[b]Death of a Selka[/b] Lekika and a small group from her tribe had traveled north, past the Kangjiang river, for a place free from the petty squabbling of their overcrowded home. They’d laughed at the warnings, old tales about giant lizards, but as she lay there, slumped against a tree with her blood rapidly pooling around her, she couldn’t remember what had been so funny. The creatures that had ripped through the migrant party. Now monsters that walked on two legs and who where about 4 times the size of a Selka despite being about the same height, where in the process of devouring the corpses of her friends and family. High above them circled bright colorful birds circled like inappropriately festive vultures. They had tried to run for the safety of the sea, but the monsters caught them. Some had tried to fight, and had died where they stood. She’d tried to save her husband from the jaws of a beast as it shook him to pieces and been smashed into a tree for her trouble. The impact had broken something inside her. Her strength was gone, and now the light in her was fading. As she slipped over the precipice down into oblivion she wondered what the point of it all had been. [hr] Lekika’s soul was pushed out of her body and from the painless bliss of death by an unseen force. She had a few brief moments where she could see her own body being devoured by an Alioramus before the pull of the vortex took hold, pulling the bewildered Selka upwards and westwards. As the ground fell away from her Lekika, understandably, panicked. As if drawn to her screaming and flailing form one of the Alma separated from the circling flock and chased after her till it was flying parallel with her. The opposing tug it generated wordlessly offered a choice, to grasp hold of the lifering she had been thrown, or to continue to be swept along by the current. Part of her knew where that current would end, in the fires these very same birds had shown her tribe several years ago, but most of her simply grasped at blindly for something, anything, that would end this utterly alien experience. The connection was made, a pact sealed and then everything went dark. [hr] It felt like a dream [color=lightblue]“Tell me a little bit about who you were.”[/color] asked a voice in her mind “I’m Lekika. I was a healer for our tribe, a good fisher-women and soon I’m going to… I was going to be a mother. I died trying to save my husband from a monster.” [color=lightblue]“I see. Would you like to help me with something Lekika?”[/color] With the memory of her failure to help crystallized in her mind she responded “However I can.” The voice explained what it wanted and then everything went dark. [hr] [color=lightblue]“Ah, your awake. Excellent!”[/color] Lekika’s consciousness was abruptly returned as she surfaced from a dreamless sleep and found herself standing in an unfamiliar place. Everything felt wrong. She was cold. So cold. Her vision was wrong, to high above the ground, and her eyes where to close together. It took her several more moments to realize she could not see her nose. She brought her hands up, but they weren't her hands. She stumbled back in shock and thrust the offending limbs away from herself and ended up looking down. There were so many things wrong down there. Some kind of stone or metal or cartilage had replaced flesh and it wasn't even in the right shape. To lanky, utterly sexless and covered with odd ridges and spurs. Her feet had no toes. Hands grasped her face and found it a blank featureless mask. She had no mouth, but she screamed anyway. [color=lightblue]“Oh no no no no.”[/color] said the voice with concern. Moments later she found herself pressed against soft glowing feathers by a warm embrace. [color=lightblue]“Shshshshshsh. Its ok. It’s going to be ok.”[/color] she was assured by a voice she recognized form the Alma’s broadcast. Even though she had no lungs, eventually Lekika got tired of screaming. It wasn’t actually helping anyway. Neither did the sobbing. Without a body’s natural coping mechanism she had to learn how to get a hold of herself on her own. It wasn't entirely clear how long she spent coddled in the birds embrace, but Azura gave her all the time she needed. Eventually she half stepped, half stumbled back and away from the goddess and got to see her in full. The humongous parrot was both beautiful, terrifying and slightly ridiculous to behold in person as it loomed over her. [color=lightblue]“Are you alright?”[/color] she asked. “no. no I’m not” she answered. The shock was gone but the sense of wrongness remained, even if it was down to a lower level of existential horror and uncomfortableness. She was so cold. “My body…It’s not… I can’t… What am I? Where am I?” she tried, “and where are my breasts!?” The great bird blinked in surprise [color=lightblue]“Oh dear. I thought I explained?”[/color] she said. Then, seemingly sensing Lekika’s bewilderment, added. [color=lightblue]“I had one of the Alma bring some of the recently dead here and asked them if they would help me. You said you would, don’t you remember?”[/color] “No. no I died... and then woke up here,” she said, scouring her memory for this conversation yet finding no recollection of it. The great bird cocked her head in response to this and said [color=lightblue]“Curious. Perhaps there was a flaw with that method of communing with the dead? Hmmm. I’ll explain again then. After you died your soul was crystallized by an Alma, after which it was brought to the north pole, which is a secluded space at the very top of the world. You should have gone down into the vault with the others, but I’ve had an idea that I’ve been working on for some time for how to have people live after they are dead. I asked you if you’d want to help test it. You said yes.”[/color] [color=lightblue]“I have taken your soul crystal and plugged it into an Armonia, which is a simple minded creature made out of air and song made physical that can be commanded to perform tasks. The one you are in’s task is to be your new body.”[/color] Azura then explained [color=lightblue]“And its working better than I could have hoped. You’re articulate, the limbs seem to be obeying you fairly well… you did scream quite a bit at first but you seem to be feeling better now right?”[/color] “I…” she was so cold “I’d prefer it if it were more… me?” she tried to explain “why can’t you just put me back in my body. Or make a new one?” [color=lightblue]“True resurrection is, at the moment, very difficult. I could, but it would be extremely taxing and as a result I’d never be able to bring back everyone even with all the time in the world. I can’t put your soul crystal in control of a new body because if I made one it would form its own soul. Its own Selka soul. Which you would need to replace or, bleh, dominate, in order to control the body. I don’t think I need to explain why that would be terrible. Does it feel bad to be in this kind of body/”[/color] “The body… its numb. But it’s also the wrong…” she tried to explain, hands fidgeting as she failed to find the words “shape?” [color=lightblue]“Like wearing clothes that don't fit”[/color] Azura suggested. “Kind of. I think it would feel a bit better if it looked how I wanted it to look?” she tried before hurriedly adding “I’m sorry, I don't mean to say you made it look bad it’s… it’s just not me” [color=lightblue]“I’m not offended”[/color] she sounded a little offended as she said it, just not angrily so, before returning to a more understanding tone [color=lightblue]“Do you think if you designed it it would suit better?”[/color] “Maybe? But how would I do that? I’m not even sure how to describe what it should look like. More Selka and more me I guess?” Lekika respond [color=lightblue]“Hmmm. I think I know how to do this. Armonia where made so mortals could create them after all. But you’ll need power, and musical accompaniment and a way to shape it exactly how you like around yourself and...”[/color] the bird trailed off into thoughtful muttering before moving away from Lekika and beginning to spin strange tools and instruments from thin air. “I uh” Lekika begin before Azrua explained [color=lightblue]“oh. Sorry. I’m going to make a magical monument that will let you make your body just the way you want it. But this may take a while. Feel free to explore the sky bastion while I work, or ask any questions you like and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.”[/color] [hr] After a few minutes of questioning Lekika had discovered that Azrua was not the best conversation partner while she was working, and so had wandered out into the halls. It was a strange experience, walking though perfectly square caves lit by a directionless light in her alien body. She kept misjudging how long her legs where, causing her to stumble every few steps. Eventually she found an exit, a massive cave that ended with a pair of open doors large as hills. She had to walk up to the doors and stick her hand out before she could believe that she wasn’t underwater, because outside myriads of sea life could be seen, swimming though the skies as if it were the ocean. “What is this?” she asked. “It’s the Blue” said a voice Lekika was startled, having not expected to be answered, and then fell over herself in fear when she saw what had spoken. A killer whale, one of the Selka’s main predators, floated up into view only a few meters away from her. “Please don't eat me” she cried. In response the orca performed a slow spin, as if it had cocked its head and then kept going by accident, before responding “Why would I? God bird’s stone things don't taste good and greatest whale Luis gets mad when we try.” the orca completed its role before coming to a realization “oh! I should show you to Luis. I’ve never seen a stone thing that talked before. hmmm. But luis does not like us biting stone things… I know. I carry you, like luis carry Bruna!” Before Lekika could say anything the orca had swum up to the side of the door “hop on.” It instructed. “I really shouldn't. Azura wouldn't want me wandering off” she retorted. “Luis and Azura are same pod. Will be fine.” the whale explained impatiently. Somewhat worried that it would drag her along either way Lekika gingerly boarded her natural predator. Then sat down with her back to its fin while her hands tried to grip its smooth skin. “Ok. but make sure I don’t fall! “Ok ok. Here we go!” the orca responded, before heading out. Fortunately it seemed to grasp that it needed to be gentle and so the ride was relatively smooth. “I’ve never met a whale that could talk before. How can you speak Selka?” she asked it. “Selka? What is Selka? We talk with the Verse, like all things made by Azura” it explained. “I wasn't made by Azura. Selka where made by Father Kirrion… oh. Its the body. The body was made by her. huh.” she said, figuring it out on her own. An uncomfortable realization, but a useful one. The rest of their journey was a rather relaxing affair. She traded rather simplistic small talk with the sea creature and watched the shoals of Tonnikala swish to and fro in the skies around her. Their destination was hard to miss, an absolutely titanic whale swam lazily through the Blue, accompanied by a pod of smaller whales of many different species. Once they were close enough the orca called out “Hay. Hay Luis. look what I found. A talking rock thing!” Lekika waved and shouted “hello” at the great whale, who turned to face them both. Her captor/mount swam up in front of the whale, who then spoke to the orca. [color=RoyalBlue]”What an interesting find you have there Matías, I hope you did not seal them away.[/color] Luis said “What? Noooo. I asked her to come. Right?” Lekika shook her palm from side to signal “kind of.” she realized afterwards that this was a stuid way of communicating with a bing with no hands, but Luis seemed to get it regardless as he let out a disappointed sigh directed at the Ocrca, who was apparently named Matías, before addressing her. [color=RoyalBlue]”Hello there. Who might you be, and where did you get stolen away from?”[/color] he asked. “I’m Lekika. A migrant from the Mokala tribe. Or was. I died and then... uh” Lekika’s mind suddenly ran into a roadblock. She couldn't remember what happened after she died but before she left the sky bastion. “Well I uh. Died and then… I was in that big floating cave thing and this killer whale came and startled me and took me to you… but before that I was. I was.” Lekika’s speech became more and more erratic as she tried and failed to remember. “There was Azura and she. She was doing something? We spoke. Maybe we spoke?. I can't. Why can't I?” Lekika gripped her head with alien hands she no longer knew how she acquired “Why can’t I remember?!” [color=RoyalBlue]”Matías, drop her on my back, we’re taking her home!”[/color] the whale ordered. As the smaller whale moved to comply Luis assured her that. [color=RoyalBlue]”I’m going to get you help. Its ok. It’s going to be ok.”[/color] Lekika didn't even suffer deja vu at being comforted like this again. [hr] Some time later a colorful mass of feathers landed in front of Lekika. She was sitting on the back of Luis, knees pulled in against her chest in a fetal position. She had spent the return journey trying to hold on to her oldest memories only for them to keep slipping away from her grasp. Soon she’d forget the moment where she realized it was happening, and then what? [color=lightblue]“Do you know who I am?”[/color] asked the large parrot “Your Azura. From the bird vision” she said, her voice dull and hopeless. [color=lightblue]“oh dear, oh dear.”[/color] Azura muttered [color=lightblue]“I’m going to need to look in your mind to see what is going on. Is that ok Lekika?”[/color] she asked. Lekika simply nodded. She felt nothing as the goddess did whatever she was doing. She’d almost forgotten agreeing to the mind reading when Azura spoke up again. [color=lightblue]“I’m so very sorry, but I’ve made a bit of an oversight in this design. Because soul crystals are usually static, they can't create new memories easily. I knew this was a problem, but I didn't realize just how bad it was. you seemed to be doing fine while we where together after all. The issue is your crystallized mind have no natural short term memory whatsoever. However the Armonia has been filling in for that role, but unfortunately it has a very small memory capacity, which is why you keep dropping memories as quickly as you are. I can make that longer in the next version, but that doesn’t solve long term memory.”[/color] Azura sat down before the sad dead Selka and told her [color=lightblue]“I need you to relax, get your head out of your knees, close your eyes and to focus your mind on what I just said and what I am saying just now. Turn it over and over in your mind. If you do this you can force the crystal of your soul to grow, adding it to long term memory the same way your body used to do on its own.”[/color] Lekika did as she was instructed. She crossed her legs and tried to repeat the memory over and over instead of clinging to the last one, till the entirety of her short term memory was filled with the explanation of why she was forgetting and how to remember. Eventually Azura spoke startling Lekika. [color=lightblue]“Now stop.”[/color] She did, and opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings and the presence of the goddess from the bird vision. [color=lightblue]“Now we wait and see if the memory sticks. Try and not think about it until I ask.”[/color] she said, [color=lightblue]“Til then I imagine you have a lot of questions?”[/color] Lekika did, though she’d probably asked them before. She asked and Azura answered, while the goddess periodically checking that the memory had stuck. The process was exhausting as she tried to speak with the bird and ignore that her memories were slipping away. Eventually, after goddess only knows how long, Azura concluded that it had stuck. [color=lightblue]“Well that's one problem solved. Now I just need to finish the machine that will make you a body exactly how you want it and with more memory this time.”[/color] “Exactly how I want it?” Lekika asked “That would be good. This one, it doesn't fit right” [color=lightblue]“You said as much the.. Ah. never mind.”[/color] Azura responded [color=lightblue]“It might be quite some time until I have a new body ready for you. Do you think you can hold out till then?”[/color] “I.. no. no I can’t keep going like this. I can't live a life of forgetting and remembering. Even if you make my next body better what’s the point. I’m so cold and numb in here. It’s not a life worth living for the sake of living” she said, sorifuly. “I miss my tribe and my husband. But I don't want them to live like this either. You have them right? I want to go to where they are, because what's the point of living if it’s not begin happy with them?” [color=lightblue]“But if you stay awake you can help people. Help the living! I have this idea for a...”[/color] Lekika shook her head “the only people I cared about are dead now. I want to be with them” Azura sighted. [color=lightblue]“Ok then”[/color] There was a feeling of pressure where her heart was supposed to be, and then everything went dark. [hr] Azura examined the soul crystal of Lekika as she floated in front of her. Her second body lay on its back before her, its chest cavity torn open from where she had ripped the Selka woman’s soul out of it. [color=lightblue]“of course it couldn't be that easy.”[/color] she said, before handing the soul over to an Alma to be sent down into the depths. Lekika would get to be with her friends and family, even if she would never know it. [color=RoyalBlue]”This thing you’ve been working on is a dead end then?”[/color] Luis asked. [color=lightblue]“No. Not quite. We just need to recruit people who have everything left to live for.”[/color] Azura said. [hider=summary] We follow the afterlife of Lekika, a Selka who was killed while trying to migrate through the hoodlands. She agrees to take art in an experiment and then awakens with no memory of doing so in a strange stone body that does not suit her one bit and makes her feel dysphoric. She speaks with azura, who explains that she has inserted her soul crystal into an armonia as an alternative to resurrection. Lekika explains that the body is both cold and does not suit her to such a degree that it makes her feel like shit. Azura starts work on a system to make bodies that suit their hosts and Lekika goes off exploring. She finds the outside, gets kidnapped by an orca and taken to Luis. while speaking with him she realises she can't remember how she got the body she is in. Luis takes the freaking out lekika back to azura who works out that she can’t passively create long term memories, but must actively force herself to remember things. Also the Armonia’s memory is way to small for its people as acting as Lekika’s short term memory. She teaches Lekika how to remember and promises lekika that the next boy will have better short term memory but Lekika is sick of this and wants to go be with her people because she has nothing worth living for if it means putting up with being cold and having a weird memory situation. Azura rips out her soul and sends it back to the vault. She then concludes that if she wants to recruit dead mortals to her cause, she needs ones that have unfinished business. [/hider] [hider=mp] Start: 8 fp 4 mp 3 fp enhanced by soul crystal spent on a monument that can make custom Armonia bodies for soul crystals. Technically in the process of being built during the post but I’m paying for it now to justify not paying for Lekika’s temporary unlife. End 5 fp 4 mp Portfolio progress: Birds (9/10) Bards (2/10) Necromancy? Resurrection? (3/10) [/hider]