic is the careful examination of the points of contact of that tool and its operation. Enduring magic sustains itself through a localized manipulation of the subreal via the mechanic of arcane sublimation, which allows the movement in the metareal to directly interact with the subreal. All divine powers seem to operate on this principle if they are active, and if passive the arcane submlimation occurs from the metaself, the theorized instance that exists completely with the metareal at all times . . . fascinating, isn't it? And magicians and gods do all this without even understanding what they are doing!" Liusna gushed.

+30% progress in Deep Magic.

Anna laughs. "I might have to ask for instruction in Artifice sometime! Always did appeal to me more than Necromancy. I feel like it would be rude to not ask Skeles first though." She knows that if anyone started studying Deep Magic without her permission she'd make a stress mess. Arthos' natives had an open invitation, of course.

The blatantly furtive whispering causes a cock of Anna's head. With everything in this room being so shiny there was very little way they could possibly have kept that conversation a secret even if she hadn't such finely tuned hearing. Rather than enlighten them on the extent of her senses Anna elects to feign ignorance, instead going to retrieve the unfinished Eclipse from storage and spread the parts across a free table to examine. She still heard everything though, which made her a bit blushy too.

Ever since being reincarnated, Anna had found herself more frequently distracted by... thoughts. She's playing Ironman Mode. She doesn't have an heir. Bezaleel has three children and even a consort... well, two children and a consort... actually three children one of whom is a consort. She hasn't heard much from Deekin, but he's got a bundle of lives left to play with. She is acutely, painfully aware of how vulnerable she is and how it could all end with one misstep without anyone to inherit Arthos. She's feeling a need and her brilliantly multi-faceted mind isn't as above base urges as she likes to portray it as. She never would have considered a child while the Blight was ongoing, there was too much to investigate, too much to do, and a war to fight... but now?

Well, there's still too much to do and investigate... but taking a mate or just a lover didn't seem as farfetched as it once did.

She shook her head. It was a mess up there these days!

Anna pouted but relented to being disrobed, chewing her lip softly and second-guessing whether her usual casual flirtiness might be a bit mean-spirited to 'Foun' knowing what she does. Then again, dispensing with her lighthearted fun might signal that she overheard them, leading to awkwardness. On a third hand if she's just being fun out of obligation then she's not really being fun! Wow, social interactions are challenging! All she ends up doing is placidly going along with whatever motions are requires of her and smiling ruefully.

Joining Liusna in the back Anna listens intently while a relatively small subprocess tinkers with the incomplete Eclipse. She has many ideas for artifacts but essence was in short supply and other ideas seemed to have greater immediate applicability to the challenges she would be facing. She wondered if Deekin still had the essence she had dropped on her death. One mote of the stuff was a gift given to replace the corrupted Sun-and-Moon she never got around to actually using, and the other she thinks came from the blighted tentacle rape demon that had molested the Ravaged Lands.

Anna laughs as she witnesses Liusna's enthusiasm. "Absolutely fascinating, yes!" she agrees. She would have to replay this lesson in her head several times to completely digest what she had learned and tease practical applications from it, but that's what eidetic memories are for! And, seeing that Liusna is acquainted with the vix, Anna decides that she has found the first of her new generation Infinities. She reaches over and gently boops the nyxie on the forehead, divine power flowing from the brief contact and inscribing the ¹/₀ mark there. The symbol glows brightly for a moment before fading to unobtrusiveness.

Anna smiles to the little nyxie. "You should be a teacher. I think your enthusiasm would be infectious!"

Thinking over what she has learned, Anna considers the merits of keeping Umbra as it was. She wants Sun-and-Moon back, 'tis true, but the greatest of her foes will be vulnerable to the Blight rather than being of it. Is that like keeping samples of a lethal disease around to use on one's enemies? Is that ethical? Or worth it? She would have to consider these questions eventually, but put them off for now.

Exploring the Floatlands is her current priority and she will not be distracted!

(500 souls to make Liusna a hero!)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:01, Thu 07 Feb 2019.

With your deep-magic senses active, the act of bestowing heroic nature on Liusna was more than just . . . a touch. It was a rush of song and story, the writing of myth, an act of Order. You were altering her very nature, suffusing her with something like light, awareness, virtue. It was if she had been a shadow of a person before - a philosphical zombie - but you had pulled her out of that, into half-light - whereas you stood clearly in Truth, along with the Vix, though they were faint candles to your torch.

What was divinity? What did it mean that death made you stronger, but the fourth was the end? Your vision began to garble, to glitch, became static -

The zeroth door was enumbra, the world-womb - the first door belonged to the seekers - they walked, lo, their lantern-heads aglow -

Liusna was shaking you, your booping finger still pressed to her skin, as if attached by glue. The Infinity sign burned bright, more souls flowing into her. -1000 Souls to create a Pilgrim-Hero.

The infinity symbol was a jittery thing, not the clean unity you'd desired: []/[[]]=2

It was the 'Unfinity' equation. Just as there were greater and lesser infinities, there were greater and lesser nothings. When a lesser nothing was divided into a greater, the result was something true - and so the World Tree had come into being; the first world-tree, Yggdrasil.

"You can't look too deep, Anna!" Liusna was crying. "You can't. You just can't. The mind was not intended to fully correlate its contents."

She taught you then, a darker use of Deep Magic - the partitioning and compartmentalizing of information within the mind. It was merely the use of Deep Magic to analyze and alter the functioning of the self, disabling aspects of higher perception and establishing constraints to avoid an overload. Learning too much was the great danger of Bathomancy - one could drown in Truth. The pressure of the depths of magic was unkind to lunacy - even the natural lunacy that kept people positive, aware, invested - and it was just as possible to be driven Sane as it was to go Mad.

+30% Deep Magic.
+1 Refinement of Mind.
Progress towards Refinition of Mind: 40%.  After this message, you will now perceive orange text in character, exactly as written, unless explicitly marked OOC.

A call from the other room! "The dress in finished - it should defend you well enough, first reducing impacts with targeted repulsion and then secondarily dispersing kinetic energy upon impact. It will be especially effective against projectiles, effective against blunt and thrusting weapons, but will fare less well to slashing weapons."

Antikinetic Raiment: Quarters mundane damage from mundane projectiles, halves damage from mundane blunt and thrusting attacks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:56, Sat 09 Feb 2019.

Ever since she first peered Between Anna had tried to be aware of the functioning of her mind. What was happening to her now was different from then, a sideways step in another direction from madness, and she didn't recognize it at once. When she did she locked down her mind tight, less an errant thought strike down the nyxie she intended to elevate.

She emerged mentally sore but relatively unscathed and in familiar territories, no doubt at least partially due to the vigorous shaking-awake of her... Unfinity? Her mind balked at the term and the concept it represented, but supposed that was precisely why she had started to slip into Sanity.

A slow smile came to her polished lips. "Once into Madness and again into Sanity; all things have a mirror, and we at the borderline Between. How precarious a position for our minds!" She laughs at the absurdity and undeniable truth of it all.

Anna looks over at Liusna, as if noticing her shaking of her shoulder for the first time. She gently brushes the nyxie's hair back with a silvered finger. "Sorry. I am all right, Lilu. My control slipped for a moment but I am all right." She bites her lip, uncertain how the overdose of divine power affected the ebon-skinned mini-girl. "How do you feel?"

While losing herself to Truth provisionally was not a wholly unattractive concept, Anna had other things she wanted squared away first. She makes an executive decision to put Deep Magic on the back burner while she solidifies "reality" around herself. This decision lasts all of five seconds before she is drinking up the next serving of knowledge Liusna cooks up for her. This is a logical and magical extension to what she already does when she partitions her mind with autohypnosis, except now functioning on multiple levels of reality. Defending against abnormal mental function, whether Sane or Mad, can only be a good thing.

But Anna is Anna and she can't let the new knowledge go without immediately utilizing it for something. With her new Deep Partitioning knowledge Anna compartmentalizes her recent brush with Truth and feeds the memories, best as she can, into Perihelion for a better and hopefully less intense viewing experience.

Anna returns to Found Undies to hear their report and inspect their work. A quick glance -- the outer ring of her "normal" eye still bright green with Deep Magic -- tells her everything before they've even finished the explanation. She wondered how long until she could look upon the world-weave without misplacing her marbles. "Very impressive," she compliments Foundation. "I think that covers the types of violence and accident I am likely to encounter and will be able to explore in much greater confidence now. Thank you, Foundies. How long will the artifice last?"

"How do I feel?" She blinked, then dissolved into a crack in reality, before returning again. You couldn't look at her long; her very from was not the night sky like other nyxies, but he foggy beyond that, having once witnessed, had driven you mad for a time. You had driven her somehow . . . beyond. When you had touched her, directed your power into her, you touched the Void that had touched her; an indirect kiss with the Beyond, to put it one way.

She had edged towards Madness even as you had edged towards Sanity, and you felt a reciprocal bond; from this point forward, Liusna would be a strange mirror of you. If someday you went Sane, she would also go fully Mad.

She touched her forehead, and it bled onto her hands like ink, leaving a reversed imprint. "This equation . . it's unfinished. There's more to it . .  I can see . ."

The pupils of her eyes distorted, swallowing up her irises, forming five-pointed stars - no, they were still circular, just in a higher dimension - the matrix that corresponded to the realm of chaos.

She was writing, her skin bleeding off her into blackest ink that wasn't pigment - it was anti-pigment, a thing that ate light hungrily and shimmered as it did so. "This isn't unfinity, it's Eternity. The counterposal of the myriadiasphoric potentialities . . . "

You eyes were hurting, and you had a headache. "I'm not Liusna anymore - call me - hmm. Oh yes, call me by the name of my new mother." She grinned, and her teeth - you'd seen those teeth before, on the far shore. The dentition of a tree-dragon . . or something akin.

"I am Nyx!"

 - and she was gone.

Meanwhile, you had a really cute dress ready for you. Found answered your question. "It should be semi-permanent. You'll be able to refresh it with souls if it gets worn down."

Anna found herself at a complete loss at Liusna's mental and metaphysical breakdown. She opens her mouth to speak with a hand raised at her side, but the nyxie is gone before she can get a word in edgeways. Anna looks down, blinking as her eyes readjust to reality, and then examines her hands. She clenches and relaxes them several times in slow succession. Looking out the window, she sees the distant perpetual storm from her early Deep Magic experiments, just beyond the Dome of Secrets that was the end result of peering Beyond.

"Am I really such a walking disaster area...?" she quietly asks of the now empty room. Maybe the deepstalker's interpretation of its purpose wasn't so erroneous after all.

She wants to say it wasn't her fault this time. She had created heroes a bunch of times before. The tree always responded to intention over specific dictation. Was it because she had crossed her essence with that from beyond the tree? Was her intention no longer so clear to the metaphysical reality engine that drove the majority of apparent existence? Oh gods, was she going to have to carefully watch every single action she takes from now on? How does she reconcile her breezy, bubbly persona with such caution?!

But forget whose fault it is. What could she do for Liusna? The nyxie had seemed so concerned when she thought Anna had peered too deep, just as Anna now felt for her. Somehow though she doubted it would be as simple as pulling Liusna back through the door she'd left by and giving her a reassuring cuddle. Anna had merely glimpsed something, while Liusna had been physically and spiritually altered. Maybe Deep Magic could put her right again... or it could mess her up even more. Anna had a spectacular talent for messing things up.

After a minute that seemed an eternity, Anna sighed and decided to simply let this play out. Liusna hadn't seemed to be in distress... right?

She finds she doesn't even care about Perihelion's calculation anymore. She discards the result without even looking at it.

...

The artifice'd dress is collected and given a cursory examination. "Souls, huh?" she muses aloud. The antikinetic raiment is folded up and set in a neat pile somewhere unobtrusive. "Thank you again. I'll be back later."

Anna leaves the laboratory and shortly thereafter the archipelago, looking about for a nice high quality reflection with a view of the storm. When she finds one she steps inside the mirrored space, sitting and resting her head in a nest made of her arms and knees. She watches the eternal maelstrom rage for the two days she arbitrarily decided was a reasonable time for her volunteers to assemble. She hadn't spent any significant time in mirrorspace since she was first born onto Arthos. It felt a little bit like crawling back into her womb to have a hard think about her life.

Two passes of Atropos across the sky later Anna would return to the archipelago to meet the troops.

You found her - Liusna, Nyx - within the mirror.

"I'm still here, Anna. I always will be. It's not so easy for me to exist in the real dimensional matrix anymore - all Nyxie are void-touched, and I guess being fed power enhances our tie to the Void. Or maybe my knowledge of deep magic made me sustainable; the Viese are known for the intellect and curiosity, and both of those are dangerous when you are dealing with the Void."

She took your hands in hers. "You could be more than what you are, Anna. There are beings that exist beyond the Tree, and not all of them are hostile. It'd better to think of the Void as a dark and misty reflection of the real . . . or the real as a simplified, clarified version of the Void. Chaos is necessary for growth, even as safeguards are needed to protect against cancer and ensure that growth proceeds accordingly to plan."

She showed you her dragon's teeth. "This is what I've become. I know so much now. There was once a mythcrafted being like me - a Void-Dragon - that was used by a hero to venture into the Void and combat a foe to a Tree that has since been lost to the mists, like Taeltresin nearly did. Within the second dimension, the Tree stores molds of all things that have been, and many that will be. I was pressed into one such mold. I'm Mad enough to protect you from the things that are beyond, and with training you will be able to shield your mind for longer and longer periods of time. We can't go far from the tree's influence, but the Null - the Near Void - is accessible astride me."

Her form became like ink, and you saw her new form - that of a scaled, winged beast much like the dragons you yourself had created.

From your hands, her ink swam over and beneath your skin, becoming the tattoo of a dragon across your back - though she swam over your body as the pleased. It was rather pleasant, like a hand lightly brushing over your body.



The witches were different. They seemed to have grown souls in the time you'd left to their devices. Leeda's was a lighter mint green flame compared to Debra's deep hunter green.

"Anna!" They screeched they in unison, diving down to see you. "Not dead??" They were deeply pleased at this development.

The Earthroil Walker had to taken the longest to arrive and now waited patiently, and Clarity was preening herself nearby; she pointedly avoided looking at you, preferring to be snooty and aloof. Likely your extended absence had offended her.

I'm still here, Anna-

Anna screeched something at her wayward hero and bolted. Swapping reflections in her surroundings as fast as she could manage and almost randomly with only a vague sense of orientation. In a fit of frustration she begins leveling the environment around her in a spectacularly destructive manner, boulders and glittering rubble flying in all directions which she then begins to heat into glass just to smash it anew as it cools.

She's not sure how long her tantrum lasts; most of her subprocesses were frozen to protect them from the emotional imbalance that is now settled. Anna lies amid almost three square kilometers of devastation, a once-craggy field now re-realized as dunes of ground glass, her own form an exhausted tangle of limbs atop a particularly large crest now that she has expended her frustration.

Her intention had not been to kill Liusna, but it seemed an entirely foreseeable consequence of what she had just done. Assuming, of course, Liusna even still existed to be killed; without wanting to do so Anna had apparently changed the nyxie so dramatically that the being -- whatever it was now -- no longer cared for its previous identity. It could be that Anna's well-meaning attempt to make Liusna more Liusna-like had instead destroyed what had previously defined her and this Nyx was created in her stead. Anna values her individuality enough that she could confidently state that had she imbibed the tree-sap from her pre-afterlife and become a world dragon she wouldn't have changed her name!

Not that Anna hadn't find the experience educational in any way... but it was much easier to stomach the results of her experiments when she had embarked on those experiments willingly. And being stalked by such an error when she was still sore from making it, well, that's how temper tantrums happen. If Nyx had been killed it served her right for a critical lack of situational awareness! ... yes, let's go with that. Not Anna's fault!

Who are you trying to convince?

Anna sits up and probes her surroundings via mirrorsight and magic, attempting to ascertain whether she needs to do a burial.

Liusna was still alive, if barely; ink was splattered across the whole of the plane of devastation. Aside from her severe injuries - it was doubtful she would ever fly again anytime soon, but she might might be able to walk with some first aid - she appeared . .  normal. Her teeth were normal, her coloration normal, even the sign on her forehead seemed to have adjusted to your original intentions - she was just Infinite, not Unfinite.

She burbled something to you through the blood in her lungs. She coughed, spat out the blood, collapsed again.

Liusna: 1/5
Nyx: 0/5, revoked.

Huh. This outcome was not foreseen, but not unwelcome. Anna plies her survivalist skills to stabilize the nyxie for transport before scooping the little figure into her hand and tearing off to... her archipelago or the nyxie settlement around the Vault? Which one?! If attempting to elevate Liusna had caused this maybe there was much more about nyxie composition that she didn't know, so she elects to deliver the injured woman to her people. It was her mistake, she ought to fix it herself, but needs outweigh vanity. Casting her reflected selves forward she appears before the nyxies and lets them know of her imminent arrival and would they please have a doctor waiting for her thanks? Thanks! Sorry!

If asked, Anna explains that Liusna got caught in the wake of several poor decisions on the goddess' part in rapid succession, briefly spent time on the edge of the Void, and was subsequently blown up. When the doctors and deep mages seemed to know enough about her condition to begin, Anna quietly excuses herself with another apology.

With that crisis (hopefully) sorted, Anna would return to her originally scheduled crisis. This time the reflection she chooses to squat in is submerged at the base of a waterfall, hopefully ensuring that she gets no more unexpected visitors.

So Liusna is like Teltanin then?

Teltanin was never corrupted.

Not corrupted! More like transcended.

Is there an observable difference, given what we know?

We wonder if she hates us after this, if she even remembers.

The nyxies are probably very displeased.

Fuck them. We do not need their approval.

Meteoric extermination?

Meteors are outside our influence. Lightning will work.

The nyxies are useful and a part of Arthos. They genuinely want to help.

Want to replace us. We're dangerous.

So are they! Antimatter rituals.

'Ritual' seems like an odd word. Perhaps there was more to the process that-

We will have to stop you there.

Perhaps it is time we stop and appreciate what we have.

This trip to the Floatlands is all about that, right?

Yes. Artifacts, mysteries, and strange and beautiful sights.

Didn't we destroy an island, too?

That cannot conceivably be considered a bad thing! It resulted in fish!

Fish will make us feel better. Artifacts, mysteries, beautiful sights, and fish.

This thing with Liusna will be dealt with when feelings are not so sore. And blood gushing.

We have a plan.

We are resuming the original plan! Stop messing up our plans, us!

Anna had to put her subprocesses back in their boxes before they started pulling each other's hair. She felt terrible about what happened, but it's done now. She will see the consequences when she gets back. She... she'll just be careful. If she is careful then everything will be j̡͟u̢̧ş͡t f͞i̷n̡͟e̶͘͘.

[Private to GM: (Not jumping straight to the myths in case you want to have nyxies throw tomatoes or something. If not let me know and I'll keep going.)]
This message was last edited by the player at 04:27, Sat 02 Mar 2019.

The Nyxies were surprisingly unperturbed by what had transpired. "We exist on the fringe of two worlds, each hostile to the other. A sudden push upsets the balance. That is why we do out utmost to retain a level of tranquility," said one Nyxie. "If this furthers your caution in experimenting with us, that is price enough for you to pay. When Liusna recovers, perhaps you will consult her before you . . . 'boop' her head with god-juice again?"

The myths you had called had gathered unto you, and awaited further instruction. Of course, the most interesting development was Em Pheyna becoming a species rather than a unique specimen, but it was likely that your other myths had grown in your absence as well. If anything was constant, it was the nature of living beings to grow.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:32, Wed 13 Mar 2019.

"Yeah, I see that now..." Anna replies, sheepishly. She's not certain how she feels about being talked down to like a child who just broke a favored toy. On the one hand she's a goddess, they can't talk to her like that! On the other she had said on numerous occasions that she didn't want to be treated like one, and the analogy was frighteningly accurate.

In a way, though, what frightened her the most was the levelness of the response. The reasoning they gave for it makes sense but some colorful part of her can't help but read it as why should we be surprised, this is what we've come to expect from the goddess of collateral damage.

Cor blimey she needs to reflect. So she leaves and does that.

---

By the time Anna returns to realspace, she is feeling much more calm and centered. It is important, every now and then, to take some time to analyze and realign one's mental state. She arrives on the Archipelago with a renewed smile and updated operational parameters, feeling older, wiser, and pretty confident about the future. She wanted to be a pillar of support for the viese that they could lean on without fear of it tipping over and smashing Em Phenya, and felt lightened by her new promise (if only to herself) of responsibility.

Anna! Not dead??

She laughs and waves happily to the brilliant figures as they swooped down before her. "I'm as surprised as anyone, haha~!" she replies. "What have you beautiful hotheads been up to all this time? Can't have been easy; I didn't give much thought to what you would do in peacetime. Still working with this ol' hunk to stamp out the lingering Mad?" She strokes the leafy exoskeleton of the Walker's legs before patting it twice firmly.

Walking to Clarity next, Anna leans forward at the waist with hands folded behind her. "Hey girl. You look as opalescent as always. Sorry about the whole... dying thing. It was not exactly the optimal outcome of my plan. Must've been lonely." If the dragon would have it, she reached over to give the colorful critter affectionate skritches.

From there she would go about the Archipelago, seeing what viese and offshoots thereof have shown up to explore the Floatlands with her.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:04, Fri 22 Mar 2019.

The Viese that had showed up to explore with you were few in number - perhaps 90 in all - but included the delightful young popstar Prosymna, as well as the not-quite-so-young Eila. Both had brought along their disciples.

There was a Vix you had not met yet. She had a noble bearing, and whirled markings that reminded you of roses. She bowed to you. "Hail. I am 4-Kindness. I would ask that you call me Thorn,"

Thorn. Four, plus her weapon of choice was a spear. The Vix were very . . . functional in their humor and nomenclature.

"I'm Prosymna's manager. She insisted on pursuing this dangerous venture when she heard Eila would be going with you. I understand that Eila -"

"I can speak well enough for myself, Thorn." Eila interjected, having approached you. "The Earth spoke to me. His siblings still live. While they have forgotten the Viese, I hope to restore the old bargains we once struck. The bargains that the old machine god forgot, the fool."
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:54, Mon 25 Mar 2019.

Apparently the lives of the Flare Witches weren't very interesting in her absence?

Ninty used to be a significant portion of the viese population, and it had not been all that long ago by Anna's reckoning since that had changed. It felt like her islands were positively abuzz with life!

With a mote of will the islands move for the first time in over a century, their route westward to the floating islands where their goddess had left so much unfinished. Anna monitors the islands for a short time, verifying that their functionality remains intact and standing by with the souls in case they are needed. She had no reason to think they would be, but Anna was done with being blindsided by complications.

Ah, a new vix! The particularly regal grace of this one compelled Anna to return the bow, and to resist responding to the hail with literal hail. It was difficult but Anna's resolve was heroic! "Nice to meet you, Thorn!" she greets. Her mind went down a list of spontaneous nicknames but none particularly resonated with her and Thorn was the first vix to have a nickname specifically in mind. It'll have to do!

Anna raises an eyebrow at Eila's interruption, but soon giggles. Not only had Eila retained her propensity for speaking her mind but she seems to have gotten a little grumpy in her age; adorable. The wry smirk fades as the topic changes. "Logos?" Anna asks. "I have heard murmurs of my... predecessor?... in the depths of Em Phenya. There is little in the core lands I don't hear. You will have to tell me all about the machine god sometime." She supposed those ruins in the Ravaged Lands had to come from somewhere and briefly wondered whether that old telescope was refurbished at any point, but found the topic too tangental to raise.

She pauses just long enough to indicate a shift in topic. "I am glad to hear the other Pacts yet exist," she says even as she thinks back. The Winds were fickle, and they forgot they'd ever struck the pact. The Fires were resentful and said they owed no mortal fealty. The Life had ever so many children to attend to and left to see to them, but the Earth remembers. "Let us work together in this. I will follow you lead; you are better versed in the Pacts than I, Eila. I am glad to have you along."

Anna returns her attention to Thorn. "Prosymna sounds like quite the handful! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though; my little shooting star was a force of nature from the beginning." She smiled. "So she idolizes Eila, huh?"

As they speak Anna moves the conversation indoors so that she can dress herself in her (now not so) newly enchanted dress, roping Thorn into helping if she were even remotely receptive. All the prettily dressed girls were making her feel self-conscious.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:24, Mon 25 Mar 2019.

The Flare Witches were still rather unintelligent, even with souls. They seemed happy though.

A little while later, Thorn was helping you with your dress. It was different than when 3-Understanding had helped you; even though Undies had been helpful, there had been a sensuality to her that was unmistakable. Thorn was gentle and considerate, but was transparently disinterested in you in a particular way.

"So you're Anna. Prosymna mentioned that she heard your voice one day, and that's why sings and does her best to make the world a little more 'poppy', as she says. I guess that's why she's called a 'pop-star'."

"I'm told you're both a genius beyond compare and a dangerous maniac that was better off dead. Without you, neither I nor Prosymna or anyone else would be around, so I suppose I see you as a kind of mother figure, and see Prosymna as my little sister,"

"Unlike Prosymna, though, I don't idolize you. Or Eila. Or the hero Tael- Talisin? I forget. I think you're probably a normal person pressured into being abnormal. How did you get those tattoos, though? They're unusual."

Eila had mentioned just minutes before that your tattoos were linked to the Floatlands, that your remembered - the Floatlands were unnatural, and the rivers there flowed like your tattoos, in straight line and circular ponds.

The Viese had never come here because the flowers couldn't be used for reproduction and the food made Viese sick. The Earth had told Eila that - "The Waters lived here. The Viese never made a pact with the Waters, and I want to start there. It will be easier to persuade the others if we have the Waters back on board, because the Waters join Winds and Earth, and Fire is afraid of the Waters. If we can pact with the Waters, only Life in the jungles to the north will present a puzzle to solve."

It was about then that Prosymna popped her head in to where you were talking to Thorn. "Hey Thorny! Are you done helping Anna?" She lifted her petticoats, which had been splashed with mud. "I was dancing and uh, it was wet out," she said.

Prosymna didn't . . . look Viese. She didn't even look like you. She was very pretty, though. What had happened to her?

Prosymna, the Popstar
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:28, Sun 07 Apr 2019.

Anna misses Undies' touch, but is appreciative for Thorn's help nonetheless. She smiles as the smalltalk begins. Anna's opinion of the little shooting star was already known, so she nodded in wordless agreement through that part.

"Both those are true," Anna says with a soft, slightly remorseful chuckle. "I'm trying to be less of the latter and more of the former now. It's not my natural state but I am determined to learn. I think you're right not to idolize me; I'm still very much coming out of a difficult puberty."

"Oh, these things?" Anna lifts her arms up. With a slight exertion of will, motes of soul-energy balled up and traced paths down the many twisting paths on her skin, briefly lighting the room in cyan. "They're the markings of my father Axiom, god of networks and technology. He was working to create a flawless realm of intelligent machines -- the Ascended, actually, whom I'm sure you've met -- but something went wrong. I don't know if it was the Blight or he made a mistake, but he feared for his legacy and took steps to ensure it would be preserved. My metallic skin and these brandings lead me to believe I was to be a technological god as he was, but something must have changed during my nascent state that led to me taking a radically different path. Perhaps this Logos I hear of was the cast-off shell of what Axiom would have preferred I be... alas, neither of them still exist to be asked. I hope. According to Eila, markings like these exist all over Arthos, half-remembered reminders of past mistakes."

Anna shivers involuntarily. Even now she still has a primal revulsion towards conventional technology. Organic is better. More natural. She is not in denial, nope.

She stands, tugging her outfit here and there to adjust the fit until it's just so. She offers a satisfied smile to Thorn. "So you don't idolize the Infinities, I'm mom, and Prosymna is lil' sis. Do these thorns' roses bloom for anyo-"

Hey Thorny!

Prosymna! Anna turns to face the pop star, all eager smiles, previous conversation forgotten. Her one exposed eye looks the pink girl up and down, taking in every detail. Anna feels like she just might have her Final Death from the kawaii. Another part of her, however, took in the details and came to an entirely different conclusion. Prosymna is one of the giants? Did Thorn fly her up here? Was she always a giant? She has to admit she was not entirely in her right mind when she had selected her musician...

"Arthos is, ah, always pretty wet, haha...!" Anna agrees with the pop star regarding one of the near-universal constants of the realm. The two conflicting opinions battling for supremacy in the back of her mind left her slightly confused and awkward. She glances at Thorn with an undisguised what? expression.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:56, Sun 07 Apr 2019.

"Oh!" Prosynna said, giving her skirt a little swirl and she spun. "I'm Viese! I am! You've never seen any of my shows, huh? I bet you're super busy, being a super cool science goddess!"

Before your eyes, her outfit changed and her body shifted. Now, she looked like you, if you had ever been a young girl - complete with cyan petticoats and and ultramarine highlights in her hair.

She spun again, and she - was small, Viese. A beautiful shell-pink woman with silvery wings. She was extra petite, even for a Viese, and even for being a child. She settled on your shoulder.

"Being a pop star is all about appearances! So I can look however I want to. It's just a little deep magic! Nobody else can do it like I do, though!"

She leaned against your neck, and gave you tiniest peck on the edge of your jaw. "You should come to one of my shows! I'll even hook you up with a backstage pass!"

Anna nods apologetically. "Yeah, haha! I've..." Been what? Weeping to herself at the bottom of a waterfall for the last three days? "... had a lot of my mind." She clamps down on the rising melencholy and forces it right back down. There's a cute girl right in front of her and she's about to do something interesting, pay attention to that!

As she leaned forward in undisguised curiosity Anna felt her heart skip a beat. "Oh- my- gosh~!" she squeals. Before her very eyes Prosymna changed again, this time into a little seashell of a viese! "That is so awesome!" She cocks her head into the tiny kiss on the cheek and giggles joyously. The day was just beginning and it was already the greatest day ever. She reaches over to give the now-tiny pop-star a little pat on the head with one fingertip. "I would love to see one of your shows. Maybe after this expedition!"

"So my little changling," Anna says, adopting a slightly more dignified tone. "What're you hoping to find out here is the Floatlands? I understand they are still mostly unexplored, and, well, I have a reputation for... collateral damage. It could be dangerous."

As they talk Anna tours about the Archipelago, pop-star on her shoulder. Her seemingly aimless meanderings takes her by the Repair Pad. If there, she gives Foundation a quick squeeze on the shoulder and asks if Vic Viper is ready for assignment, and if not she polls the aircraft-myth itself.

"Oof. Yeah, Vic's ready and purring. Better than new."

Vic agreed, rumbling in asssent. He was much the same as before, if a little larger with a flatter and more triangular profile.

Prosymna chattered. Her chatter was very praticed, though, and her stories were punchy and entertaining. She half-sung a lot of her words, though.

"Well, I need more song material, you know, and I uh, wanted to meet you? I felt your presence back when I was starting my career . . . this urging to practice, this little bravery in my heart, this connection to others. I want to see more of Arthos, and I want to meet more people,"

She coughed teenily. "And I wanna learn cool shaman magic from Eila to use for special effects in my shows,"

"Awesome! It sure looks ready for business!" Anna compliments Foundation.

She claps a hand against the spaceplane's polished alloy surface. "Alright Vipes, got an aerial survey mission for you! Head west and explore the Floating Islands for any sort of anomalies. Energy sources, monsters, artifacts, lingering damage from the Blight, anything that warrants a closer investigation! I'm counting on you, show me your best!" She gives the autonomous craft a kiss on the glass dome before hopping back to a safe distance. She waves farewell to it as it speeds off into the distance.

Anna resumed wandering around the archipelago, confident that her instincts would lead her to wherever she was needed. She loved listening to the pop-star; Prosymna's energy was contagious and her stories fascinating enough to make Anna wonder if she'd ever grow tired of hearing her talk. "I hope I haven't been too much of a disappointment so far!" Anna laughs. "So far the pleasure has been all mine, haha!"

Anna stopped, realizing that they had arrived in the mythcrafting garden. A brilliant idea came to her then. "Hey, Prosymna... wanna bring some of those stories to life?" She looks over with an inviting grin.

Prosymna blushed deeply as Vic Viper left for his realm-wide reconnaissance mission. "You mean the way you made the Witches and the spy bird and the glass plant and stuff?" She said. "That, ah, sound like a lot of fun! I'm not sure how much help I'll be though . . ." she said, lifting her teensy teeny tiny hands.

She leapt from your shoulder, and in a twirl of flash and color she returned to her pink-clad human self that you initially met, parasol and all. "So what's the story this time?"

"More help then you'd expect!" Anna says cheerily. "I want practice mythcrafting but sometimes it is difficult for me to come up with ideas, and even when I do I tend to fall back on bioglass plant creatures because they're what I know. You're so full of stories and enthusiasm; it's just what I need to break out of the creative rut and elevate my game to the next level!"

If nothing else, it'll be a good constructive way for Anna pass the time while the Archipelago of Origins makes the slow aerial journey west.

Allocating a stockpile of 5000 souls to experimental mythcrafting.

She pondered, the clapped her hands while lifting her heels. "How about something long, slender, and graceful that glides through the sky and earth - like a streak of silver, a gentle snake . . ."

She thought more. "But furred, too, and pawed, and it moves like a lizard, and like the - there were cats that used to eat Viese, right? The ones that you killed . .  I remember the story . . . "

Working with her was . .  interesting. She was much more a painter than a mechanic or scientist, and with her guidance a new being was created.

It did not resemble anything you would make. It was a graceful and vibrantly colored creature that didn't serve any explicit purpose and had improbable anatomy, but there was something  . . . soothing about it. When you were in the presence of the Harush, the world took on a watercolor aspect.

The Harush, Shepherd of Leaf and Cloud

-2000 souls.