destinystrings | Conquestum Paradisi

Beside a group of charred bodies, a small girl supports her weight with an elaborate wooden staff, leaning forward to place a hand lightly on the hearts of the deceased. Her expression is one of curiosity more than concern. As she can sense the supernatural, so, too, will the psychopomps become aware that another deity worked in their midst.

...These people had passed beyond her domain now. The goddess of nature and all living things gives a weary shrug.

"Even in a place like this... For all they know, they could be the last of humanity in this world. Do they work together to survive? Nope. They break up into little factions and tear each other to pieces."

She sighs.

"Eh. I won't say no to more fertilizer for the plants."

And a small boy with curly black hair approaches the heap of blackened corpses, preparing harvest the souls per his duty. He cares little about the flesh-and-blood bodies themselvesーhumans could do with they wanted with them. Pharos' facial expression is curious as well when he glances at her before he crouched down next to a limp corpse on the ground. The sense of the energy that radiated off her identified her easily as a fellow deity, one associated with life.

The embodiment of Death and all the yearning for an end exhaled tiredly himself.

"They bring misery upon themselves, don't they?ーthough in some cases, it is thrust upon them."

He set his hands on the body's chest and softly yanked loose the soul curled inside it.

At least the wildlife had the sense to run away.

Edited 2013-01-27 20:32 (UTC)

Viridi glances at the boy with a wary expression, though it's clear she's intrigued. The goddess steps aside as Pharos approaches the body - close observation would reveal that her feet weren't quite touching the ground. Dirtying herself with the spilled blood of mortals was always more trouble than it was worth; it made her hot springs uncomfortably pink the next few times she used them.

"Sometimes, I think it would have been kinder if we never gave them sapience. They don't ever seem to use it the right way."

Death was part of the cycle of nature. She knew that. She accepted that. Sometimes, as in the case of humans, she even encouraged it. That didn't necessarily mean she liked it very much. The rational part of her - a very small part - recognized that not every avatar or god associated with Death was as much of a megalomaniac as Hades. The rest of her wanted to scream 'MINE MINE ALL MINE' and refuse to let go.

But this was, admittedly, the first time she had ever met a psychopomp that, well... wouldn't be out of place in a kindergarten class with her. Curiosity overcame rudeness for the moment.

"This isn't your world, is it? Where are you taking them?"

"Yes, maybe that would have been an act of mercy on our behalf. Their behavior is pretty foolhardy."

Pale fingers held onto the soul for a few moment longer and then sent it onward. It departed from the mortal plane with little fuss, and the trace of life he had cradled vanished from their senses.

He knew how frequently the humans misunderstood each other, and how eagerly they killed each other, and how fervently they hated each other instead of appreciating what a gift they had been granted just by being born and enjoying it to the fullest extent. That seemed so silly of them. Crouched down on his hunches, Pharos looks over at her, noticing her feet meeting air instead of the ground but feeling no surprise. His smile was pleasant and cyntic.

"No, it's not. But this world has a resting place for the decreased like any other. I cannot enter it, but I can guide them to it and let them in."

He straightened back up and moved on to the next bloodied body, prodding it softly with his toe of his sandal. The body's chest rose and fell faintly, signifying the continence of the heartbeat still thumping inside her. Pharos promptly lost any interest in the human, accepting that her time had not yet come and stepped over the motionless body to check the rest of them.

Humans were awfully silly beings in general, Viridi would agree. Then again, if her pantheon was anything to go by, the gods weren't that much better. She steps forward lightly towards the body that Pharos had passed by, poking it as well with her staff more out of curiosity than out of any concern for the suffering human. Under normal circumstances, Viridi was well capable of resurrecting anyone she liked, though she generally reserved the privilege for her special generals - It wouldn't do to have Arlon and Phosphora disabled for any significant length of time. Here, the stream of souls was somehow barred from her, making the task a bit more difficult.

"This world seems to be in need of good help in general. They don't even have their own Death to do the job? The three of you aren't supposed to be responsible for this."

She had counted.

"This one's still mine. If you don't mind..."

It wasn't as if a Diarama took much effort on her part. Might as well just go for it. The woman's breathing becomes more steady as a few of her wounds close; the internal injuries she had suffered were more than enough to keep her in the hospital for a few days, though.

"...My name is Viridi. Goddess of nature, and ruler of all living things. You might have heard me earlier."

Screaming telepathically.

"Not at all."

Pharos obviously had no issues with the long-haired goddess healing the suffering, bloodied woman, pulling her back from the brink of death. Everything that lives in turn eventually dies after all, and new life cannot come if old life does not step aside to give it room; putting off this human's death for awhile was only a delay in the process, not a stop and wasn't offensive to the small boy. He trudged between the bodies, some conscious and moaning, others deathly still and silent, and glanced over his shoulder at her.

"This world has powers of some sort. But I can't tell where they are, not even their Death." He admitted wryly. Humans and gods alike, their lives and their sorrows, their silly contradicting desires. All were interesting to observe. "But it's no trouble to help out when we can."

On the pitted, cracked pavement, a few drops of bright scarlet blood strained the cement. When the other supernatural being formally decided to introduced herself, he nodded. "I'm Pharos. It's nice to meet you, Viridi."

Then he grins, small and curious, and sorry if you were expecting someone with a decent grasp on social tact. Hard to not notice that racket, even from the moment of her arrival.

"I remember! You were very loud."

"I was not loud!"

Why did everyone always fixate on that one thing?

"I was at the perfect volume I needed to express my very important thoughts so that people would pay attention to them! I figured it out through a lot of diligent experimentation and research, you know."

I.e.: she yelled at Pit and measured what decibel made him go temporarily deaf.

"Besides, it wasn't as if it actually hurt anyone's ears for real. It was all mental.... telepathy stuff."

Viridi is not exactly an expert on social tact herself. Or rather, she's perfectly well aware that it's something that exists that's applicable for other people who need to follow such rules. She follows along behind the other enfante terrible as he meanders through the bodies.

"...Anyway. I just came down here because I saw the three of you wandering around." She gives a shrug. "Professional curiosity, I guess. I don't usually walk around in the city; too much trouble."

Among the scattered bodies, the knots of struggling fighters that appeared in the tapestry of the battleground that do not touch either of them, Pharos looks bemused and a little lost at how assertive and overbearing she is, but there is no sense of belittlement or mockery in his voice when he converses with her.

"But you are. Even when you speak with your mind, instead of your voice."

Because that's how she introduces herself: loud, and bold and listen to me right now. He tugged idly at one of his loose, wide sleeve. "Oh, I see! Humans having battles like this mean more of an increase in our workload. We felt it would be for the best if we collaborated since this dimension does weaken our power."

Even if three Deaths active in the same area was.. action-grabbing.

And well, if they had to struggle to keep up, people would suffer more than they needed to and Pharos didn't want that: he wanted to lead them them on when their time to die came, not a moment before or a moment after.

After awhile, the two of them enfante terribles are walking together and come across another deathly still form, and unlike the one before, this one is undeniably a corpse, thinner, gnarled and more shriveled with years. Wooden sandals slapped on the ground as he walked closer.

Viridi looks slightly irritated. ...But she always looks slightly irritated, anyway, so essentially, there's no change to her expression.

"It isn't my fault you all have overly sensitive ears. ...And brains."

And that, as far as she's concerned, is that.

Despite her overbearing nature, it's clear who's taken the lead as the nature goddess continues to step behind Pharos, taking the same path he walks to get to... wherever he wanted to get. More dead bodies. It isn't as if she has any pressing business with this tragedy apart from occasionally Supporting the people whose lives might cause her an iota of unhappiness if they were lost. Pit, of course, was different, but then, he had Palutena with him, and if there was anything she could be convinced of, it was the power of their combined overwhelming dorkiness to conquer all.

"Anyway, that's awfully nice of you. I would've just let the death here take care of itself, but then, this isn't my job."

A short pause.

"...No, wait, actually, you might want to hurry it up a little. Hades is here."

Pharos liked dead bodies, okay.

"Thanks...?"

He moves aside the arm flung across the motionless chest, the deteriorated muscles limp, and sets his small hands on the body's chest and yanked loose the soul curled inside it. It felt old, sour and it felt like folds of rice paper clutched in between his fingers.

"Hades?" He looked up at her, crouched on the ground beside the lump of dead flesh with the soul in his hands, obviously confused at her warning. Hades and his kindred spirit had been here for awhile. Was she speaking of the new deathly and unfamiliar presence he had felt arrive a short time ago? Pharos had been unable to put a name to it, but he wouldn't have pegged it as Hades.

It hadn't felt anything like Hades, the sense of death aside. It must be a different death god with the same name. His brow scrunched up. "A deity you know?"

"Unfortunately."

Viridi pulls a face, though her posture is stiffer and her expression a little bit more grim. Whatever the problem was, the nature goddess seemed to be genuinely concerned by it, as opposed to hashing out the exact decibel level of her telepathic screaming.

"Hades is the god of our Underworld. ...Well. He used to be. He had this super fun habit of stealing souls out of the soul stream and reshaping them into abominations for his army."

Viridi sniffs in disapproval.

"He ran this disgusting little scheme back home - start wars, snag souls, fortify army, start more wars. And I'll eat my staff if he doesn't try the same trick here."

She spares a glance for the body Pharos was crouched over and wrinkles her nose.

"He." Pharos' eyes darkened in disgust and while his stance doesn't noticeably stiffen, his mouth does thin into a flat tight line. The thought of a god abusing their responsibilities like thatーmuch less a fellow being associated with death and the ending of thingsーevoked a swallow sense of anger in him. When someone perished, they were supposed to return to an eternal sleep after the long period of activity that was life: not be twisted into abominations, as Viridi claimed Hades did, and made to fight in something as stupid as wars, denied their rest. "Did that?"

What a foolish and disrespectful thing to do.

His eyes narrowed, fingers tightening their grip on the soul.

"I see. Well, I can't approve of that. If he attempts to commit that kind of act on the souls of the dead here, he will sorely regret it."

At least she mentioned he 'used to be.' Hopefully he would have been punished appropriately for committing such distasteful deeds.

"Ooh. I like that tone."

Viridi smirks, and the expression of casual malice that appears on the face of the young child is a bit unsettling.

"We're all sick of dealing with him. Maybe we'll leave his obliteration this time around to all of you. They say outsourcing is all the rage nowadays."

She gives a shrug.

"We got rid of him, of course, but you know pests - they always pop right back up when you think they're gone for good."

They're two children standing over a dead body in the middle of a raging battlefield and showing absolutely no signs of being distressed by it.

Of course it would be unsettling to any observer.

The corners of the flat line move upward a bit as Pharos smiles.

"Generally, I leave the actual obliteration to others but... It never hurts to make an exception for some people. I don't like it when those in my business aren't responsible with their duties."

His tight grip on the old-rice paper soul loosened after a few seconds, and with a tiny deliberate push on his part, the small child moved it onward from the mortal plane. It struggled and pushed back in an attempt to cling to life for a moment before vanishing grudgingly.

He straightened up from his squat and giggles.

"Vermin are tiresome to ride yourself of, correct. It's because they don't have much room in their skulls for brains."

"Of course, it makes it that much more satisfying when you finally eradicate them once and for all."

The evil laughter would cue at this point except that ostensibly, the two of them were supposed to be the heroes in this scenario. Viridi watches Pharos... gently ease the soul's transition into the great beyond, resisting the urge to poke at all at it before it vanished.

"Honestly, I've never met a death god that was responsible. Your equivalent would be Thanatos, I think - or the Great Reaper. And neither of them are exactly pillars of good citizenship.

"There must be something about all that gloom and doom that gets to your head."

Like squashing a bug.

"Thanatos?"

He repeated, mildly surprised. He didn't know what the Great Reaper was (unless she was referring to the grim reaper, which he knew mortals were overly fond of associating himself with) but he recognized that name. Hahah, he'd used it a lot when he'd personally worked with his more... hero-aligned version of Hades and as the chunk of Death manifested as a Persona. "That's one of my namesーso I imagine you're probably right to assume him to my equivalent in your dimension."

He scanned the vicinity of their surroundings, checking to see if there were any decreased soul lingering in this portion of the battlefield that needed to be sent along, but found none for the moment. And then he looked back at Viridi, smiling at her remark regarding death gods that weren't exactly stellar pillars of citizenship.

"Ah... It does get a little disheartening at times, endlessly watching this sort of repetition. But having said that, I do enjoy my duties."

It wasn't sad or gloomy, the death of things as long as it was balanced with life: it was the natural course of events.

((And now it is my turn to apologize! Sorry about being ridiculously absurdly late. I'm really sorry; feel free to drop the thread if you'd rather not continue.))

"Yeah, he's technically the god of death, even if he's about as reliable as a broken clock. We could replace him with one of those dolls that squeals when you touch it and no one would notice a difference."

She gives a small shrug.

"Anyway. You should take pleasure in what you do, I guess. Even if it is a little creepy."

((It's good, it's good. Apology accepted!! I don't mind backtagging. Hahah, I've been slow/late with Pharos too since my paid ran out.))

He smiles faintly, finding her ridicule of this other, apparently unreliable, death god to be funny and asked; "Dolls that can squeal when you touch them? They make them like that?"

Pharos really has no clue those existed. He nods at her next remark.

"Yes, that's right." His smile perks up a bit. "Your own duties are to be admired as well. Life is so fascinating, even when experienced from an observer's point of view."

((Aha thanks for understanding!))

Viridi will refrain from mentioning anything about Tickle-Me-Elmos given that she came from 2000 years or so before they were invented. But at Pharos's next comment, she almost visibly puffs up with pride. Complimenting Viridi was generally something that should be kept to a minimum given that it was guaranteed to go straight to her head.

"I know, right?! No one even bothers to think how much work it must have been to come up with, like, a kajillion different forms of life. Most of them are practically microscopic, so it's not like anyone appreciates them. And then you have to balance the life cycle and make sure nothing species dominates when it's not supposed to cough humans cough and mind the weather and the shifting of the plates and the balance of carbon dioxide.... It's really a lot of work!"

Conquestum Paradisi

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wow my apologies for how slow I am

Haha not at all!

/hides face shamefully in hands

Backtagging is my favorite activity next to fronttagging no worries!

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