Marsh turns to look at the deity, not yet realizing he's a deity. "It's stupid, that's what it is." They stand back up, wings ruffling a bit, "I suppose it's more of a ritual than a shrine, what with the candles and whatnot. I was uh..." taking their glasses off and wiping the lens on their shirt "..trying to summon a deity." Glasses back on, Marsh stares at what they assume is just some dude TM.

Marsh startles a bit, staring at Emmyn wide-eyed and slightly confused. "Uh, I'm Marsh." They stand there awkwardly, not sure if now would be a good time to start putting out the candles and packing up to leave. "Anyways, as I've said, it's a stupid plan and honestly a little desperate. I guess I.. donno really. Felt like, any form of divine help at this point would be just splended and since I don't know the first thing about religion, this was what my mind jumped to. Which once again, I reiterate, is a frankly stupid plan in hindsight."

Marsh decides that doing something, anything, would be better than standing in the same place so they start snuffing out the flames and picking up the half a dozen candles as they talked. "Gods, what was I thinking. Honestly I'd be an atheist if I didn't live in, y'know, Forengard, and I don't even know the difference between divine and just regular people magic. How am I even supposed to recognize a deity." Admittedly, they are spiraling a bit but this is an unusual situation and having to talk to two strangers in the middle of the woods is always slightly anxiety educing.

"Exactly!" Time did a little pose, to partner with his exclamation, and then assumed his normal stance, being sure to somewhat distance himself from the others, "Very hard. Some look quite normal. Looks like you haven't done your deity homework, because your little ritual worked."

Apollo gave a relaxed smile, greatly enjoying the reactions.

"Should we introduce ourselves? I'll go first!"

Without waiting for anyone else, Apollo slid off the branch and landed rather elegantly on his feet, flapping his raven wings slightly as to wake himself up. With a very dramatic and attention-seeking grandeur, Apollo flexed his muscles and brightly grinned.

"I am the majestic Apollo, the god of the beautiful constellations, the radiant sun, and the most wonderful pastime to exist: daydreaming!"

He goes into another flexing pose, his eyes switching from dark blue violets to a blistering golden color. The god seemed very excited to introduce himself as soon as possible.

Some of the religious stuff has started disappearing in little pops. It's almost comical, like all that's missing is a small speech bubble with the bolded word POP followed by a greatly exaggerated exclamation mark. "Hmm so I'm just lucky I guess," a shrug, not even giving the religious items a second glance "hmm well I suppose I should just get to the point, wouldn't want to waste your time... pun 100% not intended." Although they do chuckle a bit.

"Ok um, two questions I suppose, or well one question plus a follow up question. Am I a deity? And if yes, probably yes, can I not be one?" Marsh's voice gets gradually more hesitant since it feels like a pretty stupid question. I mean it's immortality, divinity people kill for this kind of thing and they just, want to give it up? "Ah well not that I don't want to be one, it's just... nice to have that choice I guess." Ok backpedaling a bit, not the best save but not too shabby either.

"Hmm a blue flower you say..." There's a moment of pause before recognition hits their face. The speed with which Marsh drop all the candles and practically lunge at a sketchpad lying unnoticed on the ground feels like it should have hurt. They scramble, trying to find a blank page with one hand, the other looking for a pencil that in the grass somewhere. It took a few seconds but eventually they manage to messily scribble something on the page, a basic outline before putting their fingers on the page and literally plucking out a flower.

It's blue, the exact shade of blue, and a bit wonky looking. Admittedly not their best work but it gets the point across. "This, this was what it looked like." Marsh manage to spit out, almost breathless. That lunge after all was the closest they've gotten to exercising outside of hikes. The flower stays intact for a second or two before it starts withering at a rapid pace, soon turning to dust then nothing at all. During the disintegration Marsh drops the thing as if it's burned them, looking anywhere but the dying flower.

The flower just seems like a normal wonky flower, nothing too special other than the color. It is a fake after all.

Marsh takes a deep breath, and maybe it's not obvious, hopefully it's not obvious, but they are currently on the verge of a meltdown. At least their brain is functioning enough to realize just freezing up out of nowhere would probably worry people, they decide to speak up, "Sorry, sorry, just.. give me a moment. It's a bit, it's a lot to process." The sketch pad and pencil is set aside, their hands fidgeting not quite sure what the proper response is to 'just realized I'm immortal for possibly an eternity and it's all the fault of a flower'.

It took Marsh a second to realize Time is talking, only catching the last part of his sentence. "Saved me? Maybe... I uh really should get going." They pick up their sketchbook and pencil again, getting up off the ground, "Sorry, I have a lot to think about. Have a nice rest of your day," They take a slight bow, an old habit that dies hard, before hurriedly speed walking away because running seems weird.

The candles are left laying there in a messy heap, they'd disappear eventually but who knows that really?

Marsh doesn't stop, and without even realizing it, they're already a feet off the ground just kind of hovering away at what would be considered running speed now. Wings are quite handy for moments like this. Sketchbook clutched to their chest, they pretend to not hear anything Time just said.

(When the character with escapism issues, actually runs away?)

Marsh screams, skidding (if you can even do that in the air) to a halt right in front of Ark. They look, terrified to say the least, definitely way too out of their element. Thoughts going by a mile a minute, the main one being I just wanna go home. They realize they should probably say something but the words are getting stuck in their throat. Perhaps if they just, fly around Ark they can get away.

Marsh finally realizes they can literally just fly away, and does so.

(fin?)

"Don't leave just yet! There's still so much to talk about!" Ark looks in the direction Marsh flew off in.