Trog's Tavern CLIV

[Rebonack]

"No, barmaid is my job description, not my title," Zee sighs. This is just going to be one of those afternoons isn't it? "I am one hundred percent not a Great One. The only thing that's great about me is my brownie making prowess."

Some people would probably contest that, Zee.

There are other great things about you!

Like the Thanksmas shindig you're planning on throwing at Trog's. That'll be pretty great.

"Really. Please. You don't want to try getting all religious at me. It's bad. My Path will eat away your hopes and dreams and replace them with my purpose. I don't want people becoming cultists on my behalf. You do you, don't do me."

She is very nearly pleading here.

Why?

Because she still feels awful about what happened to the people of Wrattleham.

MEANWHILE!

Zee brings some hot chocolate to Zoph and offers him a kind smile. It's the sort with whipped cream, shaved chocolate, and a little rolled pastry straw. Fancy, rich, deeply tasty hot chocolate.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" she asks. "Oh! Good job stomping on Neshiyahel's fingers by the by. You and your friends did the Nexus a great service by banishing her."

Umm...

How did this random completely unremarkable barmaid know about that?

[5a Violista]

"Thanks," he says, returning the smile.

Obviously, someone just told her about that. This is a tavern, after all. You hear all sorts of things here, and there were several people at the town. "Oh, haha, yeah. So many more important things have happened since that I had forgotten that that happened."

He thinks about what else he wants. He already ordered food, he got a drink here. So maybe..."Hmmm..." Maybe some kind of side? A salad, or something. Or maybe a muffin. Okay, yeah, that sounds good. "...a muffin, I guess."

[bc56]

The wasp is confused. "Why, great one, would you not desire greatness? Is that not the purpose of life? To grow stronger and wiser, greater in power and understanding?" She's no priestess, but even she understands the basic tenets of her faith.


Meanwhile, someone enters! It's Jade Fisher! Except she seems different. Maybe it's the fact that her hair is replaced by grey feathers. Maybe it's the wide white wings where her arms should be. Maybe it's the thin bird legs with webbed feet. Yep, she's a harpy. "Zee. We need to... MINE!" She lunges for an abandoned table which hasn't been cleaned up yet and with her mouth snatches a clump of french fries and chokes then down whole. Clearly she's under some sort of very seagull influence.

[Rebonack]

"Okay yeeesss I want to climb the Tower. Every empyrean does. But I'm doing that on my terms. My whole thing is helping people to persevere, to define themselves though adversity. But if I'm making them do that then it isn't really them? Does that make sense?" Zee replies. She rubs the back of her neck awkwardly. "That probably doesn't make sense. I'm really bad at this."

She is.

Just the worst.

"I don't want people to follow me. I want them to become the best themselves they can. I... guess I can maybe provide a little inspiration and encouragement but I don't want to gobble up someone's hopes and dreams. I want people to follow their own hopes and dreams, not mine."

Clearly she is a very magnanimous Great One.

MEANWHILE!

Zee fetches a tray of various types of muffins for Zoph to choose from. Blueberry, chocolate, apple, pumpkin, and cranberry are the flavors today.

"Well, I still wanted to thank you for it," Zee says, offering her best kind smile. "If that monster had been left alone her deranged cultists might have started spreading and that's no good for anyone."

Except the empyrean herself but she doesn't count.

And then Jade!

"Oh wow, you-"

Are eating leftovers off a table.

"-look a bit different than normal?"

Yes, Zee, she is a bird.

"Did you do something with your hair?" Zee inquires. Yes. They are feathers, Zee. "Oh! Hey! You're curse is gone, too! How did you finally get rid of that thing? It's been nearly a year now! Congrats! And did you want anything to eat? Aside from... you know. Leftovers?"

[Earl of Purple]

Following Jade inside is someone else. A half-elf, with skin the colour of polished oak, brown hair and deep green eyes. She's wearing a loose white t-shirt, slightly stained, a pair of hiking boots, looking very new, and a pair of acid-washed jeans, slightly too short and hanging about her ankles. She looks young, though an exact age is hard to pin down on half-elves, and she sits down at the same table as her seagull companion.

[5a Violista]

Of course, Zophiel chooses blueberry.
Obviously he would. Blueberry is the only reasonable choice out of muffins, to be honest.

"Spreading wasn't the problem," Zophiel counters, correcting Zee. "They were hurting people." So that's why.

The paladin glances over. At first, he doesn't really recognize Jade - last time they met, she wasn't a bird.
He blinks, because she's acting off,
and hopes this happening to her was intentional.

[bc56]

"Of course, Great One. Not every one can walk the path of Great Iteus and ascend in the mind, just as not all can walk the path of the Raging Storm and gain power of the space beyond space, nor can they all follow the footsteps of the Callers and ascend in discovery of forgotten knowledge." The wasp lists off paths to enlightenment that her faith acknowledges. "What is your path?"

"You're kidding, right?" Jade asks. She walks in her awkward seagull walk up to Zee. "As I was going to say before I was interrupted by stupid bird instincts,
we need to talk about empyrean things. Also, I brought a new friend. Mishnehel, Yezekiel. Yezekiel, Mishnehel." Jade gestures between the two empyreans with her wings. "She needs to be caught up to speed on what she is. Now just do your split through time thing so that we can handle both conversations at once." Something is weighing heavily on Jade's mind, or she would be flapping all over and trying to steal discarded food. Stupid bird instincts.

[Rebonack]

"Yes," Zee confirms to Jade. "Levity helps sometimes, sorry."

And oh, ho, what's this? A malak enters the tavern? Wait... what she is now? Oh no. She must have gone through apotheosis when they were smacking down Bigbird.

Or maybe after?

Zee was pretty sure someone was handling that but she didn't have the opportunity to provide any direct support. She had made a few... discrete changes to the facility and its safeties well ahead of time, though. Why the heck would anyone set up a reactor to explode like a nuke? That wouldn't even be physically possible, normally. But if the right people are determined enough...

"I... can try? Doing this is harder the closer events are together in real time. I'm only working with less than an hour here," Zee replies, glancing between the bird gal and the gal bird. "Okay. First good job on taking down Ashpothel. Did you blow the reactor?"

She's guessing yes. Zee hasn't had a chance to check her news feeds lately but she is willing to bet there will be reports of an underground nuke going off near Skyside.

"Second I can help with the bird thing. It is one hundred percent physiological so that's well within my ability to help you with. Unlike curse burning there's no ontological danger to you at all."

MEANWHILE!

"Well, howdy Aspirant! Welcome to the Eternal Game!" Zee says cheerfully to Mishnahel.

Several things will be clear to the half-elf.

First?

Yezekiel is a Bronze Host seraphim, a Glory. (Ranked Name: DitZeeDoo)

Second?

She can more or less perceive Zee for exactly what she is. The seraphim is practically a walking mountain folded in on herself impossibly small until she fits in that human body.

Third?

She can query more information about Zee if she feels like looking deeper. Her Sphere alignment (Matter, Shape, Information, Will), her weapon loadout of choice, her perk selection, her trait allocation, her ranked statistics, her achievements, all sorts of stuff that probably makes absolutely zero sense without context.

"I'm not exactly an expert on a lot of the technical stuff, I'm just really good at winning," Zee admits. "But if you've got any questions I'll answer what I can!"

Helping newbies is fun!

ALSO MEANWHILE!

"Spreading is bad because they hurt people," Zee clarifies. "Also turning people into icky fish zombies is really gross. But I guess that probably falls under the hurting people category."

That definitely falls under the hurting people category, Zee.

ALSO ALSO MEANWHILE!

What is WITH all the people wanting to know about her Path recently?

It's weird and it keeps coming up.

"Perseverance. Determination. The drive of every living thing to endure through adversity and be stronger for it," Zee replies with a shrug. "My name is YEZEKIEL. She who is bound together in strength."

Evolution of a species. Growth of an individual. Taking hold of your own meaning and shaping yourself.

[Holy-hunter]

Gara gasps. It isn’t fun. Reliving the day when her best friend was turned by a deadly kumiho. Being unable to help Rey and at least one of her classmates from being taken by those faeries. The verbal abuse from her father. The constant pain of seeing her mother miserable with him.
But no. Rey was healed. By Civiron’s power was her soul restored. Well, the important parts. And her mother found the courage to leave her father. Now they’re all there for each other. And doing better! The blessing of Civiron does not give her messengers prowess in combat or clairvoyance. It does not give them physical strength or mighty feats of arcane might. What Civvy provides is hope.

So really, it’s not a very practical blessing for use in defense against supernatural attacks except when they’re attacks based on sorrow and despair. Lucky you, Gara.

Pale, shaking, Gara slams the end of her staff on the floorboards, rings clanging together.
”Sifting through people’s memories is not very nice, Mister. I hope you have a very good excuse.” Oh she actually sounds pretty upset now.

“Excuse?” he asks softly. “I simply mirrored your intent to bring old pains to light. Those things...” he pauses as he shakes his head slightly.
“I am sorry for you.” he says, his voice while quiet was gentle, sincere, warm and strong. The words circled to embrace her, giving a sense of safety, subtly further coaching the feeling and memories out.
“Do not deny that pain, it is the right response for what you have endured. For what, for what your friends endured. And your poor mother, do you think she can just put it all in the past and look forward with, what, ‘hope’. ”

He looked at her, truly looked at her, with those deep dark broken eyes. Seeing into her like no other had. His gaze so intense it sought to bore through any walls she might have held up.
In his presence, under his sight, every sad feeling, old heart ache or forgotten sorrow seemed to want to come alive with an intensity and magnitude greater than before. It was as if he could lure them out directly using his own sorrow and sympathy like a large juicy steak to a starving dying dog.

“Hope heals nothing and cannot undo what was so wrongly done! Mourn, to not mourn denies the impact and importance of those people to you. You should wallow over your losses, your pain is nothing compared to their suffering... It’s their on their faces, in your memories, the fear, the sorrow, the emptiness.

Why would you refuse to honour that, why do you refuse to shed a tear for those you failed? Because of faith, because of hope? It is safe here. Let go. ”

As he talks he steps forwards and continues to recycle any negative memories that sifted to the surface, emphasising his speech with them, all whilst playing the kind sympathetic ear.

“Bring it all to light.” He says. ” share your burden like you asked me to do, don’t hide it under false hopes. Don’t betray those you failed futher...”

[5a Violista]

Well, yes, spreading is bad because it hurts people. "But if it didn't, then it'd be just as fine as anything else."

"...and also it was making people not act like themselves and lose control over what they wanted." Some people wouldn't consider that as hurting them, so long as it was for a greater good or perfection or whatever. "That's just as bad, if not worse."

[bc56]

"Yeah, taking off this bird thing would be great. Flying's nice and all, but being tempted to eat people's garbage isn't." Jade replies. "Yeah, Ashpotel. Strangest thing though, that place was set to explode like a nuke. I was just planning to flood it with deadly radiation. You know Chernobyl, right?" It's possible Zee doesn't. There are a lot of worlds, not all of which have nuclear disasters at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

"Yes, but how, Zzzkkzl? That is true of all paths. The shaping of life into a higher form is the true calling of all our kind." The wasp gives a bow again and an actual introduction. "I am Blue-Red-Spots, adherent to the Path of the Paragon. Through might, we ascend."

[Rebonack]

"Controlling people is also pretty bad," Zee agrees. "These cultists, though? If they manage to spread their crazy far enough then it's possible their master wakes up and eats the planet. I dunno about you but I would like the planet to remain uneaten. It's where I keep all my stuff."

That is a joke.

Also not totally accurate.

Yezekiel keeps most of her stuff in her inventory.

Or at leas the stuff that's pretty important to her.

MEANWHILE!

"Okay, this should be pretty easy since I got a good feel for how you're put together already," Zee says as she reaches out to place a hand on Jade. "Two things. First, don't fight it. Second, this is partly on you. YOU define who Jade is. Not some weird bird monster. With the Blade of Self carve out who you are."

There isn't any crazy flash of light or anything.

Jade should just feel really itchy all of a sudden as her Shape and Matter will begin shifting to conform to the Information Zee had gathered on the woman's post-curse form, as directed by Jade's Will.

Zee has invoked her Path that Jade might better shape her own meaning.

That itch of BIRD being removed... it fills her with determination.

Once that nonsense is over with in a few minutes, Zee will offer a sheepish smile. "I maaaaay have made a few changes to the Shape and Matter of the reactor so that it would explode like a bomb if the safeties were removed. I can't act against those jerks directly, but I can help the Nexus' heroes take them down."

She coughs slightly. "The sleeping ones? They're, hehe, y'know. Bigger than me. Waaaaaaay bigger than me. If I went all Godzilla mode and blew up their sleeping bodies myself then they would probably just eat me up in the Empyrean and I'm pretty allergic to being eaten."

ALSO MEANWHILE!

"Strength forged in the crucible of adversity," Zee says. "My power, my path, for those that embrace it anything the survive will make them stronger. Adapt and overcome."

It sounds like she's talking about some sort of hyper accelerated evolution on an organism level?

[Zefir]

The Prothet

An old man stumbels thtough the door of the tavern, barly catching himself as he passes the door. He heads for a central place so everyone can see him. He is hard to oversee.
His clothes are some kind of brown robe which has been torn at some places. Many stains of different colors makes it look very filthy. A piece of robe around his wrist keeps the robe on. It is obviously the only clothing he got. People can see his bare feet and hands and the man got a wooden sign around his neck reading 'The Prophet' on it. When he is in the center he rises his hands up and shouts.

"HEAR ME! HEAR ME! We are all DOOMED! A pest is coming to us, one that has destroyed worlds for years now. WE won't make it! Hugh your loved ones, have no regrets. When THEY come you won't have time for them anymore"
He will repeat this for as long as people let him. Most of the npc visitors don't even take note of him. Only a few seems to panik and finish their drink.

[bc56]

Jade feels really itchy. Her feathers start retracting into her body, her bones rearranging themselves back into human shapes, her lungs going back to the good old human inability to swallow and breathe at the same time. After a few minutes of very uncomfortable transformation, she's back to an ordinary (if very attractive) human woman. She holds out her hands and wiggles her fingers, glad to have them back. "I was worried I'd never hold anything again. I... Dangit! I could've made myself taller!" As it is, she looks pretty much the same as she did before she got infected with bird. Thanks to her own knowledge of her body not being totally perfect, there are a few changes. Her hair is more reddish and longer, reaching down to the small of her back instead of just her shoulders. Her chest is just a touch bigger as well. Apparently, she subconsciously thought of it as larger than it actually was, which makes sense when you consider that she was originally a man.
She responds to Zee's comments with seriousness. "Having seen what others of your kind can do, I think you'll understand if I keep a close eye on you in the future." Not that Zee's not her friend anymore, just that she is a friend that's also an apocalypse waiting to happen.


Blue listens to Zee and gives what might be the wasp equivalent of a shrug, but is hard to read. "I will remain on the path I have chosen, but know that yours is noble as well."

[Recaiden]

The Prothet

An old man stumbels thtough the door of the tavern, barly catching himself as he passes the door. He heads for a central place so everyone can see him. He is hard to oversee.
His clothes are some kind of brown robe which has been torn at some places. Many stains of different colors makes it look very filthy. A piece of robe around his wrist keeps the robe on. It is obviously the only clothing he got. People can see his bare feet and hands and the man got a wooden sign around his neck reading 'The Prophet' on it. When he is in the center he rises his hands up and shouts.

"HEAR ME! HEAR ME! We are all DOOMED! A pest is coming to us, one that has destroyed worlds for years now. WE won't make it! Hugh your loved ones, have no regrets. When THEY come you won't have time for them anymore"
He will repeat this for as long as people let him. Most of the npc visitors don't even take note of him. Only a few seems to panik and finish their drink.

A paper flutters to the ground near the prophet. It just appeared in midair, looks like.
Written on it is a simple question.

Who are THEY?

Now, if you looked very closely, you would have seen that there was actually a many-limbed monster scribbling the question down. But they were invisible and inaudible and careful to stay out of everyone's way, so probably you wouldn't notice that.

[Rebonack]

"Yeah, hindsight is like that," Zee replies with a shrug. "I know the height thing was really bugging you. I also noticed that you weren't trying to be Jason again. I was keeping an eye out for signs, but I didn't get that impression from you at all. Have you made peace with being Jade?"

The curse is gone, after all. If Jade wanted to be Jason again still, she could have.

Zee isn't going to force anything on anyone, though. Imposing Shape on another makes her feel deeply uneasy. People should define themselves, not have her do it for them.

"If so, I'm glad! You've overcome an adversity and made it part of yourself. That's admirable."

She seems genuinely happy that her friend is healing.

Then serious talk.

Zee winces a bit. "Believe me, I know. I know exactly how dangerous I am. Things like me, the bigger we get the harder it becomes to maintain a human mindset. I love the Nexus and the people who live here; I don't think that'll ever change. But if too much humanity gets away from me I might decide to start... helping. In ways that might not be so helpful. Ways that would make sense to me but seem pretty bad to everyone else I'm trying to love. So I've made arrangements with VIGIL in case I ever go off the deep end. They know how to stop me."

She offers Jade an absolutely genuine smile.

"If that day ever comes go to VIGIL and help put an end to my threat to the Nexus. It would mean a lot to me."

Real friends blow up real friends if they become an apocalypse threat.

That smile is replaced with Zee's trademark goofy grin.

"But hey! I don't plan on doing that ever if I can help it, so hopefully it won't ever come up. Best case scenario I manage to stay sane until I hit Silver Host and fall asleep somewhere I won't bother anyone with infectious dragonness or whatever."

Infectious dragonness might not be as bad as infectious birdness. Zee has no idea whether or not she would actually work that way.

MEANWHILE!

"Good on you!" Zee replies brightly. "Stick to your guns and do your best. Now then-"

She points at the place the wasp had appeared.

"What had you been doing when you got poofed over here all of a sudden?"

ALSO MEANWHILE!

Oh hey a doom prophet!

"Hello mister Prophet of Doom!" Zee calls out, waving to the unhinged looking man. "Did you want anything to drink? I know shrieking about the impending demise of everyone can be really hard on your throat."

Zee is always very thoughtful.

[bc56]

Jade shrugs. "I guess I have." She's fine with sticking with her female form. It's really not so bad. "All right. If you go crazy, I'll be there to put you down." There's no promise of mercy there. Jade might not normally kill people, but these circumstances, should they ever occur, would merit it. It seems like that's what Zee wants anyway. "Got anything else you want to talk about?"


Blue looks back at the space where there's nothing to see anyway. "I was battling a creature of the Storm." Realizing this doesn't really explain much, she continues, "I am a member of an exploratory party assessing worlds within the Stormwrack as candidates for terraforming. We were beset by a Void-Terror which made the planet its lair." That probably doesn't explain too much either, but it seems to be what Blue assumes would be easily understandable.

[5a Violista]

"Planets getting eaten is the worst," Zophiel says, suggesting that he somewhat has experience with that phenomenon.
He leans against the table - his elbow on the table - and puts his fist on his cheek.
"..."
"Yeah. It's pretty awful." He drinks some hot chocolate.

Zophiel just keeps his own stuff with him, though. So...it's not that bad, comparatively. Well, except for family, he doesn't keep them on him, since that'd be weird. So maybe it is that bad, comparatively.

[Rebonack]

"If it makes you feel any better," Zee says. "Don't think of it as killing me. I won't die. I would just be kicked out of the world. Like what happened when you blew up BigBird. Things like me don't ever really die. We're hilariously bad at dying."

They are seriously just the worst.

It is hard to find someone more inept at dying than an empyrean.

"Hopefully that would be enough of a shock to me that I would realize, 'hey wait I was being a giant jerk from a human perspective.'"

Zee has a lot of faith in her ability to continue being a force for good. She's rather uniquely suited for it. There were just so many of her that her human mindset was powerfully reinforced.

When you've just got one human mind and who knows how many weird things that you ate to get bigger that human-ness starts getting watered down really quickly.

"And remember next time you find yourself going toe to toe with another sleeping god like that? Even if it doesn't seem like I'm helping you I probably am. Either with something I'm doing behind the scenes or something I already did behind the scenes. I don't want these jerks corrupting the Nexus, either. I love you and everyone else here."

Then?

She moves in to give Jade a hug.

"I don't want to lose you guys."

D'aaww...

Meanwhile!

"Oh hey that was probably it!" Zee says, giving her hands a clap. "That right there the voidy monster or whatever. When you appeared you got spit out by this gross fleshy thing with too many eyes and mouths."

She narrows her eyes a bit.

"I think that jerk might owe me money..."

That's a joke.

Probably.

ALSO MEANWHILE!

Zee seems to be pretty glad that Zoph is enjoying the hot chocolate.

"It is. That's why I do what I can to prevent this one from being eaten," she says. "Speaking of, did you notice that big magical forest that popped up Inside? That's a weald. Part of the Dreamlands bubbling up into the real word. ALSO an example of someone trying to eat the planet. There are a couple ways of getting rid of something like that, but they're all really tricky. Probably worth the effort, though. That forest gobbled up a WHOLE BUNCH of people's homes."

It sounds like Zee is offering a quest to Zoph?

[5a Violista]

ALSO MEANWHILE!

Well,
the hot chocolate is good. So. Of course he'd enjoy it.

"Oh! That. I saw that but thought it was normal," the paladin says. So he asks the question that should be obvious, but considering the wording of the statement combined with the way Zee seemed to focus more on the spreading itself being the problem - both with this magical forest and Neshiyahel - it seems like a necessary question to ask. "So people's homes were swallowed up. Is it also harming the people in there?"

He stops leaning against his forearm, and sits upright again. "So how would you recommend getting rid of it?" he asks.

[bc56]

Jade is hugged. It's kinda awkward. She hugs Zee back a little, then pushes away. "Thanks, that means a lot to me." It's a good thing Zee hadn't noticed what else is up with Jade while she was poking around in her body. That would've been really awkward. She shoots Zee a foxy grin. "I promise I'll do my best not to die."


"That seems highly unlikely. There is no hard evidence to connect the Storm to the Revolutions." But Guardian and Conveyance seemed to suggest so, although that's not been proven. There definitely is some 4-dimensional nonsense going on with them though. Blue paces back and forth. "Where did you say I am?"

[Earl of Purple]

"First, most important question, what do you mean by the Game? What's the Tower? I want to climb it, but don't know where it is. Or what it is. How are you talking to me and Jade at the same time? You're huge. Um, not fat, just... really big. Will I get that big, one day? What do you mean by 'the technical stuff'?" There's probably other questions Mishnehel hasn't thought of yet.

[Rebonack]

"It's pretty not normal," Zee explains to the paladin. "Well, the people are homeless now, for one. That isn't great. And I don't think the forest itself hurt anyone. But some of the nasty things IN the forest sure will. Malevolent faeries that prey on normal folk. Not nice at all. Like boogies and goblins and mares!"

Oh my!

"There's this great big tree in the middle of the park. You probably saw that, too, since it's huge."

Zee spreads her arms apart to indicate the tree's general huge-ness.

"That tree is what links the weald to the Dreamlands. If it were destroyed then the park's flow of eldritch magic would be cut off. Then it would just be a normal forest. Normal forests are way easier to deal with than magical ones."

Very true!

You can, for example, send loggers into a normal forest without having to worry about them all getting turned into dryads.

"That's the violent method. The other method would be to find the weald's spirit and convince them to sever their link with the weald. But usually gaiads are pretty adverse to that so I'm not sure if that would be an option."

MEANWHILE!

Notice?

There wasn't anything to notice.

Jade was perfectly normal. Or at least as normal as she ever is, what with getting turned into a woman.

"I'm holding you to that," Zee informs Jade. "Don't be a stranger! Feel free to swing by any time you like. OH! And we're having the Thanksmas party here at Trog's this year! I would love it if you attended. I'll try to convince Morning Glory to swing by, too."

ALSO MEANWHILE!

Zee shrugs at the dismissal.

She doesn't know about things.

"Trog's Tavern. Might be the literal center of the Nexus, if not the metaphorical center. The Nexus being... a universal crossroads? I guess? A place where lots of different realities overlap.."

She pans her arm across the tavern, gesturing at the absolutely insane variety of various beings from various settings.

"Basically a giant hilarious crossover story."

ALSO ALSO MEANWHILE!

"This-" Zee points at...

Everything.

Somehow.

"-is the Eternal Game. This reality is a simulation. A game empyreans discovered... heck, I dunno? I eons ago for sure. You were born a half-elf inside the simulation. Now you've undergone apotheosis, which means now you're a player in the Game rather than a feature. You can leave the Game and manifest in the Empyrean. Heaven, I guess? That's where the Tower is. Which is, literally, a Tower. A really, really big one. You aren't strong enough yet to go beyond the first floor of the Tower. And, really, I would suggest you kinda get the hang of things here in the Game before you check out the Empyrean. It is super weird when you've only got mortal stuff for context."

The weirdest, probably.

"I'm talking to a bunch of people at once actually! I'm taking advantage of how time works here inside the Game compared to how it actually works. It isn't very obvious to you, yet. But once you're strong enough to move beyond the first floor of the Tower you'll start to get it."

That is weird and doesn't really explain the question.

Zee laughs at the comment about her size. "Aren't I? I'm friggin' ginormous. Really, really inconveniently big. I need to stay all bottled up in human shape to make sure I don't hurt any of the critters in here. If I DID go Godzilla mode that would draw a ton of aggro from local creeps and they would work pretty hard at blowing me up. Also? I really like the critters that live here in the Nexus. They're my friends."

Mishnael will immediately understand that by 'critters' Zee is referring to non-hostile Game denizens. 'Creeps' by contrast are hostile denizens.

Zee places one forearm on the counter and leans forward.

"And this is for emphasis. 'Critters' are people. You were a person before you went through apotheosis. Some empyreans will try to convince you that they aren't, that you weren't. Don't believe them."

Then she stands upright again and smiles.

"You might get huge too! Depends on how well you do and whether or not you decide to join someone else's Path instead of your own."

The Path has something to do with the Spheres she's aligned with.

"Technical stuff like... geeze... how literally anything works?" Zee laughs.

[bc56]

"See you later Zee!" Jade waves farewell, turns tail, and heads out the door.


"Where is this Nexus? In what stellar system? What sector? What galaxy?" Blue doesn't seem to quite comprehend her situation yet. "Or if not, where within the Beyond are we? Or is this part of the Betwixt?"

[Zefir]

Spoiler: Hear Him

Show

A paper flutters to the ground near the prophet. It just appeared in midair, looks like.
Written on it is a simple question.


Now, if you looked very closely, you would have seen that there was actually a many-limbed monster scribbling the question down. But they were invisible and inaudible and careful to stay out of everyone's way, so probably you wouldn't notice that.

"Yeah, hindsight is like that," Zee replies with a shrug. "I know the height thing was really bugging you. I also noticed that you weren't trying to be Jason again. I was keeping an eye out for signs, but I didn't get that impression from you at all. Have you made peace with being Jade?"

The curse is gone, after all. If Jade wanted to be Jason again still, she could have.

Zee isn't going to force anything on anyone, though. Imposing Shape on another makes her feel deeply uneasy. People should define themselves, not have her do it for them.

"If so, I'm glad! You've overcome an adversity and made it part of yourself. That's admirable."

She seems genuinely happy that her friend is healing.

Then serious talk.

Zee winces a bit. "Believe me, I know. I know exactly how dangerous I am. Things like me, the bigger we get the harder it becomes to maintain a human mindset. I love the Nexus and the people who live here; I don't think that'll ever change. But if too much humanity gets away from me I might decide to start... helping. In ways that might not be so helpful. Ways that would make sense to me but seem pretty bad to everyone else I'm trying to love. So I've made arrangements with VIGIL in case I ever go off the deep end. They know how to stop me."

She offers Jade an absolutely genuine smile.

"If that day ever comes go to VIGIL and help put an end to my threat to the Nexus. It would mean a lot to me."

Real friends blow up real friends if they become an apocalypse threat.

That smile is replaced with Zee's trademark goofy grin.

"But hey! I don't plan on doing that ever if I can help it, so hopefully it won't ever come up. Best case scenario I manage to stay sane until I hit Silver Host and fall asleep somewhere I won't bother anyone with infectious dragonness or whatever."

Infectious dragonness might not be as bad as infectious birdness. Zee has no idea whether or not she would actually work that way.

MEANWHILE!

"Good on you!" Zee replies brightly. "Stick to your guns and do your best. Now then-"

She points at the place the wasp had appeared.

"What had you been doing when you got poofed over here all of a sudden?"

ALSO MEANWHILE!

Oh hey a doom prophet!

"Hello mister Prophet of Doom!" Zee calls out, waving to the unhinged looking man. "Did you want anything to drink? I know shrieking about the impending demise of everyone can be really hard on your throat."

Zee is always very thoughtful.

The prophet doesn't seem to notice the paper at all as he turns around from his central position and shouts his words at the mostly unintressed crowed. His eyes look blured like he got no real focus, yet he seems he allways turns to someone. He even steps on the paper, by accident, when addressing a young couple which he reminds to go home in their bed and enjoy the others company for as long as it lasts.

As Zee addresses the man he immediatly focus on her, his eyes still blury but his whole bodylanguage point at her. He takes some steps to the bartender, the paper he steped on still sticks on his feet.

"What use has the pleasure of food and drink for me? I'm just a warning to you and your kind. Beware the doom that's coming for you. An unspeakable is on it's way and none was able to stop it. LEAVE YOUR WORK AND RETURN TO YOUR LOVED ONCE! So you know your last moments have been together!!!!!"

[5a Violista]

So it sounds like the actual problem is not the forest itself, but rather some of the things in the forest.
...
Okay, so to be honest, that just sounds like it already is just a normal forest, Zophiel thinks. Well, one that has a lot of fairies in it. But that alone isn't enough reason to just cut off its magic.

Zophiel isn't really a fan of fairies. After all, they did kidnap his daughter when she was born. "The fact that it has so many fairies in it would merit looking in to it," he admits. But cutting off the magic alone wouldn't stop any problems, he thinks. But also, it sounds like this barmaid sees some things as a problem that he doesn't, and vice-versa.

Well, he's pretty much done with his food, anyway.
The paladin stands. "I'll look in to it and see if it's a problem, but there's no guarantees I'll come to the same conclusion as you on what needs to be done."

[Earl of Purple]

"How many floors have you climbed, and how many are there?" Is there a top? Mishnehel doesn't know enough to know if that's a valid question. "Why would they try to convince me that people aren't real? That I wasn't real? I can see them, talk to them, freak them out by going not-this." She doesn't actually adopt her other shape when she says that, although she did use it to fly here from Skyside.

[Recaiden]

Well, if they're going to ignore a politely written question and keep yelling, that's no good.

If fact, the note writer is quite upset by it.
So the invisible monster tries to step up behind the man screaming about doom and wrap a tentacle around him!
"Talk. Quietly." hisses a voice, though most of the creature remains undetectable. There's just a tentacle grabbing at him threateningly and a strong supernatural suggestion not to look at or think about the rest of it.

[Rebonack]

"Neat!" Zee replies cheerfully to the doom prophet. "We usually do pretty good with unspeakable dooms. It's been a while since we've had a proper one."

It doesn't sound like she's terribly concerned? Though she is concerned about the grabbing. "Sir please be careful with the other guests, even if they're smelly and crazy and loud."

Then a smile is offered to Zoph. "Do what you think is right. I know you're a hero; you'll do the right thing."

Very nice to have someone rooting for him, right?

"Bye Jade!" Zee calls after her friend as she departs, then nods to the wasp. "I don't know what part of the universe the Nexus would be in from your perspective. It isn't really a place exactly. It's somewhere that lots of places overlap. Like imagine a WHOLE BUNCH of universes and they've each got one little corner that occupies the same place as all the other little corners. That's where we are."

And finally?

Zee considers Mishnehel's questions.

"Hmm... Well the bottom tier of the tower is just one floor. The second tier is one hundred floors. The third tier is ten thousand floors. I've made it up to six hundred something I think? There are two more tiers above that for sure. Then the four Living Ideals. And then... maybe something else? I dunno! Maybe there's a top to the Tower and maybe there isn't. It gets argued about a whole bunch."

It gets argued about a TON.

"The Eternal Game looks really different from the outside," Zee confides. "I used to be like you. No way could I ever believe something like that! But once I was outside the Game for the first time I could see where they were coming from. I still think they're wrong. But I see where they're coming from."

[Deathkeeper]

“Excuse?” he asks softly. “I simply mirrored your intent to bring old pains to light. Those things...” he pauses as he shakes his head slightly.
“I am sorry for you.” he says, his voice while quiet was gentle, sincere, warm and strong. The words circled to embrace her, giving a sense of safety, subtly further coaching the feeling and memories out.
“Do not deny that pain, it is the right response for what you have endured. For what, for what your friends endured. And your poor mother, do you think she can just put it all in the past and look forward with, what, ‘hope’. ”

He looked at her, truly looked at her, with those deep dark broken eyes. Seeing into her like no other had. His gaze so intense it sought to bore through any walls she might have held up.
In his presence, under his sight, every sad feeling, old heart ache or forgotten sorrow seemed to want to come alive with an intensity and magnitude greater than before. It was as if he could lure them out directly using his own sorrow and sympathy like a large juicy steak to a starving dying dog.

“Hope heals nothing and cannot undo what was so wrongly done! Mourn, to not mourn denies the impact and importance of those people to you. You should wallow over your losses, your pain is nothing compared to their suffering... It’s their on their faces, in your memories, the fear, the sorrow, the emptiness.

Why would you refuse to honour that, why do you refuse to shed a tear for those you failed? Because of faith, because of hope? It is safe here. Let go. ”

As he talks he steps forwards and continues to recycle any negative memories that sifted to the surface, emphasising his speech with them, all whilst playing the kind sympathetic ear.

“Bring it all to light.” He says. ” share your burden like you asked me to do, don’t hide it under false hopes. Don’t betray those you failed futher...”

Gara bangs her staff on the floor again. Her tail scrapes against the back of the chair, sending little pink bubbles floating across the room.
"Miss Zee! There's spooky things going on. Do you sell bubble tea?" she calls as if this is an entirely normal conversation.
"I did my mourning! Years of it. And I got better, because that's how mortals do things. You have to cry. Not doing it is suppressing yourself. But eventually you get better. It doesn't take away the hurt, but you manage. You just want people to wallow in sadness forever. And that's no good. It's not healthy at all." she shakes her head.