[centre][img]http://i.imgur.com/vbnnTUq.png[/img] [colour=ec008c][i]The Muse. Weaver of Dreams. Beauty (Stories, Colors, Aesthetic)[/i] Might: 13 Free Point: 2[/colour] [hider=In which Capybara realizes it shouldn't even try to be 10% as peculiar as Termite.] -Chroma kinda breaks her dream and Ilunabar has to send her to Julia -Piena and Ilunabar get salty at Sin -Notte tries to babysit Chroma, gets spooked -Piena and Ilunabar gather the Quara Korala to create the Grand Parade (-1 might. Cult) It's kinda fun how I set up a lot of stuff but never do anything [/hider] [/centre] The Raka was a dimension with very few universal rules, chaos goes down, law goes up, dreams are born in chaos. However, just because a rule is simple, it does not mean it should be broken. Ilunabar had prepared a dream of logic to nest a change eater, where even the Jvanic was somewhat the law, the problem, however, is that this didn't change the chaotic nature of Chroma. And slowly, the dream sank from the heights of the Arpeggio, going directly against the flow of dreams, and clashing with a few other unlucky dreams on the way. When Ilunabar went back to said dream, she expected it to have completely gone off rails, but overall, the little town of Iridia seemed to be the same, in the odd mix of uncanny and peaceful. Somehow all the battles that had taken place between Chroma and "invaders" were somehow hidden. "How odd, it's as if this whole dream is conspiring in the favor of her delusion, even when it's not something I scripted." Somewhere near, another incursion of a foreigner dream had taken place, however after Chroma's response to it, most of the beings had already been turned into bits and pieces on the ground or mush on the walls. The one left was running away as fast as he could, but alas... "Do you think you can escape from Justice? I will have to teach you a lesson." Chroma extended her hands towards the enemy. "Final Beam." Suddenly what looked like very sharp finger bones were launched out of her hand, piercing the dream creature's body. "Uh, what was that?" asked Ilunabar "It surely wasn't a beam." "It was my machine gun... Wait" Chroma jumped away from her position and turned around to see the goddess. "Wow. What an ugly creature." "Ugly?" What an odd behavior. Ilunabar had been very experimental with this little project, but there should certainly be a limit to such delusions, she was the very concept of aesthetic, how could... "Here I go." Chroma bounced against a wall and tried to hit a punch against Ilunabar, for her surprise, though, the goddess didn't even move an inch away "Please stop." was all Ilunabar said. "Oh, I get this." She eased from her aggressive stance "This must be about learning to not judge a book by the cover. You might be all odd and not see-through, but you must be a nice person inside." And of course, by learning to accept the differences, she would be rewarded with a power up. "Huh?" The change-eater, if she could still be called that after all the time in the Raka, was moving a bit too fast for her to fully understand. "Don't worry though. We can be friends." As the heroine finished her phrase, the sound of approaching persons could be heard from outside the warehouse. "Ah, the cops, they must be here to send the villains to prison, quick let's leave before we are seen." "To prison?" Ilunabar looked at the mutilated corpses around her, surely nothing that could be arrested. "Just come with me." giving up on understanding what transpired in this fever dream, Ilunabar just decided to take Chroma and teleport away, not only away from the dream but out of Raka. "What?" Chroma looked around to see she was now in some sort of forest just like the ones from her home, but the whole atmosphere was different, oddly blue and full of sprinkles. "Where am I". With the dream clear of mortal presence, it was far easier for Ilunabar to understand what transpired there while she was away, and while most of the changes were hard to decipher, the overall idea was easier to understand. "Listen, this is, uh, The Clashing World." "The Clashing World?" "See, you did notice that the number of attacks against your hometown was increasing right?" "Yes..." "That happened because your universe was literally being destroyed." "What?" "Yes, it's a thing, that is surely happening. But you can change it, by, uh, doing stuff, in this world, in specific." "Ah?" "See, if you do your heroic acts here. It will heal your world. Until then, you can't return. Sorry." "Oh, that is bad." The odd woman's delivery was a bit lackluster, and Chroma was genuinely worried about the odd change of scenario and overall plot arc, usually comics only did that when they were selling poorly. No, she should not be pessimistic, that just meant she needed to act twice as cool "But I can get over it. I will go wherever people need me, that is what a hero do." "Good for you." Ilunabar was suddenly distracted, there was definitely something going amiss going on, but only now she had noticed it. On the other side, leaving this already messy project alone would be a mistake, she would need to call in a Diva or something. "There is an emergency, I will call in a friend. Please don't do anything regrettable." "Fine. I will just wait." Chroma sat on the ground "No worry." All she hoped for is that the friend would bring her the power up. [hr] "This is a perversion of everything you and my sisters have been doing" thundered Piena. "We should just turn the whole city back in flatland" now she was whispering. "Oh please, don't say such foolish, destructive things." Ilunabar sighed "That is not how we must act. The easy, struggle-less way is not only full of traps but is ultimately the path to lethargy. We could send soldiers, we could make people disgusted at the town, or mad, we could even fill the place with illusions. But it would be useless, you can't physically kill a concept." The rise of Sin didn't please the Muse at all. The first sign of such behavior had been Lifprasil, but with the emperor of emotions she had the time to act, to make sure she knew his path, and to tell him to stay away from depraved acts against the freedom of mortal's ambition. But under the rug another spawn of Vestec came in, claiming things it should not claim, in some odd of possessiveness that was ironically ingrained in the core of most chaos spawns. "So you propose we just stand idle to this debauchery? To let the despot leech the mind of the everyman? To let him usurp the fruits of the ambitious minds we have been nurturing?" "Huh, I don't remember such outrage when Lifprasil was the topic" Ilunabar tilted her head. She still remembered very well how her Divas flocked to the other emperor, and while she had yet to tell Meimu or Notte about Amartía, it was curious to see Piena's disgust. "You misjudge me. It's different. The way Sin works is different. Look at Susa or Alure, for example, Amartía would have just made puppets out of them by using their noble ambition for new horizons and beauty." Ilunabar narrowed her eyes, the girl was quite away from the truth, but close enough to understand the problem. "Sure. If those are your reasons. Either way, we can't be counterproductive, I do not want to fight Amartía with swords. We need to do two things. Promote our culture, and counter his culture." Piena didn't buy those words. "You think only making counter-culture is enough?" "Oh no, my little bird, you are missing my point. See, I will go beyond creating mere barriers for the notion of sin, I will promote it. If one can eat sin, one can choke on it." [hr] Notte regretted not having accepted to go look after Teknall's daughter back when she had a chance. Surely taking care of demi-gods would be easier than of a Jvanic being. "So, how is it going?" asked Chroma, still sitting on the ground, like she had done for the last few hours. "Uh... It is fine..." Notte answered, looking away, trying to notice if Ilunabar was moving back or anything. "That is good to hear." ... ... "Uh..." Notte looked at the heroine, she could see how Ilunabar had tried to create a relatable heroine and all, but something had gone very amiss. "Yes?" Chroma tilted her head. "Nothing." ... ... "Are you..." "Huh?" "Are you hungry? What do you eat?" "Oh! I don't know what you dry, opaque people eat normally. But I eat like, fruit, meat, cereals, sweets, bread, veggies, cheese, ..." "Ok, I got it." That was very odd for a change-eater. But if she said so... "One of those would be good right now. It has been a while since I ate." "Fine." She quickly moved to a nearby tree and grabbed some odd fruits typical of Julia Island. "Are these enough?" "Wow. You are fast. Thanks for the meal." however, as soon as she nibbles the fruit, she feels unwell and spits it out "Yuck, this tastes terrible." "Seriously? Try the others." But no matter how many different fruits she ate, they all tasted terrible. "I knew it." Of course, change eaters didn't eat this kind of thing. She probably ate elemental force back in the dream, except it was probably disguised or something. "Here, try this" Notte gave the girl a jar with a very small water elemental trapped inside. "Water? Thanks. It should take the bad taste away... Blargh. What is this? Why is it moving." "Che. This is very odd." "I expected a power up, not to be poisoned up!" complained Chroma "Ugh. I miss Iridia. This Clashing World thing is not good at all." It was a bit hard to understand when a being like her was sad, but Notte surely understood she was right now. "Sorry. It was not my intention. I just don't know what to do." she approached the heroine and touched her shoulder. "Hey, you smell kinda nice." In a blink, Notte had moved from the girl's side to the opposite side of the grove. "Fermala." Oh, how she envied Meimu, probably having all sorts of fun with Teknall and the girls. "What? You looked scared. Is there something nearby?" in reaction to the perceived danger, Chroma placed a hand near one of her ribs, creating some sort of long bone spear out of it. "Don't worry. If there is a monster, I can just blast it away." "Ah... haha... Nah." with a smile, Notte left the island as quick as she possibly could. She had never feared a Jvanic being before, not even the lady herself, but none of those ever said she smelled nice. "Ack, is this the kind of thing mortals have to deal with every day?" [hr] Spending an afternoon with the Quara was always a relaxing experience. In the simple tents among the rocks and mountains of eastern Shalanoir, the ever unfortunate descendants of the Furls had created a small society. It was an elegant community, which thanks to the surplus of food had the time to focus on art, especially monument building. Piena loved the boulder formations they made, and not only helped them with some marionettes but also paid them with jewelry whenever they finished. However, today was a different day. Piena had always protected the Quara Korala from the outside world, but times had changed, beauty was always in peril, and merely whispering in dreams was not enough. "I'm sorry for meddling with your little arcadia of peace, Piena." said Ilunabar "If you hadn't proposed it, I would have had a proposal of my own. I know it is for the best, I cannot keep them safe forever, one day, the ugly and wicked will arrive." But she surely would miss the day she knew them all by name. The power of cults serving the gods had been proven across Galbar, even the unofficial ones like the Chippers had tremendous power of change. Relying on dreams, as Ilunabar tested on the Phantasmagoria, could work on certain situation, but she needed more than just mortal imaginations on her side, she needed their minds, their friendship. It was with this mindset that Ilunabar proposed the creation of a group of minstrels under the direct control of the Diva of Aesthetic. Many artists were born thanks to dream whispers, but this new group's art and storytelling were meant to be beyond that. They would spread certain aesthetic and selected tales among the people while also recording the peculiarities of each community. And, sometimes, they would execute artistic endeavors like monument building. The Quara were chosen because of their own birth as a sentient race under the intervention of Piena. They were always day dreamers, far more connected with Raka than other species, they were the ones most ready to understand Ilunabar's objectives. Furthermore, their numbers were small, very small, and a good deal of their community would be members of this new group, the Grand Parade.