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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 15, 2014 1:53:22 GMT -5
She finally stopped running. Mara took a deep breath as she let go of Alex's hand. They were now back where they started, infront of her room. Alex looked to be completely out of breath, as the man was trying his hardest not to collapse. "Sorry about that." Mara sheepishly said. "We had to get out of there pronto, and this is the safest place around." She said, motioning inside the door. Of course, she'd have to tell those inside of what was going on... especially for Alex's sake. "And yeah, I do sorta have to explain some things... but it's better if we did that inside."
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 15, 2014 1:56:50 GMT -5
"As long," gasped Alex, his hand clasped to his chest as he heaved. "As long as there's someplace for me to sit down... fine. Yeah. Let's go."
After a brief fit of coughing, he mumbled under his breath. "Ugh, this better be a good story for all that running..."
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 15, 2014 2:06:04 GMT -5
"Don't worry. There will be." Mara said as she knocked on the door. At first, there was silence, and then the door opened.
"Mara... What are you doing?" Crigan asked. The Death God was in his human form, and in a pair of black shorts and an undershirt for pajamas. "And why is Alex with you, and that girl on your back...?" The tired deity looked over at the mortal man, then at Vesica, and then realized what he had said. "Wait, I mean..."
"No, it's alright. He need to know the truth now, and I need to explain just what is going on." Mara told him. Crigan stepped aside, and Mara walked in, Alex following behind her.
The room was not lit, and all those who had been asleep were awake, bar the cyclops Proteus, who was still fast asleep. There were two couches in the room for use. One was already taken by the sleeping Proteus and Diamen, the young man having one hand over the mark on his neck and face. In the other couch, was the Enma, who had her eyes on the man with a curious look. "I've heard alot about you, Alex Shephard. Your exploits with kaiju and gods are renouned for a mere mortal, yet now you find yourself in the presence of things far beyond your expertise. We are sorry if what we have to offer you as an explanation goes over your head." Shikieiki explained, shifting herself over so that the man had some room to take a seat...
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 15, 2014 2:27:49 GMT -5
Alex took a seat beside the miniscule woman after only a second's wait. He practically oozed into the sofa, his body going limp as he exhaled deeply. Though the human smiled pleasantly, he was panicking on the inside, and it showed in his voice when he next spoke. By a combination of exhaustion, fear, and excitement, his voice was weak and thin. He needed to cough once or twice to clear the hesitance from his throat. "Y-yeah. The water just... keeps rising higher over my head. I'd really and truly appreciate a hand here before I drown."
The tension in him became especially apparent when he jumped at the sudden sound of someone rapping at the door.
KNOCK KNOCK. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 15, 2014 2:33:01 GMT -5
"I will answer it." Mara said as she let Vesica down on the couch beside Alex. There was just enough room for all three of them there. She turned to go back to the door, and was going to open it up, when Crigan stopped her.
"Wait a second. Let me answer it, just in case." With that, he opened up the door as Mara stepped back...
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 15, 2014 12:52:27 GMT -5
The god of death in human form slowly pulled open the door, prepared to face down any number of awful things upon tugging it fully open. Perhaps one of Persephone's more insidious minions would lung from the other side. Or an agent of the Maluvor. Or maybe it was one of the human's foes, like the mad bitch Fainis or the egotistical dragon Kedos. A daunting number of evil beings lurked in the UCA and any one of them could be behind the door...
Instead of an eldritch horror or fire breathing demon, a short, scowling blonde woman with her arms crossed across her chest appeared in the doorframe.
"Excuse me," she said in an irritated, untrusting growl. " Have you seen my idiot? I swore that I-"
"Sam?" Alex stared at her with a mix of fear and relief. It was good for the frayed man to see a familiar (and human) face, but she seemed annoyed. And that was never good for him. "How the hell did you find me?"
The stocky woman pushed past Crigan without bothering to ask for an invitation in. "I put a tracking beacon in your scalp two years ago."
"What?"
"That was a joke," Sam deadpanned. "I heard you yelping from down the hallway."
"That was not funny. Neither of the two things you just said were funny."
"I thought it was a little girl at first."
"Hey. Remember that thing I said about you not being funny?"
"I wasn't kidding that time." She narrowed her eyes and touched her fingers to the cuts on his cheek lightly, making him hiss in pain. "The hell happened to you, Shepherd?"
"What? That? Uh," he stammered, drawing back from her touch and struggling for an easy explanation. "It was nothing really... birds... swarm of birds... I'm fine, I swear. Please stop touching me. Everyone has been touching me today and I don't know why. I'm sorta freaked out right now."
"Alright," said Sam steelily. She raised her voice to address everyone in the room. "What's going on here? I want to know now."
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 15, 2014 13:17:23 GMT -5
It was Mara who responded to Sam's question. " We will answer your questions as best as we can. To start off..." She turned to Alex. "My name isn't really Ran. I only told that for my own amusement... at first. You see, when we first met, I wasn't exactly myself."
"What... what do you mean?" Alex asked.
"She means she was under Persephone's control." Crigan took over, his eyes drifting from Sam to Alex as he shook his head. "You see, Mara here is my wife, who was taken from me and subdued by an evil spirit Persephone lay within her. It was all to do as much harm to me as possible, and she was in her evil sinister state for over 300 years, until shortly before the Orsa crisis. No doubt she decided to go and have fun with you at first just to drive even more spikes into my heart."
"Yes... I don't want to agree tot hat, but I remember it too clearly. But when I was freed from the evil spirit's influence, I felt terrible for everything I did, and for decieving you, Alex. I didn't want you to know that what I did was merely to torment and harm another, so I tried to keep up the masquerade, to keep you from knowing the truth, until now with runin with the Maluvor."
"You... you confronted one of them?" Crigan gasped, body trembling. It was obvious to those there he was struggling to remain calm, especially with what had already happened to him and his son, and how protective he was to Mara. "Why did you do something so reckless? Was that why you snuck out without informing me? Because you knew I wouldn't allow of it?"
"No, that wasn't the reason." Mara responded. "We went out at first to go find our friend Vanessa... or as Yuuka called her, Vesica." She said, motioning to the unconscious girl. "I was following her scent, having no idea we'd be lead right to the one who nearly killed Diamen. We didn't think we'd run into such danger so short a distance away..."
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 16, 2014 0:21:29 GMT -5
Alex shuddered- partially from the frantic, fearful memories of the angelic fiend that had nearly taken their heads, partially because of ancient and supernatural tale that had just been offered to him, and partially because he was worried that Crigan might not take kindly to all the hand holding that had occurred today. "Yeah, we definitely would have done something else today if we knew she... it... was gonna be there." He cocked his head suddenly. His brows knitted curiously. "Hold on. Persephone... wasn't she that creepy Stepford mom? The one who went a bit screwy after being kicked around by Arc, Fainis, and Kitamura?"
"Dammit, Shepherd," muttered Sam, who was pinching the bridge of her nose. "What the hell did you get yourself into this time?"
"Hey, only a very small fraction of this was my fault, okay? Er, also... where did you leave Oscar?"
She shrugged. "He went back to get his shoes."
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 16, 2014 0:45:13 GMT -5
"Yes, the very same." Mara said to him. "However, her screwy nature as of late is but a mask of insanity to what I know of her. I was turned from a human into a fox-like monster, no doubt one which you have seen in several fights here. I don't know what she has planned now that I am no longer under her control, but it cannot be good. However, she is the least of our worries now."
This time, the Enma stood up, the short figure of the lady contrasting with everyone else. "To explain to you what is going on, we need to start before the whole Orsa crisis. Shortly before it happened, an entity known as Yuuka Kazami came here to the UCA. Alas, me and another were tasked to keep an eye on her, but we had no idea that her intentions here would prove to be so diabolical. You have already seen what she has done to Vesica, Alex, but that does not compose the worse of it. The murder of several former UCA inhabitants, and the primary engine behind the Orsa incident, all on a gambit she put forth in motion for her own amusement."
Crigan growled as he listened. That woman... she was bad news, even with the Maluvor running amock. The fact she had Salavance the Golden on her side made things even worse. Shaking his head, he looked up. "I went to stop Orsa, alongside Thresher. We tried our best, but the shark didn't make it, and my near death, or rather, actual death, was what galvanized the rest of the UCA to action. Orsa was defeated, but I fear his death caused a power vacuum that is now being filled by all sorts of devious and nefarious titans."
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 16, 2014 20:41:47 GMT -5
"A power vacuum." Sam crossed her arms and frowned. "That's when a lot of bad people are at their worst. They all want to be the new top dog and everyone who tries knows that if they fail, whoever won will come after them. Ambition without trust has to be snuffed out. And I'm assuming that there's not a lot of trust between these..." She sneered. "'Nefarious titans' of yours. Ugh. This place is sounding worse and worse the more I hear about it..."
"It's not all crackpots and villains here, Sam," chided Alex. "There are plenty of good ones too. Sid and Quetzar are here, you know."
The woman curled her lip. "And what's so great about Quetzar?"
Alex shot her a tired look, signalling that they had had this conversation before. "Come on, Sam. You know that he's always helped us out before."
"He's also burned down eighteen-hundred-million dollars worth of property while 'helping.' And we're always the ones that angry cities and landowners come to looking for money. Because of course the giant flying furnace can't be to blame." She shook her head. "face it, Shepherd. He's a raging inferno. Even if you point him in one direction, he still burns all the others."
Her amber eyes softened. "I'm glad to hear about Sid though. We missed him back home."
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 16, 2014 21:12:39 GMT -5
"Sid was among those who helped bring the cosmic titan Orsa to his knees. He and many other heroes helped bring peace to the UCA, but I fear that the peace we have now is only a temporary one." The Enma said, bringing back the talk to where she was at. " Shortly after Orsa Terminus was slain, Crigan and his family were attacked, intercepted on their way back here by Yuuka Kazami in Crigan's own home dimension. Not only was her identity as the perpetrator of the entire nightmare revealed, she also bore a dark secret with her as well."
"What she carried, was a primordial terror known as Salavance the Golden." Crigan explained. He held out a hand, and from it, a hologram emerged. It was of a large, golden colored dragon, three spiked tails ending with serrated pincers. From its back, sprouted twin arm-like wings, and darkness billowed from around it. The entity reared its head into the heavens, and its lower jaw split in half, an otherworldly screech piercing Alex and Sam's eardrums, forcing them to cover their ears. It was unlike anything they had ever heard, aline to them in every single way. "It was this monster that brought calamity and despair upon me and the rest of the gods. I lost many comrades when the fiend terrorized the world so long ago. fellow gods like Masari, Blight, Temprana, Corveria, Pacefia..." The hologram faded away, and the Death God's head hung low to the ground. A single, jaded tear fell to the ground as his body shuddered. "I killed it back then, hoping it would never come back... but it seems my efforts were in vain. We barely escaped with our lives, and now this monster is just one of many evils plaguing the UCA."
"We know there are heroes here at the UCA who would be willing to aid us, heroes like Quetzar and Sid who will stand for what is right, like thei did with Orsa. But wheras Orsa was just one foe, now there are many. Yuuka, Persephone's ever growing forces, Salavance, the Maluvor, Ommadon... all these evil monsters have made their stay here, Alex and Sam, and we fear that your monster guardians, or even the heroic forces here. This is all alot for you to understand and take in, we know that..." The enma said, her head dripped as well. What else could she say in regards to this? The hands of fate had been cruel indeed...
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 17, 2014 4:26:50 GMT -5
Slowly, grimly, Alex and Sam locked eyes and considered the situation. The lines of their mouths were drawn taunt in suspense and their eyes were serious as they conversed silently.
It was not five seconds before they both broke out in amused chuckles.
"A lot to take in?" asked Sam, her eyebrow raised. "Clearly you've never been to our world. Monsters sprout from the ground there because of little balls of light that fall from the sky."
"Right," piped Alex cheerfully. "And we got our jobs because, in the span of three months and out of nowhere, the world got hit by a telepathic winged snake from space, a three-hundred foot aquatic lizard that speaks seven languages, a psychotic bat with a bad addiction, a cackling four-headed dog that looks like she fell into the spare parts bin at the beginning of creation, and a mix between a parrot, a spider, and a centipede that rode to Earth on a meteor. Look: this whole situation is weird, confusing, and dangerous, but we do weird, confusing, and dangerous for a living. Don't worry about us. Worry about this Smaug ripoff and the bloated garden weed. What can we do about them? Anything?"
"Surely the people... or whatever they are... running this place have to care about this," growled Sam. "How can they run their show if these jokers tear it out from underneath them?"
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 18, 2014 14:58:31 GMT -5
"I don't think they even care." Diamen said. "From what I can tell, they think they got everything under control, and so long as it doesn't harm them directly, they're perfectly fine with letting everyone else here in the UCA suffer and rot."
"Your world definitely sounds like it's got monster problems of its own." Crigan said. "But from the sound of things, you are a part of an organization that helps monsters and humans co-exist peacefully. if only it were the same for me..."
"Wait, Crigan... Are you referring to-"
"At one time, humans looked upon me and my kind as the very gods that controlled their world. We basked in their praise, and helped keep life on Earth possible for them. Then... came the Human/Dragon war, also known as the Magicians War. Life on earth was nearly wiped out, countless lives lost, while me and what gods survived the Salavance incident were too occupied with our own problems to help them. Their faith in us declined as the planet was ravaged, and we gods grew weaker from it. Tell me, Alex... does your world have gods that you believe in?"
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Post by Fainis the Sadistic Pansexual on Jul 18, 2014 21:04:50 GMT -5
"Yes," answered Alex quickly. "Well, not me personally. I believe in the world as a single large, reactive organism. A thinking entity, if you will. But there are people- lots of people, actually- who believe in a god on my world. I... honestly couldn't tell you if that god is real or not, but some people believe in him enough to fight over it. Kill over it even. And there have been many religions in the past that believed in multiples gods. Pantheons."
"Don't forget Kedos and his merry band of walking property damage estimates," muttered Sam bitterly.
"Right. There are also five guardian monsters on our world. Five dragons that claim to be physical gods given form by the planet itself to protect the Earth. Well, four now. The fifth was killed a long time ago for his powers and immortality if you believe that sort of thing... er, which I assume you do for, uh, obvious reasons. The killer was actually a monster here. Kedos Croder. You probably know him. Big, blue, has an ego the size of a small celestial body. You really can't miss him." His face grew sad suddenly. "And we had our own human-dragon war, at the same time the fifth god was killed. Or just after. I'm not sure. Me and Sam being here today should tell you who won. Only Kedos survived on the dragon side. Obviously, he's not our biggest fan. And I can't blame him."
Sam sneered. "I can. He's a monster. He's killed thousands- and for what? Retribution" Revenge for something that happen five centuries ago?"
Alex sighed. "Maybe our homes aren't so different after all then, huh?"
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Post by Tenshi the Sunkern on Jul 19, 2014 2:13:51 GMT -5
"The human/ dragon war on our end... didn't end so well for the dragons." Crigan said. "Humans came out of the war the dominant species of the planet... and the entire race of dragons, along with 70% of all that had lived on our planet was wiped out. I actually was the one who ended that war, once we got our own problems situated. I had ordered the dragons to end their genocidal conquest and accept the blame for starting the war. They declined, and not only threatened me, but also a fellow god of mine, Astrelus. Needless to say... I'm sure if Kedos knew what I had done, he would search me out."
With that said, the Enma stood up, and walked over to Proteus, before picking up the sleeping orge. "Don't mind me. I'm just delivering the sleeping giant over to his own room. I'll be back shortly to provide my thoughts on why I disprove on Crigan's rashful wrath." She gave the death god a swift glare, then left the room, hauling the sleeping cyclops with her.
"You know, for a shortie, she sure has alot of strength on her." Mara commented, finding the scene a tad amusing. "Well, i did promise to explain how I'm not exactly human to you, Alex... so without further ado..." Mara stood up, and at once, nine long white tails emerged from behind her. A pair of fox-like ears shot up from the top of her head, and three reddish triangles formed on her forehead. "Though the evil spirit that was in me is long dead, I can still channel its power, which has its uses, though now I am no longer human, and more of a fox demon. Not the worst thing in the world, actually..."
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