[b]Bread and Games[/b]

Asheel’s great desert rescue had brought untold mortals to the banks of the great river circling the globe, delivering them from desert starvation and to a promised land full of verdant bounty. Yet by doing so she had delivered them from one crisis to another, this one simply slower, for though the riverside was fertile and had been booming with life, many hungry mouths had begun to strip it dry of edibles, and given little back in return.

The goddess had gotten somewhat ahead of this problem, first having her giant rolly polly woodlice transporters prioritize producing clutches of infertile eggs for the mortals (after it became clear there were none still left in the desert to save), but soon enough they had ripped through much of their own food supply as well. So she had them mate, lay fertile eggs in hidden or protected places, and then let their lives end so that their flesh would feed the people.

That, again, bought only so much time, but hope had come on golden petals. The Daffotales, mostly an amusing novelty at first, proved themselves to be quite the information distribution network. Stories of copper forging city states, and furrow plowing pigfolk came from the waters end, while stories of democratic organization came from their source. These stories where one of the reasons why, while much of the embankments had been reduced to stripped mud, golden patches still bloomed where eager ears still listened. 

Facing their end, the peoples of the riverlands had banded together, and put flower sourced knowledge to work. Orange and blue stones that could be found on the surface were melted down and forged into tools. With these tools, many carved little boats out of trees, or wove them from reeds, using them to seek lands beyond their own, only to find those lands where much the same state, except for those at the river’s end, into which many flooded.

Others continued their desert-learned cannibalism, now armed with weapons and cohesion, though the naturally armed full bloods still reigned supreme in that department.

These would not bring true salvation however, and instead it was the ones who had been inspired by a tale of a great horned god and his mighty implement who would change their world for the better. With crude mimicries of the legendary hoebreaker they struck not out or each other, but the earth itself, carving furrows and scavenging what seeds they could for planting. In mimicking the great god they unintentionally attracted the attention of his creations, who, it was true, brought both more mouths to feed, but they also brought unfiltered, first hand knowledge of the ways of farming. They where then further bolstered when Asheel took their knowledge of what plants made for the best crops, and produced several new ones that followed the specifications, designed to grow in the warm wet environment of the great riverbanks

With faith, fresh foliage and new friends, the riverland farmers were rewarded with the sight of rows of fresh shoots sprouting from their fields.

Life, now nurtured, once again bloomed once more along the banks of the twin rivers, but it was not enough. Water, ironically, was the biggest issue, for over it they had little control. It surged, it receded, it made the ground too wet, or was lacking further from the banks where they were free from its whims. They had ideas, of course, but unfortunately here the Daffotales where a bane, not a boon, as they told the tale of ones who had dared try and control the water, and been cursed for their hubris.

Even with encouragement from a goddess, the peoples of the river feared for their bladders, and refused to divert the water's flow. 

And so Asheel set out to confront the god who had made the rivers, to put those fears to rest, one way or the other. And as she searched the winding world river, she eventually came across an unusual scene. 

Along the riparian Bank of one particular bend in the mighty river, a small gnomish god sat on a wicker chair, eyes closed and a happy snore erupting from his beard. Daffotales danced by the chair, quiet yet gossipy. Funnily, large cartoonist Z's floated up from the sleeping god, punctuating his personality. 

Asheel slowed her roll upon seeing this and started muttering to herself about if this was who they were looking for or not, before the Breaker snapped, dismounted her wicked transport and approached the dozing figure. The Maiden swapped in briefly to try waking him with a “hi hello!”, then the Maintainer with a polite cough, only for the Breaker to be back incharge, and to opt for forming and then roundhouse kicking a massive bronze gong right next to the sleeping god.

“Rise and shine!”

Tuuni leapt into the air, arms and legs flailing until he landed back into the ground with a thump. He looked up past his brow to the Goddess Three and the accompanying gong. A moment of silence passed before his eyes settled from surprise to joy and he said, "why hello there!"

“My my, you really took that in stride” the Breaker marveled for a moment, before she grinned pointy toothily and declared this “Excellent” and then thrusting a hand out to shake and introduced herself with “I am the Breaker of Cycles, and we are Asheel. A pleasure to meet you my dear.”

Tuuni took her hand, body whipping up and down from the forceful shake. “A pleasure to meet you as well! I’m Tuuni, god of the flow!” He released himself and pattered back onto the ground. “Are you here for the boccie tournament?” 

“I’m afraid I have not the slightest clue what that is, Deary” the Breaker admitted, only for the Maiden to swap in, sit down crossleggededly in front of him, plant her hands on her hips, lean in and enthusiastically say “but I wanna know!”

“Boccie!” Tuuni reiterated, “it’s a fun little game best played by the river. You toss a small white ball and then two teams take turns trying to get their colored ball the closest to the ball to earn points. See?” He pointed over to where a few daffotales were dancing, a tiny white ball between them. “They were keeping it safe for us.”

“Ooooooooo” the little goblin goddess marveled, before saying that “you know no-ones really had time to make any games, I never knew how much they were missing”

“That’s because there’s too much to do” the Maintainer replaced her younger self to point out, before insisting that “we are here to talk business.”

“Ah lighten up, we have time for a game or two I’m sure” the Breaker reclaimed command to insist as she used a finger to beckon the white ball to roll over to her. The Maiden then skillfully flicked it up into the air, saying “we can play and talk after all” and finally the Maintainer caught it. Sighed, and then agreed “fine” due to being outnumbered as usual.

“So, would you like to toss the target or shall I?” she asked, half offering the white ball to Tuuni. 

Tuuni tugged his beard. “Why don’t you? I’ve been tossing it all by myself for so long, it would be grand to have someone else toss it for me.”  

“Very well” the goblin replied, retracting her offered hand. She tossed the ball up and down a few times, thinking, only for the Breaker to swap in and give it an appropriately godly toss all the way to the other side of the vast river they were sitting beside.

Then she dusted off her hands and asked “there we go, is that suitable?”

“Sure!” Tuuni said and then looked at a few tiny salmon-beast-people who were watching from the reeds. They seemed sad as Tuuni whispered, “I think you might have to sit out this round.” 

Pulling a blue ball out of thin air, Tuuni gave it a toss, the ball disappearing into the distance. The gnomish god stood still, hands on his hips. He turned to Asheel. “I think I’m about three centimeters from the target.”

The maiden responded by making a green one in kind, aiming, and tossing it nice and hard straight ahead … and ending up severely off mark. She was quite for a little bit, before admitting it was “Five meters.” 

Tunni smiled. “Oho! Two more tosses for you to best me, otherwise I think I might have this one in the bag!” He tossed another ball. He waited. “Darn. A Daffotale and a half away.”
	
“Here, let me try,” The Maintainer said, before biting her lip, squaring up, and then tossed it up into the air so that it flew in a lazy arc before plopping down a bit closer than the Maiden’s but not closer than Tuuni’s.

“About a hat away” she said, referring to her own naturally, as it was the first and truest of hats before starting to ask “so I heard a little something about you, how do I put this-” only for the breaker to cut her off to get to the point “bladder blocking a buncha beavers!” and then cackling at the idea. 

Tuuni held up his ball, turning it as he thought out loud. “Beavers… oh yes! You see, the beavers were of a certain antithesis to planetary life and were blocking the flow of the world river, thus the life blood of this lovely planet, and so I made a deal that I will block their own little rivers until they righted their wrong, which they did very quickly!” Tuuni paused and coughed. “You aren’t having… bathroom problems, are you?” He tossed his final ball, admittedly distracted as it took a bird out of the sky with a squawk. He looked over at Asheel and tugged his beard. “If it’s a kidney stone, trust me, it’s gonna hurt.”

The Breaker had a real knee slap at that tale, before recovering with a sigh and saying “ah so that was what that little drought was caused by. You should have seen the Maintainer lose her head about it eh heh” 

Then she prepped her own toss, and this time she put a proper spin on it, tossing the ball at close to a right angle to the target, but having it spin through the air as it flew, curving the shot nicely towards the white ball… only for her aim to be too good and her green orb to impact with the white, knocking it away from its starting spot. 

“Ack… wait is that good or not?”

Tuuni watched as the ball rolled right over to the Maiden’s ball, clacking against it softly and stopping. The bearded god gave a subtle nod and sighed. “It would appear that you have bested me.” He broke into a jolly grin. “What fun!”

The Breaker let out a laugh, and then slapped the god on the back in agreement “Truly!” before adding “If I’d known you where this much of a riot I'd have come visit sooner” as she beckoned the balls to return, floating them across the river and conveniently right into the clutches of the previously disappointed observing beastfolk.

“Yeah that was fun!” the Maiden agreed, before adding “oh and We’ve never had to go? Is that bad? I mean we’re a god I just assumed that was a mortal thing” referring back to the prior mentioned bathroom problems comment. 

It was at this moment that Tuuni paused and pinched his beard. “My goodness, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were a god! You’re the first one I’ve ever met, so it must have just slipped my mind. My goodness, my goodness.” He gave a hearty laugh. “What a great day this is!”

“I am?” the Maiden replied, not sure if she was being made fun of or not, before the Maintainer took over again, looking a fair bit more serious, or unfun, than her other two parts, as she got back down to the brass tacks.

“So, referring back to the beaverfolk,” she said as the salmon-folk started an imitation game of boccie behind her “was it the complete blocking of the river that warranted your intervention, yes? Because I’ve been trying to encourage attempts at lesser control over your river and the tale of what happened to the beavers has left the rest of the river dwellers rather scared they might receive the same curse”

“It’s a lovely river, truly, a life saver even, but it only waters so far, and with so many mouths to feed, they need more land that is both wet and not at risk of flooding” she quickly clarified as to why she wanted them to do this in the first place “we just need to spread the water out a bit, not dam it and deny it to those downstream. That would simply be counter productive ”

“Oh yeah, that’s no worries, friend,” Tuuni said coolly, “I only stepped in because it was doing the exact opposite of that and taking the flow away from all the good little nuggets downstream. Even the clouds were upset!”

“Excelent excelent” the goddess replied with a fair amount of relief, before calling over to the Daffotales dancing “You heard that right? Update your story please so we can get people digging and irrigating on the double!”

“Double timmmmmme!” A daffotale shrieked before madlibbing so many stories at once, including a revised story regarding the beavers. 

Tuuni clapped his hands. “Ah! Glad you’re getting joy out of my little creations.”

“Oh yes, a great help, sans that little miscommunication. Well and scaring people by telling them about bad events happening halfway around the world. That’s not their fault though. Mosty. The world simply is so much larger than mortals seem to be able to comprehend a lot of the time” she noted “but otherwise, quite the useful source of information regarding discoveries and technologies made in and around the place the rivers end. Did you know that they have these things called boats they can use to travel across water? Quite remarkable”

“Excuse me!?” Tuuni thought back to his own raft and floaties. “That’s genius!”

“It is, isn't it!” the Maintainer agreed before adding “They’ve been very useful. Plus I’ve seen a few of the more aquatic beastfolk towing them along for their land bound friends, which is just so sweet” and deciding to not focus on any of the piracy, raiding, colonization or hunting of other mortals that it had also facilitated.

"I suddenly want to make some myself," Tuuni nodded with certainty. "How do you feel about giant cute insects?"

In response the breaker simply pointed a thumb at a cow sized rolly polly wheeling its across the dunes behind them and added, simply “ours”

“Very dashing,” Tuuni punned. “But what about that… but a boat!”

The Maiden appeared with her hands on her cheeks, gasping in amazement at the idea.
“WABAM!” Tuuni zapped a finger at the river and out splashed giant bus-sized beetles with concave shells one could sit in. Their long paddle-like legs zipped them around as they purred happily. Tuuni smiled wide at his creation.

In a mortal hartbeat the Maiden was all over the bugs, giggling with glee while leaping from steed to steed till she found one she arbitrarily found one she liked and took it for a spin. The beetle happily paddled through the waters, guided by tugs on the antennae and purring happily along. 

“Look at me go!” the little goblin cheered as she rode around on the river on the beetle, only to purse her lips and look thoughtful for a bit, before coming to realization/decision, which was, perhaps predictably “These could be faster”

Fortunately/unfortunately, she proceeded to declare “don’t worry, I can fix that!” before she leaned forwards and booped the beetle on the snoot, which caused it to suddenly gain a spinneret on its butt. Then, with just a bit of extra power from the goddess to speed up the process, it proceeded to weave a disk of silk, which then hardened into a crystalline paddlewheel. Grasping this in’s rear claws, it began to rotate this new propulsion system, picking up a nice boost of speed as a result.

“Weeeee! Now this is more like it!” the little witch cheered as she sped around the river. Tuuni clapped.

“Clever girl!”

“I know I am!” the goblin agreed, only for the Maintainer to swap out and refute this statement by saying “no you aren't! We need that power to help feed people, not move them about faster!”

“Oh don’t be such a spoilsport deary” The Breaker told her younger self, before grinning wickedly and adding “besides, that is an awful rude thing to say to our host here”

“Yeah, don’t be so mean!” the Maiden piled in, before swapping the Maintainer back in to look embarrassed as she stuttered “Ah, well, my apologies that was not… I did not mean to imply… sorry”

“Huh!?” Tuuni asked as he sped around the river on the fastest of the paddle beetles, wind breaking glasses over his eyes, tinted black. 

The Maintainer flushed hard from even more embarrassment, only for the Breaker to replace her, make a set of wide glasses with padding that let them sit nice and snug to the face, and then racing after the bearded god, her hat flapping in the wind yet never leaving her head.

As the two old looking divines sped around on the new bug boats, the tale of their little game traveled on down the flower fields of the river bank, getting only slightly embellished as it traveled. Yet hear they a tale of the wheel beating the river, or one of a wise grandfather teaching a foolish young girl not to jump to conclusions, in the end the lesson learned was the same. Mortals may command the river, yet never so much that it deprives those downstream of its blessed gift of life.

Fears dispelled, goblin, beast-folk, snouter (and the odd helpful crystal strider) alike got to work, building floodbanks to protect their fields and digging irrigation ditches to spread the water further afield, massively expanding the viable farmland, and pushing back the desert. Fields of rice and floatatoes sprouted swift supplies of nutrition, while coconut and roller-fruit tree saplings took root in the watered desert sands, promising a brighter, greener, future.

[hider=summmary]
The two globe spanning rivers have gotten rather overpopulated due to Asheel bringing all the desert lost mortals there, causing a growing food shortage crisis. Asheel feeds the adult rolly pollies to the mortals, while they themselves pick up various goblin city state techs thanks to the Daffotales, the most important of which is farming. Unfortunately, while asheel’s production of suitable crops and the arrival of Snouters with their practical farming experience both kickstart this process, fear spawned from stories of the bladder blocked beavers prevents the mortals from trying to control the river, limiting the amount of viable farmland.

Asheel travels around the world to confront Tuuni and see if they can put an end to that fear. After finding the god dozing and waking him up Asheel and Tuuni play a game of Boccie (a type boules) while discussing the event. Asheel wins due to a bit of luck, and the misunderstanding regarding why the beavers where punished is cleared up, freeing the mortals to meddle with the river as long as they do not block or divert it enough to impact those downstream.

The gods then end up making paddle wheel powered water beetle boats as well as a bonus, and have some fun racing them around while the mortals get to work digging irrigation ditches and building floodbanks to nourish and protect their crops, greatly expanding the viable farmland surrounding the riverlands, and getting the food crisis under control in the process.
[/hider]


[hider=mp]

Tuuni: starting 5

1 MP to create the boat beetles

End: 4 might



Asheel:
Start 5

1 mp enhanced with Cycles to make a variety of real and fictional crops suited for warm wet climates, such as rice, coconuts, floatatos (plants that float tuber like fruits up to the surface for easy harvesting) and roller-fruit (who’s large fruits are wheel shaped for easy individual transportation). 1 bonus is used to bless the plants with supernaturally swift growth.

1 mp enhanced with wheels to enhance the beetle boat, letting them craft and use biocrystal paddlewheels to enhance their speed/efficiency of waterbound movement. Bonus mp used to make it possible to teach them to make other things from that same biocrystal. 

End 3
[/hider]