Conquestum Paradisi

[stringmods]

Conquestum Paradisi

☢

What: Closing Arena Ceremonies, Part 2
Where: Aries Arena & Televised
Summary: 1/24/10AC
Warnings: This could get serious...but who knows.

Finally it was time for the mayor, Kazuki Sakahagi, to speak up. Not even an thirty minutes left to the celebrations, but seeing him go appeared to be lighting up a spark in the citizens. It wasn't too hard to see why; his enthusiastic grin and way of walking could easily melt anyone's worry away.

He walked to the center stage as cheering broke out, two men in black and Junko Tanako behind him.

[OOC - GO FORTH AND TAG FREELY]

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Comments

Haha not at all!

[forceofnature]

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."

/hides face shamefully in hands

[the_usual_stuff]

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?"

Backtagging is my favorite activity next to fronttagging no worries!

[forceofnature]

"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.

[the_usual_stuff]

"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.

[forceofnature]

"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."

[the_usual_stuff]

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."

[forceofnature]

"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."

[the_usual_stuff]

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.

[forceofnature]

((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."

[the_usual_stuff]

((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."

[forceofnature]

((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!"