[center][u]Astarte and Vestec[/u][/center]

Animals were boring. Or so Astarte thought, as she twirled a lock of her hair with her index finger. She sat against a tree trunk, one knee up where she rested her chin, the other leg relaxed and stretched.
 
"You know what?" Astarte asked, looking at Lilly the frog, who was on a lilly pad on the pond. "I think I'll go see what Vestec is doing. You guys simply do nothing but live, and that's boring." She huffed and stood up, and as she did so, she snapped her fingers and Lilly fell off the lilly pad. 
 
[i]Vestec, I'm bored, where are you? I'm thinking we could mess with one of those humans.[/i]
 
Vestec was distracted from watching the Dyun torture and kill their first humans when he felt the touch of Astarte's delightfully random mind. [i]Already have. Though my version is a bit...violent. Hold on though, I think I can grab a few more before Vowzra and Escre get notably upset.[i] He giggled again, zooming down to Galbar to grab a half dozen more humans. Carefully, they were shielded from his, and other God's, true essence. After all, insane creatures weren't fun to mess with. 
 
In a moment he was somewhere in the ocean, far away from Arguillia and the other Gods. With a gesture, a small island(about the size of Hawaii's biggest island) was brought into existence. The humans were dropped on the island, gently, and he contacted Astarte again. [i]There. We have enough humans for some entertainment, and the other Gods won't bother to look over here to stop us.[/i]
 
Astarte walked out from behind a palm tree, "Why would they try to stop us, anyway?" She asked, "We're just having fun with them." she threw a look over at one of the humans. A male, somewhat young but not a child. She walked over to him and lifted his chin with her hand. She looked the human's face over and turned to Vestec. "This is bizarre, they look like me."
 
Vestec shrugged. "Our definition of fun is apparently wrong to them. And people get so touchy about their creations. " He watched as the Goddess of the Ranges examined the human, idly keeping the others nearby with the occasional tug back in this direction. "They look like all of us. Well, not me, obviously as they're one color, but for the most part yes. I think Vowzra made them, with the help of Escre, in his image. And it just happened to be what we all look like. Anything particular you want to do to them, or shall we just see what we can do?" 
 
"Vowzra seems so self-centered," she half-whispered, turning back to the human, who was by now quivering in fear, his whole body shaking so much that she could feel it through his chin, "why are you scared, human?" She asked, a quizzical look on her face.
 
"Brr... Uuh." The human answered. 
 
"Figures, the other Gods care more about themselves than teaching these thing proper speech." Astarte sighed, "these humans are sentient, right? As in, they can think like us?" she asked Vestec.
 
"Yep. The ones I turned into the Dyun were able to pick up what little I was able to teach them very quickly. I think it's safe to assume that you'll be able to teach them how to speak like us in a short amount of time." Vestec paused, considering something as he drew another human back before it could wander off on the island. "Why did you approach me? You could have easily done all this yourself. And I don't recall leaving on the best of notes. Not that I'm complaining." He added hastily, before anything could happen. "I was just curious." 
 
He placed his hand on one of the humans, a male, his hand glowing purple. "Don't resist. Give in to your natural chaos." Within moments, Vestec had corrupted the man. He was ready to be put back into the human population. Ready to serve.
 
Astarte shrugged and flicked the human on the nose as he started looking around. "Don't worry about where you are. Just worry about yourself for now." That said, Astarte placed her palm on the human's forehead. It emitted a soft glow for a moment, and then the human perked up and pulled away. 
 
He blinked and looked at his own hands, then touched his own body in an exploratory manner. "W-What's going on?" He asked in a quivering voice, "What am I doing with my mouth? These sounds?" 
 
Vestec giggled as she made sure the human was paying attention to her, and then tilting his head in curiosity as she put her hand on the head of the mortal. Soon enough he was speaking, questioning. "Words. Sound. Language, whichever you prefer." Vestec responded idly, turning back to his recently corrupted servant. "Go back to your people. Wait for my instruction. Learn. Watch." With that, the man was gone. 
 
Vestec turned back to the Goddess. "So, now you've given speech to the speechless. You have at least one follower, potentially four more," He gestured to the other four humans, who were also exploring their new ability to speak and make words. 
 
"What do you plan to do with it?"
 
"Followers? I'm not interested in followers," Astarte chuckled and looked at the human, "are [i]you[/i] interested in following plain old Astarte, Goddess of the Summons and the Ranges? I don't think so." She grinned, then walked over to Vestec. She looked him over and then watched his changing colors for a moment. 
 
"Why have you not killed anything yet? You're acting different from last time, Vestec. "
 
Vestec giggled at the worshipping expression on the human's face, as Astarte walked away from him. "That answers that question. " He spoke aloud, before his colors stalling and turning a solid pink as she questioned him. Vestec shrugged, glancing around anywhere but at Astarte. His hands were clasped behind his back and he shifted his weight gently from foot to foot. After a few moments he finally he gave a response.
 
"No real purpose in killing these humans is there? Chaos is not always caused by immediate death and destruction. Besides, they're the ones you wanted to see right? What good would be done from destroying them?" Vestec shrugged again, looking around.
 
Astarte watched him a while longer, then grinned and laughed, "You're softer that I thought you were! And not as dumb and self centered, too." She looked at the group of humans, who were now chatting away. At least they weren't trying to get away, so Astarte relaxed and looked back at Vestec, who was still pink-colored. 
 
"Vestec the Chaos God isn't a madman inclined to murder everything--I actually like that idea." She put her hands on Vestec's shoulder and hoisted herself up, ignoring gravity. She did a handstand on his shoulders, letting her hair cover his head completely.
 
Vestec laughed with her, though it was notably different from his usual mad giggles. Less insane, a bit more relaxed. "It's always nice to know I'm not considered a self centered idiot to at least one other peson." He commented, glancing at the humans again to make sure they weren't running off. There was still every chance they might be experimented on.  He eyed her curiously as she looked back at him, chuckling as he replied. "Don't tell everyone. It'll ruin my image."  He went very still as she placed her hands on his shoulders, doing a quick handstand with her hair cascading over his head and incasing his world in lavender hair. 

His solid pink coloring began pulsing rapidly, undermining Vestec's relatively calm tone as he tilted his head to look up at her. "Enjoying yourself?"

"Why shouldn't I be? I enjoy a lot of things, experimenting is one of them." She pushed herself up and off Vestec, doing a few spins mid air until she floated down to eye-level with Vestec, belly facing up toward the sky and head upside down. "So yes, I'm enjoying myself--Besides, it's amusing seeing you so pink!" She giggled and briefly put her hand on his featureless face.

Vestec's pink color only pulsed faster as she put a hand on his face, damnably ruining what little chance he had at appearing calm. "Well..." He managed to get out after a moment. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Perhaps I should go from the god of Chaos to the God of jokes and joy, seeing as we've apparently discovered a hidden talent of mine."

"God of Jokes?" Astarte raised an eyebrow and shook her head, "I've never heard you tell a joke, Vestec. Now, God of Change..." She entertained the thought for a moment, putting a finger up to her lips, before shrugging. 

Vestec shook his head, his pink coloring growing dimmer and pulsing less as the conversation moved on to something safer. "To be a God of change you have to hae some redeeming, peaceable, characteristics. I clearly have none, being the violent God of Chaos that I am. Chaos is inherently violent, and considered by some evil." He shrugged. "I am what I am, and changing that is unlikely to happen."

"Oh, well," She grabbed a lock of her hair and bit on it lightly, keeping it locked in place with her lips. She lowered herself to the ground and flicked Vestec on the forehead, "then what are you waiting for? Can you not change other Gods with your domain over chaos?"

If Vestec eyes, he would have blinked in surprise. As it was, he simply stared at Astarte, before answering slowly. "If they somehow got my essence inside of them, then yes. The God in question would be changed by the Chaos. What are you suggesting?" He knew very well what she was suggesting, but simply needed confirmation. 

"Uh, I don't know. How do you even get your essence inside another God?" She scrunched up her nose in repulsion and perked up in interest.

Vestec paused for a moment, thinking. "I have an idea." His mask shifted into a human face, except his eyes were a solid, pulsing, pink color. Before Astarte could say anything he leaned over and gave her a kiss, a bit of his essence traveling between them. After a few moments he broke away and he was back to his normal look, mask pulsing rapidly in a pink color. "Now we wait."

Astarte froze, the sudden movement a shock. It didn't feel bad, but she was too afraid to really savor the moment. "W-... What was that? What did you do?" She asked, eyes darting all over herself and feeling up her face and mouth with her hand, looking for any change or wound. She found none.

She looked at the humans gathered nearby, who were now staring right at them both. Astarte shrinked for a moment under the unwelcome attention and turned towards Vestec. Her face steadily erupted into a furious anger. "HOW DAR-" She interrupted herself, "Huh..?" She muttered, frowning as she once more massaged her lips. 

"They tickle..."

Vestec chuckled gently. "I gave you a bit of my Chaos Essence. There shouldn't be any physical changes, but you should be changed in your essence." He ignored the staring of the humans, watching Astarte. She appeared to dislike the sudden attention, and rounded on him, anger clear in every movement she made. As she started screaming, Vestec waited patiently. She interrupted herself, muttering as she massaged her mouth. 

Vestec was watching her essence, and noticed a change. It wasn't major. There was more of a...experimental inclination in her essence. A creativity. "Tickling isn't necessarily a bad thing is it? And it worked. You're more, hmm, experimentally inclined. You seem to have taken the best of the essence and cast aside the rest of it."

"Oh, interesting," She said and looked at her hands, then back up at Vestec, "I don't feel any different, but uh..." 

"Is there any way to do that thing you did without exchanging essence?"

Vestec's pulsing color sped up again. "Yes. The essence exchange was something I added." 

"Hmm," Astarte went up to Vestec's side, pressing her side against his as she crossed her arms over her chest, "I'll keep that in mind." She pulled away and clapped her hands, sending the humans back to their lands.

"That was very fun." She smiled and tucked a stray bang of her hair behind her ear.

Vestec's pulsing slowed down in disappointment, but he couldn't help a chuckle as she pulled away and sent the humans back to where he had gathered them. As she smiled, his pink color grew a bit brighter in response, and he bowed. "It was. Anytime you need me again, it would be my pleasure."

"Sure, I'll remember to call the God of Change if I need anything." She giggled and playfully punched his shoulder. "Bye!" She left with a small whirlwind of sand and dirt.

[hider=Astarte's Might Summary]Might=2 remaining
1 spent on teaching humans speech, emotions, society, ambition and self-awareness.
1 spent on unlocking humanity's magic potential (haven't taught them anything of magic itself yet, though.)[/hider]