As requested, I'm giving this story it's own thread. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to type up anything more on the story until Saturday at earliest, thanks to real-life concerns and the need to review the source material.
Location: The Deep Marches. Time: 7:41 PM, July 10 2009
Amaterasu
sat on the edge of a mountain, wondering where Izanami had gone. The
Goddess of Death had vanished one year ago, and neither hide nor hair of
her had been seen since. Even the few contacts Amaterasu had in the
Media had not seen her. It was not like Izanami to vanish into the
corpreal world...the yelling of a severant shook her out of her
thoughts. "Amaterasu-Omikami! Izanami has been spotted in the Vale of
Dreams, gravely wounded!"
****
The
wounds were even worse Amaterasu had believed. Countless minor wounds
covered her body, and a single terrible wound leaked Forces with every
movement. It was clear Izanami would suffer a second and far more
permanent death. "Izanami, who has wounded you so?!"
"A mortal..."
"A
mere human did this! Impossible!" Maybe one of the stronger Ethereal
gods, a Demon Prince, or an Archangel could strike such a blow. But no
lesser spirit, and certainly not an mere mortal.
"Mere! Hah!
This mortal was as far from mere as the heaven are above the earth."
Even through her pain and horrific visage, the joy on her face was plain
to see. Suddenly, Izanami grabbed the front of Amaterasu's robe.
"Listen to me, my husband's daughter. I have a tale to tell." And
Izanami told her story. She had sought to test humanity, to see the
truth of their nature. She spoke how she had chosen three mortals; One
to be nothingness, one to be despair, and one to be hope. She spoke of
how she had spun a web of illusions veiling truth; Nothingness had used
her web to kill, Despair tried to stop the deaths but with tricked by
Nothingness, while Hope had spread like wildfire, fouling the schemes of
Nothingness, while following the trail of clues first to Despair, then
to Nothingness...
And then past the false villain left by Izanami
to track the goddess to her hiding place, where Izanami had sought to
test the powers of Hope and his allies, magic gained by facing their own
unwelcome truths. "They fought well, Amaterasu. They forced me to
stop testing them and fight them in truth...I struck their leader with
my greatest illusion...but those he had helped guided him free of it,
and the power he gained as a result..." She gestured to the wound.
"Hope did not just win my contest, my husband's daughter. It exceeded
my wildest dreams. The pit will never win, Amaterasu, no matter how
convoluted their schemes. Mortals will unravel them. Break with Hell."
"Break
with Hell! If we dare betray them, Nybbas will smother us! He will
cut off the flow of Essence that keeps us all alive!"
"Nybbas
will lose, Amaterasu. Eventually, mortals will pierce his illusions,
track him to his lair, and strike at him as the did me. It is only a
matter of time." With that, Izanami's forces were scattered fully.
Only Amaterasu had heard her tale, and Izanami had not mentioned the
names of the mortals she tested, nor the town where she had tested
them. Still, there was enough for her to investigate.
****
Kulumah,
Djinn and Servitor of the Media, (aka Kensuke in his current role as a
security guard) was waited backstage for his assignment to arrive. He
was assigned to the latest pop idol, some human named Rise The idiot
hellsworn mortal that had previously been assigned to keep an eye on the
girl was currently being "reprimanded" for failing to keep tabs on the
girl when she had gone to ground in some backwater for a year. Luckily,
the girl's agent had persuaded her to come back, and now Kulumah's
first assignment on earth was to keep track of the carbon-copy pop-star
and keep her singing until her fame faded. Given the low number of
halo's working in the areas, it looked like an easy first assignment.
He was also technically supposed to try to isolate and guide Risette
towards hell, but he had a favor or two he could call in to help there-
he was no master of temptation, and he knew it.
An announcement
blared over the speakers. "Risette's due to arrive 2 minutes! Get
ready people!" The various humans involved in this whole circus
doubled there flurry of activity, and Kulumah pulled a trick the Boss
himself had taught him before sending him to earth. He burnt a bit of
essence to forge a link to the greater symphony, and with a whiff of
brimstone a phantom music began to play, a soundtrack to the movie that
was his life. Dead useful for figuring out how much shit he was in at
any given moment, and great for avoiding surprises- nothing like a
dramatic sting to warn you of danger. Casual essense use was frowned
upon, since it disturbed the Symphony and could lead rival demons- or
worse, angels- right to your doorstep, you'd practically have to be in
the room to here the disturbance he'd just caused, ao he was feeling
safe. He cocked his head, listening to the soundtrack. A quiet but
upbeat affair, with strings setting a rhythm and synthesizers a cheerful
beat. Good news. At long last, the human singer finally walked into
. The human that was presumably in charge of this whole circus was by
her side in an instant, babbling about the song schedule. Before the
mass of humans could obscure her, he willed his Symphony to hers, using
his resonance to forge a link through which he could keep track of the
girl, using another drop of Essence to bo. But before he even tried,
his soundtrack had shifted- the strings had turned a minor key, turning
the tone from cheer to uneasey and tense. A split second later, Kulumah
noticed Rise was looking straight at him. The a split second later,
she turned away just a bit too quickly for it to be casual.
Kulumah
was not a stupid demon; his sharp mind was why he'd been assigned to
earth despite barely being a half-century old, and it raced considering
the implications. Any use of essence caused a disturbance in the
symphony, and given the change in the soundtrack he was pretty sure that
her sudden interest in him wasn't a couincidence. He'd bet a weeks
worth of essence that the girl could hear the Symphony. Most
symphonically aware humans were soldiers for Heaven or Hell, and she
certainly hadn't been Hellsworn last year, otherwise she wouldn't have
had a Hellsworn set to track her. His superior's probably didn't know,
otherwise he'd have been told. Put it all together, and it meant
someone had made her a soldier within the past year in the boonies. The
question was, who was she serving now, and why? Either some other
demon was horning in on his boss's territory, or the halo's were trying
to pull something. He made a mental note to get to a tether and report
in soon.
***
Two weeks
later, and Kumulah fumed as Rise excitedly talked with group of
teenagers- friends from the boonies, apparently. Rise had been going
out of her way to avoid him, and when he had called in a favor form
Maximilian, a local Impudite, to try and get up close to her, she'd
avoided him too. Max had sworn up and down he hadn't spent a drop of
Essence, and he was decent chance he wasn't lying. The newcomers had
him feeling paranoid; he was almost certain that one of them was either
the celestial that had recruited her, a messenger from the same, or
backup here to get rid of him. The detective was certainly gruff enough
to be a Malachim. In a sudden bout of paranoia, he activated the
soundtrack to see if there was an ambush waiting for him, sending a tiny
clamor of disturbance rippled through the symphony. As one, Rise and
all eight of her "friends" turned to look right at him,
expressions wary, but eager. Kulumah got the feeling he'd just blown a
dog whistle next to a wolf pack. Crap. He then noticed that he was
alone with the unfriendly teenage soldiers, outnumbered 8 to 1 with no
witnesses. Double crap. Then the punk with the headphones took out a
card and called up bizarre thing he could only see with his celestial
senses- which was possible, but not normal- shot a windstorm at his
face- which was also not normal- and did it all without disturbing the
symphony in the slightest- which was goddamn impossible.
Faced
with nine empowered humans doing impossible crap, Kulumah did the
eminently sensible thing, and fled like a team of Malachim were on his
ass.
Location: The Deep Marches. Time: 7:41 PM, July 10 2009
Amaterasu
sat on the edge of a mountain, wondering where Izanami had gone. The
Goddess of Death had vanished one year ago, and neither hide nor hair of
her had been seen since. Even the few contacts Amaterasu had in the
Media had not seen her. It was not like Izanami to vanish into the
corpreal world...the yelling of a severant shook her out of her
thoughts. "Amaterasu-Omikami! Izanami has been spotted in the Vale of
Dreams, gravely wounded!"
****
The
wounds were even worse Amaterasu had believed. Countless minor wounds
covered her body, and a single terrible wound leaked Forces with every
movement. It was clear Izanami would suffer a second and far more
permanent death. "Izanami, who has wounded you so?!"
"A mortal..."
"A
mere human did this! Impossible!" Maybe one of the stronger Ethereal
gods, a Demon Prince, or an Archangel could strike such a blow. But no
lesser spirit, and certainly not an mere mortal.
"Mere! Hah!
This mortal was as far from mere as the heaven are above the earth."
Even through her pain and horrific visage, the joy on her face was plain
to see. Suddenly, Izanami grabbed the front of Amaterasu's robe.
"Listen to me, my husband's daughter. I have a tale to tell." And
Izanami told her story. She had sought to test humanity, to see the
truth of their nature. She spoke how she had chosen three mortals; One
to be nothingness, one to be despair, and one to be hope. She spoke of
how she had spun a web of illusions veiling truth; Nothingness had used
her web to kill, Despair tried to stop the deaths but with tricked by
Nothingness, while Hope had spread like wildfire, fouling the schemes of
Nothingness, while following the trail of clues first to Despair, then
to Nothingness...
And then past the false villain left by Izanami
to track the goddess to her hiding place, where Izanami had sought to
test the powers of Hope and his allies, magic gained by facing their own
unwelcome truths. "They fought well, Amaterasu. They forced me to
stop testing them and fight them in truth...I struck their leader with
my greatest illusion...but those he had helped guided him free of it,
and the power he gained as a result..." She gestured to the wound.
"Hope did not just win my contest, my husband's daughter. It exceeded
my wildest dreams. The pit will never win, Amaterasu, no matter how
convoluted their schemes. Mortals will unravel them. Break with Hell."
"Break
with Hell! If we dare betray them, Nybbas will smother us! He will
cut off the flow of Essence that keeps us all alive!"
"Nybbas
will lose, Amaterasu. Eventually, mortals will pierce his illusions,
track him to his lair, and strike at him as the did me. It is only a
matter of time." With that, Izanami's forces were scattered fully.
Only Amaterasu had heard her tale, and Izanami had not mentioned the
names of the mortals she tested, nor the town where she had tested
them. Still, there was enough for her to investigate.
****
Kulumah,
Djinn and Servitor of the Media, (aka Kensuke in his current role as a
security guard) was waited backstage for his assignment to arrive. He
was assigned to the latest pop idol, some human named Rise The idiot
hellsworn mortal that had previously been assigned to keep an eye on the
girl was currently being "reprimanded" for failing to keep tabs on the
girl when she had gone to ground in some backwater for a year. Luckily,
the girl's agent had persuaded her to come back, and now Kulumah's
first assignment on earth was to keep track of the carbon-copy pop-star
and keep her singing until her fame faded. Given the low number of
halo's working in the areas, it looked like an easy first assignment.
He was also technically supposed to try to isolate and guide Risette
towards hell, but he had a favor or two he could call in to help there-
he was no master of temptation, and he knew it.
An announcement
blared over the speakers. "Risette's due to arrive 2 minutes! Get
ready people!" The various humans involved in this whole circus
doubled there flurry of activity, and Kulumah pulled a trick the Boss
himself had taught him before sending him to earth. He burnt a bit of
essence to forge a link to the greater symphony, and with a whiff of
brimstone a phantom music began to play, a soundtrack to the movie that
was his life. Dead useful for figuring out how much shit he was in at
any given moment, and great for avoiding surprises- nothing like a
dramatic sting to warn you of danger. Casual essense use was frowned
upon, since it disturbed the Symphony and could lead rival demons- or
worse, angels- right to your doorstep, you'd practically have to be in
the room to here the disturbance he'd just caused, ao he was feeling
safe. He cocked his head, listening to the soundtrack. A quiet but
upbeat affair, with strings setting a rhythm and synthesizers a cheerful
beat. Good news. At long last, the human singer finally walked into
. The human that was presumably in charge of this whole circus was by
her side in an instant, babbling about the song schedule. Before the
mass of humans could obscure her, he willed his Symphony to hers, using
his resonance to forge a link through which he could keep track of the
girl, using another drop of Essence to bo. But before he even tried,
his soundtrack had shifted- the strings had turned a minor key, turning
the tone from cheer to uneasey and tense. A split second later, Kulumah
noticed Rise was looking straight at him. The a split second later,
she turned away just a bit too quickly for it to be casual.
Kulumah
was not a stupid demon; his sharp mind was why he'd been assigned to
earth despite barely being a half-century old, and it raced considering
the implications. Any use of essence caused a disturbance in the
symphony, and given the change in the soundtrack he was pretty sure that
her sudden interest in him wasn't a couincidence. He'd bet a weeks
worth of essence that the girl could hear the Symphony. Most
symphonically aware humans were soldiers for Heaven or Hell, and she
certainly hadn't been Hellsworn last year, otherwise she wouldn't have
had a Hellsworn set to track her. His superior's probably didn't know,
otherwise he'd have been told. Put it all together, and it meant
someone had made her a soldier within the past year in the boonies. The
question was, who was she serving now, and why? Either some other
demon was horning in on his boss's territory, or the halo's were trying
to pull something. He made a mental note to get to a tether and report
in soon.
***
Two weeks
later, and Kumulah fumed as Rise excitedly talked with group of
teenagers- friends from the boonies, apparently. Rise had been going
out of her way to avoid him, and when he had called in a favor form
Maximilian, a local Impudite, to try and get up close to her, she'd
avoided him too. Max had sworn up and down he hadn't spent a drop of
Essence, and he was decent chance he wasn't lying. The newcomers had
him feeling paranoid; he was almost certain that one of them was either
the celestial that had recruited her, a messenger from the same, or
backup here to get rid of him. The detective was certainly gruff enough
to be a Malachim. In a sudden bout of paranoia, he activated the
soundtrack to see if there was an ambush waiting for him, sending a tiny
clamor of disturbance rippled through the symphony. As one, Rise and
all eight of her "friends" turned to look right at him,
expressions wary, but eager. Kulumah got the feeling he'd just blown a
dog whistle next to a wolf pack. Crap. He then noticed that he was
alone with the unfriendly teenage soldiers, outnumbered 8 to 1 with no
witnesses. Double crap. Then the punk with the headphones took out a
card and called up bizarre thing he could only see with his celestial
senses- which was possible, but not normal- shot a windstorm at his
face- which was also not normal- and did it all without disturbing the
symphony in the slightest- which was goddamn impossible.
Faced
with nine empowered humans doing impossible crap, Kulumah did the
eminently sensible thing, and fled like a team of Malachim were on his
ass.