[center][h1]getting the gang back together[/h1][/center]

Xavior appreciated the time between meetings and other business even more these days. You had to, in his opinion, enjoy the little moments in life when you got them. 

For instance, he was spending some time with Monica today. Specifically, he and she were up on the roof of the temple in a lovely little overservation room from which you could watch the sky and the city go by. Down below the city hustle and bustle, and in the garden people strolled, studied, tended to the plants or practiced bug decapitation together, while above the flocks of Tonnikala swam through the ocean of air. It was a common sight to the people of the 12th realm, but sometimes you just had to stop, look up, and be awed by the absurd beings.

Little swooping minnows flead their horse sized kin while indifferent to it all the titanic sky whales lazily drifted, filter feeding the skies.

Deck chairs were set up in the observation room with the specific intent to tilt the sitter’s view up so they could take it all in while they relaxed and let the stress of the day wash away.

“Ah, now this, this is one of those little things that makes it all worth it” Xavior, clad in light garb and wearing a pair of darkly tinted spectacles, sighed as he leaned back and sipped on a drink made from lemons, dates and blue fruit (which tasted incredibly sweet on its own but made for a nice mixer), within which some ice he had made floated, “don’t you agree sister”

[b][i]“I am afraid I cannot ascertain the value of such… that way of thinking does not come easily to me. However this sight brings me both joy and sorrow. Hmm… It is a world that is beautiful and grotesque in every aspect.”[/i][/b] Monica replied from where she was seated upon a large plush cushion, letting her wings extend and embrace the warmth emitted from the bright sun while she sipped from an ornate cup filled with another mixture of fruits and sweeteners. She held out a hand and summoned a set of scales with various weights for measuring. [b][i]“Worth it…”[/i][/b] She softly repeated, staring at the implement with an impassive gaze. 

“Xavior darling, you wouldn’t [i]believe[/i] what your steward just said to me,” Benea crowed as she walked into the observatory, her staff fizzling with kickback. Jermane followed quickly behind her, his hands still over his eyes and shaking his head clear of incessant ear-ringing. “Something about needing to tell you before she could admit me, can you believe it? …Dear?” Benea let go of her staff (Jermane catching it before it fell to the floor) and put her hands on her hips.

The god was covering his nose, having most certainly not had any incident involving surprise and fluid spraying from said nose. “Benea. What an unexpected surprise” he managed, noting to himself that he really should invent some kind of long range god detection system at this point “and I assure you she was only following…” the god, having now recovered from his shock, glanced first at the fizzling staff and then at the half dazzled paladin and asked “what did you do to her?” with a mix of exasperation and concern.

Benea opened her mouth to explain but her eyes fell on Monica so instead only a small squeak escaped. “Monica!?”

Monica arose from her seat and faced Benea with a demure smile. [b][i]“Benea… it has been a long time, beloved sister.”[/i][/b] She murmured while she averted her gaze and held herself as anxiety kept her still. The beating of her heart thundered in her chest, and she repeatedly glanced at the other goddess with melancholic longing shimmering in her silver eyes, her mouth occasionally moving as if to speak but nothing except for further silence left her lips.

A certain look overtook Benea’s face, curling a sudden smile and with one swift movement she held out her arms wide and demanded. “Come here.”

Monica momentarily contemplated the words before approaching with hesitation, stepping within reach of her sister and struggling to enact the embrace herself. Without warning, Benea’s arms closed in on Monica, pulling her right into Benea. The Calla Lily Goddess at first gave Monica a gentle squeeze. “I’ve missed you so much, dear.”

[b][i]“I have yearned to see you again as well.”[/i][/b] Monica mumbled, her quiet voice almost lost in the fabric Benea’s dress as she spoke still enveloped in the hug. Her arms tenderly wrapped around Benea as well, and all of the time they had been apart wherein fear plagued her mind with endless macabre thoughts seemed akin to a distant dream.

Benea’s embrace tightened and Monica could hear her clenching her jaw just a little as she further engulfed the winged goddess. “Um, Monica dear, why didn’t you respond to my little messages?” Her arms flexed. “I was very worried about you, darling.”

[b][i]“I have only recently received your messages… and I have yet to finish composing my response… Hmm… it seems strange to continue writing to you now that you are here. I apologize. I did not intend to cause you concern.”[/i][/b] Monica explained, muffled and barely audible by Benea’s chest. Her white wings folded and covered Benea as well separating them from the rest of the world with a curtain of pristine feathers.

Flexing even more and slightly lifting Monica off the ground, Benea continued, “next time, darling, please just tell me you’re alive [i]immediately[/i].” With a huff, she clapped Monica back onto the floor and pulled her at arms length to look past her and at Xavior. 

“And what was your excuse, sweet Xavior?”

“My messengers can never catch up with you” Xavior said, from where he was standing at the doorway next to the bespectacled steward who was still blinking the light out of her eyes, before insisting that “Now apologize for blinding Lissandra, because that was entirely uncalled for” 

“Oh no no!” Benea pulled Monica back in as if she were some sort of doll and started to pat the top of her head idly. “I will not apologize, and don’t you be changing the subject so quickly. I have only just reunited with my little sister as well as yourself, I will not let it be soured by Cassandra.” 

“By a who?” Xavior asked, this going over his head before he pointed out that “If you did not want to sour the mood you could have done without attacking someone for doing their job”

“No one was hurt, darling, I don’t think you can very well call it attacking — oh fine very well but just this once.” Benea let go of Monica and walked over to the recovering Lissandra, turning her head to look at Xavior. “And only because I’m in such a good mood.”

She put her fingers under Lissandra’s chin. “Cassandra dear, please look up at me.”

“Oh, no its fine um… wait that’s not my na-”

“Cassandra really, you already have Xavior in a fuss we misewell get this over with,” Benea’s voice was thin on patience.

The poor steward just swallowed and then accepted her fate. And her new name. Benea leaned down so the pair were eye to eye as she said. “I’m sorry, dear.” A whisper following. “But I do hope you’ve learned your lesson.” And with that, the smudge and blindness was taken from Lissandra’s eyes.

“All better!” Benea announced with a wide smile. “Isn’t that wonderful, Xavior dear?”

Xavior frowned at the speed at which Cassandra swiftly exited with a “yes ma’am, thank you ma’am” but with no mortal remaining to clear things up there was little but his suspicions to go on when it came to accusations.

So he sighed and said “Thank you for apologizing. Shall we start again?”

“Yes, of course.” Benea smiled and held out her arms. “You come here as well, dear.”

The god looked a little put off for a moment, then accepted his fate as well, stepping in to give Benea her mandatory hug. Benea gave Xavior a squeeze. “I did miss you as well, Xavior, especially these last few weeks. I hope you got notified about the node I shared with you as promised? See? I will never forget a promise, especially not to someone I hold so dear.” 

 The hug had yet to end.

“Yes? I have already put it to use in advancing technology once more… something, along with linking up with Monica, that took president over returning the gesture, which is why it took quite a while to occur” Xavior replied, getting very uncomfortable very quickly in the non-ending hug.
From Xavior’s position, all he could see was Benea’s growing smile. “Oh don’t worry about that dear. I’m alive and here, and that’s what counts.” Finally she let go. “Though there are some serious matters at hand, is there not?”

“Yes…” Xavior said as he stepped back, out of hugging range, before coughing and trying to regain a professional demeanor and asked “are you about to add more to the pile?” referencing a littoral pile of all the things currently going wrong that existed in his office.

Benea cocked her head back and forth as if jumbling a thought. “I know you recently spoke with sweet Tsunya so you likely already have a pile or two about the Anak’thas situation, but I’m afraid it is worse than I initially theorized.”

“Worse than war?” Xavior asked simply “or has it entered some kind of new level of tragedy?”

“At first I assumed he was simply mad, but from our last encounter I realize he has been diseased by the nodes. He isn’t completely gone, he refused to kill me — but I don’t know how to bring him back yet so I ordered his quarantine to node 14… but now I don’t know what to do.”

“Diseased?” Xavior asked, tilting his head and furrowing his brow thoughtfully.

“Yes,” for once, Benea seemed unsure of herself, and her eyes flickered to the chairs. “Perhaps we can all have a seat and discuss it, darling?”

“Oh of course of course,” Xaviro replied, a touch embarrassed to have not been the perfect host, before he led them over to one of the more standard sets of tables and chairs set up in the rooftop space. He waved a hand and the chairs pulled themselves out from under the table for their guests.

“Can I get you anything to drink? Tea, juice, wine, or so on?”  he asked Benea even as he went to collect his own half finished one and set it on the table.

Benea sat down and looked up at Xavior curiously. “What kind of juice do you have?” Looking past the god she spotted Monica still standing where Benea had released her. “Monica dear, please come sit with us.”

“If you like” Xavier added for her as he wandered over to what was basically a bar and found a bowl of fruits left up here for juice making purposes “As for juice there’s some apples, dates, a  coconut, grapes, blue and raspberries an… eggplant for some reason… oh and there’s a lemon or two left as well. I’m having those and some dates myself.” he explained after going over the fruits, all while preparing a glass with some divinely chilled water with added ice, into which he was already squeezing one of the bluefruits as a base for the drink.  Benea waved a hand as if saying ‘yes yes, that’ll do fine.’

Rather than seat herself at one of the chairs, Monica conjured another large cushion beside the table upon which she perched herself and continued enjoying her prior cup of juice while watching her two companions with a contemplative gaze. Benea gave the young goddess a pitying smile (in contrast to Xavior’s warm one) and tapped her hand before continuing.

“You see,” she started as she took a cup from Xavior (the other god finding a seat shortly after). “I believe Anak’thas may be infected with a disease that hides in the nodes.”

“Hides in the nodes?”

“Yes, remember when we all first met I mentioned the need for a strong will? I’m concerned that Anak’thas has been interacting with the nodes too freely and didn’t have a strong enough will, allowing the infection to seep into him. It’s contagious, too.” Benea started rambling, a worried look in her eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it, but it corrupts the god, takes them away from peace or even contentment. They want more, they need more, and anything that gets in their way is forfeit. Interacting with such a diseased god will only shift your own emotions, potentially spiraling you down your own destruction. Everything was perfectly in line, it only took one crack to shift the balance and — damnit.” 

Benea sat back in her chair, her look of paranoia turned to one of frustration. “Damn it all.” It was unusual for her to be so expressive, even Jermane stared on with bewilderment. 

“I…” Xavior was equally shocked by this sudden breakdown “We can work through this, I’m sure” he tried, before asking “could you clarify how you know this is a… on the diseased nature of this issue. Who else has been infected by it, how does it transmit? Anything and everything you can tell us would help”

Benea held out a palm and from it five orbs spun out, each of them a bright cyan. Slowly they all began to spin in the same direction, orbiting over her palm in a perfect circle. “So long as they all go the same way, the circle will remain — but if one gets an inkling of something different…” One of the balls stopped, causing all the other balls to crash into it. “It disrupts the original design. It’s no longer orderly. One becoming diseased can interrupt a healthy individual. The Crucible will look for these cracks and the more we are exposed to these cracks, the more our own will form. If no one is without doubts, without worries, without greed and without regrets and the like by time the triggering event unfolds, then who is to say what our will shall manifest as. It is a disease, dear. It should be cured before the other gods begin to break the orderly way. We all have to move in the same direction.”

Xavior furrowed his brow, fingers tapping on the table as he considered this, not liking some of the vagueness found within it. “Then we should, perhaps, define exactly what the orderly way is with specifics rather than.. Inclination,” he eventually suggested, “Order requires rules. Laws. Structure. If we cement those in writing instead of them being a more nebulous idea, then we have a solid foundation from which it will be harder to be swayed by this…  infectious idea that has caused Anak'thas to strife with you.”

“No,” Benea frowned, clearly frustrated. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” Not even a dear or darling. She stood up and let out a puff of air. “I think I might be… stressed, Xavior. Perhaps I should retire for now.”

As she looked down at the god, a flake of snow landed on the tip of her nose. Slowly her eyes looked up, the sky empty of Tonnikala. Benea froze.

“Then how is it supposed too-” Xavior began to retort frustratedly, only to stop at the sight of Benea’s sudden panicked face. Looking up after her, he saw through the empty sky. Small brushes of snow were falling and above even where a cloud would be, in the distance,  hovered a figure silhouette by the sun.

[b][i]“Motion in a singular direction does not equate to necessity in this scenario…”[/i][/b] Monica murmured to herself as she adjusted her position as well, adopting a serene stance as she gazed skyward and tilted her head with curiosity. [b][i]“A familiar face in an unexpected place has graced us, it seems.”[/i][/b] She said with a hint of bemusement in her quiet voice.

The god stood just as quickly when he saw what she was looking at, and then took off his sunglasses to try and see the figure more clearly, before shouting up to the distant figure “Who are you!”  

The figure was too far away, too far away to be heard and too far wreathed in the shadow of the sun to be seen, but even still, Benea’s eyes were like saucers and the others could feel a sharp smile beaming down from the distance. Straining, a laugh could almost be heard in the wind and then all at once, the figure disappeared.

The snow stopped.

“I need to go lay down,” Benea murmured. 

[hider=summary]

Xavior is kicking back and enjoying a nice drink while watching the sky fish while the world burns around him. Monica is there but she is having a dumb dumb moment sipping her dumb dumb juice while Xavior is relaxing. Anyway, Benea comes crashing in — having flashbanged the steward keeping the peace — and acts like she never left. She then is surprised to see Monica and squeezes the shit out of her. Xavior is concerned about his steward but then gets the shit squeezed out of him. 

Free from her hugs, they all sit down and discuss the disease Anak’thas has contracted before Benea starts to have a stress breakdown which is then made worse when GARRAVAR shows up just to laugh at the three and then leave. Benea figures it is nap time.


[/hider]

[hider=mp]
3 / 9 mp, 1 used to give Benea access to node 12
Benea has 3 might, none used

Monica did not expend any Might.[/hider]