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Remember those? Big twelve-foot-tall doors chained to the ground in the middle of a dusty crater? Six-foot tall demon with a scythe standing outside them? Yeah they're still there, though they've been strangely quiet lately.
Currently, Morath has been joined by two familiar figures—Micah and Clay, back from gods-know-where for the first time in over a year. If you're close enough to hear, you can pick up their conversation.
"What do you mean you can't find her?"
"Simply that. I cannot locate her at this time," Morath replies. She sounds tired. Which is standard for her
"You said you could locate anyone, anywhere, even off the planes of Forengard," Micah jabs at her with his finger. "What happened to that."
"She has help," Morath says. "Someone is shielding her from me."
"Probably Oganesson," Clay frowns. "Or something. Weren't they working together? Was that a thing?"
"Maybe Singularity, I know Delphi said something about her, and she's like, all-powerful or something," Micah swears under his breath. "Fine. Anything on Oganesson?"
"No," Morath says.
"Unsurprising. How about–" His voice cracks a little. "Anything on Damian? Or Min-Jin, whatever role he's in right now?"
Morath is silent for a long time, and then says, "I cannot see him either."
Micah's silent for a second, then he bends double and screams at the dirt.
"Micah–" Clay tries.
"Don't Micah me," Micah snaps. "He's dead! Something must've happened with his contract, or Oganesson had him and killed him to get at me, or some other thing that I couldn't do jack [redacted] about because of Hester and Delphi and XE and everything else people have been pulling me into for the past three years!"
"If he was dead, wouldn't Morath see him in the Pit?"
"If his contract gets destroyed, he stops existing," Micah looks like he's about three seconds away from physically combusting. "If Oganesson got him, then he'd hide his body away from me until he could use it against me. He's just gone, Clay."
"I think you're catastrophizing again," Clay puts a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I need you to take a deep breath for me."
"[redacted off," Micah snarls, but he does take a slow, shaky breath.
Wow. Things are occurring, or have occurred at least. What do you do?
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A large black crow had been scratching around the dust about a dozen feet away, the white primary feathers on its wings glinting in the sun. It seemed to be just minding its business, but doing so with such intensity that it was somewhat obvious the creature was just looking busy in an attempt to eavesdrop.
At Micah's scream, the crow squawked in surprise and in a flurry of feathers and dust, it shifted into the form of a man. It was Orphos, who seemed equally shocked and annoyed that the jig was up. His shapeshifting was getting rusty. He did his best to dust himself off (craters are just awful) and approached the group.
"What's going on here, hm?" he asked the trio. He wasn't sure he knew any of them, but he had recognized some of the names they mentioned and his interest was piqued.
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Ark has been standing here for a while. Not visible of course, but he has been present. He was wandering around, as per the usual, when he found himself standing near the Doors. It’s where all his walks seem to end now. Strange. But anyway, seeing more people show up is usually the cue for him to manifest and try to be funny, so he appears, his trademark smile painted on his face like always, and slides down the crater to investigate. “Lots of screaming going down here today. What’s happening?”
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"Planes of Forengard? I like the sound of that. Consider me interested in this plot. But uh, what's all the yelling over?" Crimson cracked his neck and plopped down on the ground and crossed his legs.
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All the "what's happening" and "what's going on" startles the two of them (though Morath looks unperturbed), and Micah looks like he's about to answer when Clay pats him on the shoulder gently and takes over. "We've been looking for people." he explains. "For a while. And we can't find them, which is...a problem. That's what all the screaming's about." "You don't have to make it sound so condescending," Micah also plops down on the ground and takes a few more deep breaths. "I'm pissed, that's what's happening." "The next step would be finding Delphi though, right?" Clay asks him. "She'll have better answers." "Like we haven't spent the past year looking for her too," Micah grumbles. "If I had to guess, she's with Singularity. Or on the Isle. I've tried to contact her but she won't respond." "At the very least, I guess this means the CDs haven't been too active," Clay looks up at the others. "Right?"
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Ark sits down in the crater and nods. “Yea, not much CD activity lately. Not much of any activity really, save for the occasional shadow god attack.” He thinks for a moment. “I’ve heard rumors of some legendary flower showing up though. Lots of mortals are organizing to investigate that.”
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"Legendary flower?" Clay asks. "Like....something that only blooms every thousand years or something?"
Micah seems more concerned that there's been no activity than he would be if there was.
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((Redacted redacted? If everyone is ok with it we can use no-no words in this thread))
Time stands and approaches the others. Wow look at that, deities convening again, isn't that wild?
"They've been rather silent, those Corrupted Deities." Time agrees with Ark. "I wonder what they plot."
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Patil stumbles upon the group. Why is he here? Who knows, but point is, he decides these are probably very important people he should get to know and so he cleares his throat (one must make a polite first impression) and then, "ahem, I do not mean to intrude, but it seems your conversation has peeked my interest, good sirs and ma'am. If I may ask, what is this legendary flower you speak of?" He seems to recognize Crimson, greeting him with a smile and a shallow bow, but returns his attention to Ark soon after.
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Crimson bolted to his feet and walked over to Micah. "Did you just say Singularity? That's a name I haven't heard in quite awhile. What ever happened to her anyways?"
(I'm find with using no-no words. @Time)
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wolffighting2768 wrote:
Crimson bolted to his feet and walked over to Micah. "Did you just say Singularity? That's a name I haven't heard in quite awhile. What ever happened to her anyways?"
Micah jumps a little bit when Crimson comes towards him, but he goes "I don't know. I haven't seen her in...a while. If I had to guess, she's also holed up with Oganesson and the others."
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Orphos had elected to stay quiet for the moment, simply absorbing the information. He frowned a bit at the mention of Corrupted Deities. He hadn't heard much from them either, but the mention of the flower had interested him. That was something for later, however.
"So you have many people you are unable to track down, correct?" he finally spoke. He decided not to take part of the whole sitting-on-the-ground thing. "What have you tried to find them?"
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"We tried looking in the Keep for Hester, and then all over this sect," Micah replies. "All of Oganesson's old haunts, the old Base Camp, Shiore's Mill, all of that. Even got in contact with an asshole sorcerer we know who does really good tracking spells, couldn't find her. Same thing with the others. It's like they vanished off the face of Forengard."
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"It's also possible they went to another timeline or even a different plane. But if Singularity is involved, then we gotta find her stat." Crimson untied his hair and fixed the hairtie and looked at the sky. "As far as I can tell, I'm only seeing the auras of the deties here and none within a 50 mile radius."
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"You could try contacting Delphi again," Clay says. "She'll know where Singularity is."
"She's not going to reply." Micah frowns. "She's ignoring me."
"You don't know unless you try again," Clay nudges him with his foot. Micah sighs.
"Fine." He rubs his hands together and then waves them in a circle in front of himself, and his hands leave streaks of reddish-orange light. A runic circle appears, and when Micah puts his hand in the middle of it, it ripples for a second and starts to spin slowly.
"It's gonna take a few minutes," Micah's eyes fall shut. "Maybe we could...ask Percy again too, it's been a few months." He doesn't seem happy about that, and Clay sighs.
"Yeah, we'll need all the help we can get," Clay looks to Crimson and the others. "Which, if you're willing, we'd be very grateful for your help."
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Patil looks quite confused as he tries to keep up with the conversation, but he doesn't voice any of the confusion, just quietly working through all the information by himself.
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"Apologies as if I may have missed something in the conversation, but... to clear things up," Time narrows his eyes as he thinks, "Who are the exact individuals you're looking for, and why?"
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Time wrote:
"Apologies as if I may have missed something in the conversation, but... to clear things up," Time narrows his eyes as he thinks, "Who are the exact individuals you're looking for, and why?"
"Delphi, because we have questions," Clay says.
"Hester, because she needs to die again," Micah grumbles
"Oganesson, because we need to decorrupt him."
"And Damian because...." Micah takes a deep breath. "Because he's Damian."
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Crimson put his hand on Clay's shoulder. "I could attempt to find them all at once. I'd only need some relic they all carry and something to boost my aura's field of view."
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"I don't have any...relics on me," Clay frowns. "I think Percy still has the stuff we used to try and find them before, so we'd need to go to him first."
Micah's magic circle is still spinning slowly, until all of a sudden it speeds up, whirling so fast it looks like it's flinging off little shards of light in every direction. Micah's eyes snap open, just in time for him to see the images cycling in the middle of it. They're distorted and fuzzy, flashes of blue and pink and green, until all of a sudden the circle shatters and Micah doubles over like he's just been punched in the gut.
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Orphos watched this rather passively. This seemed to be important, and he had nothing better to do, so....
"Well, this seems important, and I have nothing better to do, so I'm in. I guess."
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Ark frowns at the mention of Hester and Oganesson. “Right, those two exist. I figured we’d have to deal with them again at some point.” He stands up. “I’m in the same ship as Orphos. Got nothing better to do, so I’m in.”
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Micah coughs a few times and then goes "Cool, I guess having deities on our side will be helpful."
Clay looks at both Ark and Orphos and goes "Thank you." He seems very genuine.
Morath has been watching this whole exchange silently. Clay and Micah seem to have forgotten she's there.
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"I'll keep my eyes peeled as well." Time nods, "I assume finding Singularity would greatly help out in finding the rest as well?" He asks.
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"No relics nor items they carry? Gotta find Percy first? How fun. If anyone would know where to find someone without something to trace their aura, it's not me that's for sure." Crimson cross his arms and groaned a bit. "Why did everyone go missing all of a sudden anyways?"
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Time wrote:
"I'll keep my eyes peeled as well." Time nods, "I assume finding Singularity would greatly help out in finding the rest as well?" He asks.
Clay nods. "They're probably all sticking together. At the very least, finding Singularity will help us find Delphi, and Delphi will be a huge help in finding the others."
"About that..." Micah murmurs. "We need to find her fast. Something's wrong."
wolffighting2768 wrote:
"No relics nor items they carry? Gotta find Percy first? How fun. If anyone would know where to find someone without something to trace their aura, it's not me that's for sure." Crimson cross his arms and groaned a bit. "Why did everyone go missing all of a sudden anyways?"
Micah sighs. "Wish I knew. I would guess that Oganesson's planning something, but he might've just gotten so paranoid about being found and decorrupted that he went into hiding again. That's what happened after he captured me...two years ago, I think."
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"Corruption? Hold on a second. I heard something about corrupted deities earlier. What the heck is that all about? And if this...Ogan...whatever...bad guy I guess...is planning, then we should possibly intervene...right?
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Time nods, "Corruption. It's usually the takeover of a deity by another being equal or greater in power. That of which is manifested by the deity's darker feelings. Not much is known about it, despite being very dangerous." Time looks to the others for a moment to see if he was leaving anything important out.
He then looks to Micah, "What's going on?" He asks with a serious tone. "Is she on the move?"
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"Corrupted deities usually share aspects of their uncorrupted form, but they're like...darker. Their power gets twisted. At least, that's what I've seen from Oganesson and Singularity. Xenon, Oganesson's uncorrupted form, was the god of science, and Oganesson has a big interest in human experimentation. Or....experimentation on living beings, I guess." One of his hands goes to rub over his inner elbow, almost unconsciously. "But with Singularity...I don't know if she's on the move or not, but from what I just got when I tried to contact Delphi....I think Singularity's been doing something to her. She's in danger, and we can't lose her right now."
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"We should get going then." Time summons a spellbook with a sash to sling over his shoulder. "We should get going then. What's the relationship between Delphi and Singularity? Can you sense any other sort of beings with them?"