BBeast

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Ashalla

Goddess of Oceans and Storms

Ashalla floated through the ocean between Atokhekwoi and Dragon's Foot, carrying Vakk's music box with her. The journey was slow by her standards, but she passed the time by listening to the box's melodies. But as she swam, she sensed that something was amiss, although she struggled to identify exactly what. The box failed to soothe her anxiety over this feeling of wrongness. Then she heard Qiang Yi's prayer.

O Holiest spirit of the Sea, Ashalla. Your grace and power are second to none in the ocean - as such, this servant asks that Your sacred boon follows us still as our voyage progresses. Thank You for everything.

Why would Qiang Yi ask for a renewal of her boon so soon after having received it? Had not her word been enough? Unless some event had made him doubt. Then Ashalla realised that what she had been feeling must have been a violation of her blessing, some occurrence which had defied her divine will, and this had led Qiang Yi to doubt her word. Immediately, Ashalla left the Box of Orchestration and swam as quickly as she could towards the Zhengwu.

When Ashalla reached the southern peninsula of the Kick, she could see the dispersing remains of the battle. Sharpened sticks and splintered planks and bark drifted in the sea, along with a few sets of clothing. The Zhengwu floated near the shore, damaged. And in the water, Ashalla could taste a trail of black blood. She recognised the creature it came from. The wind began to pick up and clouds darkened the sky as she saw the proof of what had happened. There would be a reckoning.

But first, there was reparation to do. She looked upon the Zhengwu and inspected it. The crew were wounded but recovering; there was little that Ashalla needed to do there. She noticed with a touch of pride an effigy depicting an oceanic woman on the bow of the ship, which she assumed was a rendition of herself. The most pressing issue for the ship was the breach below deck near the stern, which was allowing seawater to leak into the ship. Several servants were trying to repair it, but as they could not enter the water they were having difficulty.

Although Ashalla knew nothing of ship-building or carpentry, she could help with this. She extended her essence into the ship through the breach, becoming the water which had leaked in, then she pulled out of the ship, taking the water with her and leaving the inside dry. On the outside of the ship, Ashalla froze the water around the breach to stop the influx of water. It was a short-term fix, as the ice would melt in these warm waters, but hopefully it would be enough time for the servants to repair the breach.

Ashalla then turned and swam after the trail of blood, taking the tempest of her simmering rage with her.

---

The leviathan angler swam lethargically through the depths of the ocean. This angler had acquired a few small scars along its front, and one of its left eyes was missing, leaving an empty socket. Its tentacles were suspended around it, sensing for any vibrations which would indicate an approaching creature. Its light cast an eerie glow through the water, which it hoped would attract something to eat.

Then it saw a school of fish, attracted to its lure. Their iridescent scales flashed in the angler's light as they swam closer. The angler waited, mouth slowly widening as its next meal drew closer. Then, when the school of fish was within lunging range, the creature tensed its fins and tentacles to surge forwards.

But at that very moment, it sensed movement all around it, and as it lunged the water around it grew heavy and thick, immobilising the leviathan angler. The school of fish scattered, but the abomination suddenly had much more pressing matters vying for its attention than food.

"I had promised that ship safe passage through my ocean," seethed a voice like a rumbling storm.

The ocean water held the angler in place with crushing pressure. The angler could not move, and a simulacrum of fear began to emerge from its frayed soul for the first time in its existence.

"Then you attacked that ship, in defiance of my promise." The voice grew in intensity, her fury evident.

The water stilled around the angler's gills despite the surrounding turbulence, denying the angler oxygen. The water pushed into its mouth and the pressure inside the angler began to increase.

"Now they question whether my blessing is still with them."

The water pushed harder into every crevice and facet of the abomination. Its wounds re-opened and oozed black blood into the ocean. The angler was not capable of many feelings, but pain was one of them, and it was feeling pain even worse than when it had lost its eye.

"You have made my words untrue, cast me as a liar!" The voice now roared with the tempestuous fury of a maelstrom.

The angler's gills and other eyes started to bleed, and it could feel indescribable pain as internal organs ruptured.

The voice screamed into a climax. "For that, you die!"

The water surged inwards, and in the blink of an eye the leviathan angler exploded. Shreds of meat and shards of bone billowed outwards in an expanding cloud of black blood and bile. Where the angler once was dwelt Ashalla, her rage peeling off her as turbulent currents which stirred and spread the remains of the leviathan angler. In time the remains had dispersed, and Ashalla's anger had subsided.

"May that be a warning to you," she called out through the ocean to leviathan anglers and other sea beasts. "The ship bearing Shengshi's servants is not to be harmed."

Her retribution complete, Ashalla swam off, returning to the Box of Orchestration.

That fish was biting for a smiting

Ashalla senses a disturbance in the force, hears Qiang Yi's prayer, puts two-and-two together, and races off to inspect the Zhengwu.

She comes across the aftermath of that ship's battle against a leviathan angler. This makes her angry for the first time ever. Before acting on her anger, though, Ashalla provides some minor assistance with the repairs. She dredges all the seawater out of the bottom of the ship and slaps a big ice band-aid over the breach in the Zhengwu's hull, hopefully giving the servants enough time to fix it properly. She leaves without saying anything, although the crew would have noticed a brief tempest stir.

Ashalla tracks down the Leviathan Angler which had attacked the Zhengwu. She is absolutely livid, for she had promised the ship safe passage yet this creature of the ocean had attacked the ship, defying her divine words and casting her as a liar. As punishment, she explodes the Leviathan Angler in a particularly painful and gory manner. This, I think, is the first smite in Mk 3.

Ashalla shouts a warning to all the other sea creatures.

Throughout this post, the Box of Orchestration was left unattended.

No Might spent

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

The red-stained trees and plains of the Great Hooflands were overcast with grey clouds delivering tropical rain. Overlooking these plains was Mount Chop, and atop Mount Chop's plateau was the Thunderbird sitting in her nest. Gnawed bones were littered about the nest. Now the Thunderbird rested on top of her warm eggs, her wings stretched out to shelter them from the rain. She had been guarding her eggs carefully ever since the Phoenix had left, being careful to not leave the nest too long while hunting.

Tap.

The Thunderbird shifted slightly as she felt something move under her.

Tap. Tap.

The Thunderbird stood up and looked beneath her.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Crack.

A tiny fracture appeared in one of the sapphire-and-ruby eggs. The Thunderbird nuzzled the egg with her beak.

Tap. Tap. Crack. Tap. Crack. Crack. Tap. Crack.

More cracks appeared in the egg, radiating out from a point as a tiny beak began to break through. The Thunderbird tilted her head to look at the hatching egg up close with an eye.

Tap. Crack. Crack. Tap. Crack. Tap. Tap. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.

The tiny hatchling's beak tore apart a line through the eggshell. Then the egg bulged and buckled and the tear propagated as the hatchling pushed against the edge of its egg.

Crack. Crack. Creak. Crack. ... Crack. Crack. ... Crack. "Squawk."

The hatchling finally forced its way out of the egg and fell upon the leaves and branches of the nest. Its bare pink skin was moist with yolk and a few dark-coloured feathers were matted on its back. Two oversized eyes and a beak were on the infant's disproportionate head. It had four limbs with little fingers with under-formed talons, and a stubby tail protruded from its backside.

"Coo." The Thunderbird rubbed the hatchling with her beak. The newborn bird was unphased by the little sparks of static electricity which jumped from the Thunderbird to it. As drops of rain fell upon the newborn, steam rose from the water, heated by its supernaturally warm body.

"Squa squawk," the hatchling chirped and tilted its head up expectantly towards its mother.

The Thunderbird lifted her gaze to the remaining eggs. Already, another egg was starting to rock as the baby bird within prepared to hatch. The rest would hatch soon, and they would be hungry just like the first one. "Caw," she said. She then hopped over the edge of the nest and with a thunderous wing-beat took flight over the Great Hooflands.

---

Over the following days, the Thunderbird fed her nest of hatchlings. As the Thunderbird was so much bigger than the hatchlings, she was easily able to feed them all, even though there was a large number of them. They were growing up quickly, their plumage growing out and their bodies becoming larger. The feathers of these new avians were dark shades of red, blue and purple. While many of their features were bird-like, their wings had arms incorporated into them with talons, and the avians often walked on four feet like pterosaurs.

Despite their small sizes compared to the Thunderbird (although already they were larger than most birds), their cries were incredibly loud. Their thunderous squawks carried across the land surrounding Mount Chop, so the Thunderbird always knew whether the chicks were hungry or distressed regardless of where she was.

As the avians grew and their plumage came closer to completion, their other powers became apparent. Breezes always swirled about the nest as the chicks played and moved. And occasionally the hatchlings would spontaneously combust, their feathers becoming coated in flames. This fire did not harm the hatchlings, although the nest was not so durable. The Thunderbird layered the inside of the nest with mud to stop it from burning whenever the chicks ignited. And when the chicks were startled or spooked or sometimes just nudged their feathers would flare with dazzlingly bright light.

The flight feathers of the avians grew, and the Thunderbird knew that she needed to encourage them to fly. When she came with food for the fledglings, she stood progressively further away, coaxing them to leave the comfort of the nest. She also held the food higher up, encouraging them to jump and flap their wings to try to reach her beak. In time the avians were not confined to the nest, but roaming about the plateau of Mount Chop. Sometimes they would wonder off the edge of the plateau, sometimes at the prompting of their mother, where they would fall a distance and had to climb their way back up. In this way, the fledglings learned how to fly in order to climb back up to the plateau where their mother waited with food.

It was during this time that a familiar storm rolled over Mount Chop. The Thunderbird looked up expectantly as wind, rain and thunder came her way, and the nest full of fledglings also perked up and started calling out. When the storm was directly overhead, the thunder sounded like words. "What have you got there, Thunderbird?"

"Caw! Coo, caw!" the Thunderbird cried out.

There was a surprised pop of lightning from within the cloud. "A big fiery winged creature... Ironic."

"Squawk."

"I shall not tell. I also desire to see your children prosper," Ashalla answered. Rain fell upon the nest of fledglings and the wind whipped around them in circles. "May the wind blow in your favour, the rain fall when you need it, and the storm always be your friend. This is the blessing I give to you, Pyrgerakia."

The fledglings chirped and squawked happily. Some jumped up to fly in circles in Ashalla's breeze. The breeze then became a strong gale and pushed the fledglings away from the nest. A narrow cone of spiralling cloud and wind snaked down from the cumulonimbus to a specific point in the nest. Mud and twigs were blown outwards as a wooden box was lifted into the air within the miniature tornado. A surge of rain washed the box clean of mud and feces, and the box was pulled up into the cloud. The box had a few scratches and scorch marks on the outside, although the damage was only superficial. Clearly, a nest full of burning baby avians was not the optimal place to store such an artifact.

"I am taking the box away now. I have found a safer home for it," Ashalla explained.

"Caw," the Thunderbird replied.

The wind changed and the storm blew back towards the east from where it came. The Thunderbird let out several peals of thunder in farewell, and the Pyrgeraki fledglings cried out with their own thunderous voices.

---

It was not long before the Pyrgerakia were grown up and ready to leave the nest for good and claim their own territory. A storm rolled past Mount Chop, and the Pyrgerakia took this as their cue to depart. The cries of the Thunderbird and her children could be heard for many kilometres as the Pyrgerakia caught the wind in their wings and took flight across the Great Hooflands and beyond, trailing fire and light through the skies.

Fully grown, a male Pyrgeraki had an average wingspan of four metres while a female Pyrgeraki had an average wingspan of three metres. All had plumage in various shades of dark blue, red and purple across their bodies, although the males had more red and the females had more blue. The mature males also boasted an impressive feathered crest.

The Pyrgerakia found rocky places in which they could roost, favouring cliffs and mountain-tops. Their winged forelimbs made climbing and navigating sheer cliff-faces easier than for regular birds. The females in particular found good places to build nests, where males could come to court them with songs, offerings of food, and displays of fire and light.

The Pyrgerakia were predators, hunting any creature smaller than themselves. While wing and talon were often enough to catch most creatures, they had another trick to help them catch prey more easily. One or more Pyrgerakia, often male, would burst into flame and fly through the undergrowth, setting it alight. Other Pyrgerakia, often female, would create wind to fan the flames in the direction they desired. The resultant bushfire would drive animals out into the open where the Pyrgerakia could hunt them more easily. They only did this occasionally, otherwise all the forests would be burned down, but when they did they produced a great feast for the participating flock.

The Pyrgerakia spread across Atokhekwoi. They were hungry beasts, so each Pyrgeraki demanded a sizeable territory for themselves and their mate. But they were rarely hard to find, for their calls, particularly the calls of the females, were deafeningly loud from up close and carried for great distances like thunder. In this way thunder and fire were carried across the super-continent.

Summary

The Thunderbird's eggs hatch, revealing the offspring of the Thunderbird and the Phoenix.

The avian offspring grow up, becoming the first generation of Pyrgerakia. They inhabit Atokhekwoi.

Ashalla drops by in the middle of the post. She's surprised that the Avatar of Sartravius of all beings procreated with the Thunderbird. She blesses the Pyrgerakia so that storms are on their side, and gives them their name. She also takes the Box of Orchestration.

No Might spent
The FP for the species was spent in the last Thunderbird post.
The blessing was discounted by the Storms Portfolio.

Pyrgerakia

Half bird-of-prey, half pterosaur.
Wingspan 3m (female) or 4m (male).
Plumage is mixture of dark blue, dark red and dark purple.
Plumage can burst into flame at will without harm to the bird. This is often done to light fires for hunting purposes, or for displays.
Beyond simple fire, these birds can emit blindingly bright light. This is often used as a defence mechanism, and for display purposes.
They can produce a noticeable breeze. This can be used to help control the fires they light.
Their cries can be deafeningly loud. Also a defence mechanism, and allows their calls to carry over incredible distances.
Immune to fire and lightning, at least to the degree that these elements appear naturally.
Affinity for storms.
Males have redder plumage, a crest, and amplified fire powers.
Females have bluer plumage and amplified storm powers.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

&

Ashalla

Goddess of Oceans and Storms

Ashalla roamed the oceans once more, exploring and thinking. She had much to think about. She imagined what the winter-spirits would sculpt. She wondered what the Thunderbird was up to. And she reflected on the story she had heard from the magpies and K’nell. Ashalla inspected every passing cloud to see if any carried a fragment of Li’Kalla’s soul, although she found nothing. She considered going to see Li’Kalla or Vakk in person. She knew the large sandy island where Li’Kalla’s influence was strongest. As for Vakk, though, the only definite signs of his essence that Ashalla had noticed were the music box and the boiling strait which was the Saluran Mendidih, although neither were Vakk’s home.

It was then, as Ashalla was thinking about Vakk, that she came across a strange small island she hadn’t truly noticed before, south of the Great Soul Reef and east of Dragon’s Foot. She had known there was an island there, for she had explored Galbar’s oceans many times over and knew their every feature intimately, but somehow this island had always eluded her full attention and had always been mentally sorted as just another rocky island.

The geography was comparable to the cliffs of Pāṟa, with jagged rock everywhere. Some lichen and mosses had taken root on this stony land, but it appeared that the Gemstone Gardeners had either missed or avoided this place since no other life was present. It might have passed for a mundane island if not for two things: strange whispers could be heard on the edge of Ashalla’s hearing coming from further inland, and Ashalla’s divine senses could detect a distortion in the space between Spheres in this vicinity.

The ocean heaved and surged up the beach of the island as Ashalla made her way towards the anomaly. Ashalla climbed inland, flowing up the rocks and around the cliffs. She soon found one rocky crag which was unlike the others, for Ashalla’s divinely attuned senses could tell that there was something unreal about it. She flowed into that crag and the illusion broke, revealing a dark cave leading into the depths of the earth.

Whispered words wafted up from that cave. Most were incoherent or nonsensical, although one whisper stood out from the others. ‘That which I am speaking of belongs to another, not myself. This may confuse some, though it is clear as day. What do I speak of?’

Ashalla did not think much of it, though, as she proceeded to flow down into the cave. But it was not long before Ashalla realised that she was getting terribly lost. The twists and turns and corners of the cave’s path made navigation difficult and disorienting, and Ashalla knew that the exit to this labyrinthine passageway was very, very far below her. Finding her way through this maze was not worth her effort, so Ashalla turned back and followed her trail of moisture back to the surface.

She did not need to visit Vakk’s Sphere. His audience would suffice. There was a much easier way to gain his attention than climbing through some impossible maze.

A voice like thunder boomed through the passageway and found its way carried by echoes to Sanvādam. “Vakk, are you there? I’d like to speak.”

After some time, the massive head of Vakk emerged from the entrance of the cave, looking down upon the ocean goddess while the rest of his body was shrouded in the darkness of his cave. Vakk, however, did give a smile to Ashalla before he finally began speaking, “Greetings, Ashalla. I believe this the first time that we have met.” His voice was deep and did not display any true emotion towards the goddess as he seemed to inspect her.

“What is it you wish to talk about?” he asked, moving slightly closer to the goddess. Some tendrils moved out of the darkness like large snakes before they rested themselves on the rocky surface of the island.

Seeing the large form of Vakk emerge, Ashalla drew up water from the ocean until she had swelled to be slightly larger than Vakk. “I hear you got into a fight with Li’Kalla,” Ashalla said with a voice like rolling waves, her tone neutral.

“Ah… Yes,” Vakk confirmed before he held up the broken end of one of his tendrils, “She attacked me in defense, yet, the start of the fight was not my fault. Another god had overpowered my mind and compelled me to retrieve an artifact from her. I- I did not want to hurt her.” His voice had begun to crack up as if he were on the verge of crying, unable to cope with the fact that he had to do such a terrible act. As a sign of timidity, he moved slightly back from the ocean goddess and looked to the ground in an act of shame.

“So not only were you beaten in battle by the most timid and frail of the gods, you were also overpowered by another god.” Ashalla gave a derisive wet huff. “Who overpowered your mind?”

Vakk let out a sigh before he looked up at Ashalla, answering in a sorrowful tone, “Eurysthenes… He took control and told me to find the artifact. Harming Li’Kalla was not my fault.” He paused for a moment, allowing a light silence to fill the air between them before speaking once more, “I did shatter her wing, for the record, and she had turned into a rather large beast.”

There was a brief thoughtful rumble from Ashalla. She hadn’t met Eurysthenes outside tasting that one in the Architect’s lake, but she’d have to be careful of Eurysthenes. Although, K’nell’s story had also warned against Vakk, but he was such a pitiful being that he was surely no threat to herself. “I hear that Li’Kalla’s soul was fragmented when she turned into a beast and the fragments scattered. You wouldn’t happen to know more about that, would you?”

He seemed to ponder for a moment, silence dragging by before he replied, “I cannot say I do.” Within a second of silence Vakk had begun to speak again, “The artifact that Eurysthenes was attempting to get was a music box that I called the Box of Orchestration. A mortal named Hermes had apparently stolen the box from Li’Kalla, would you know anything about my box?” he asked inquisitively, tactfully changing the subject, seemingly to avoid talking about Li’Kalla anymore. Whether it was his own fear of the situation or not, was the best any could guess.

Ashalla perked up at the mention of the box. “That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Ashalla said, her voice like a flowing current. “I found a music box which tasted of you on the bottom of the ocean between the lands of Li’Kalla and Kalmar, and decided to keep it because it made such lovely music. Hermes said she had lost a music box over the ocean, which was likely the same one.”

“What?” Vakk paused for a moment considering all the trouble he had gone through with making a beast to hunt down the thief, his jaw merely dropping in shock. The Lord of Talk let out a laugh, unknowing of what else to actually do at the appearance of this news, and it was a maddening laugh indeed. Many moments had passed before Vakk contained himself, looking upon Ashalla with a wide and crooked smile.

“May I have it back? I must hide it from Eurysthenes before he can get his filthy hands on it,” he requested, his tendrils slithering further across the ground, towards the goddess.

“I have currently placed the box in the nest of my Thunderbird for safekeeping. Although, if Eurysthenes is after it…” Ashalla rumbled as a thought came to her. “What does the box do?”

Vakk was silent but for a moment, his tendrils shifting around as he began to speak in a low tone, “He sought to make it into a weapon to control people, he knows the music I had made was to induce a soothing feeling. That was the reason I had given it to Li’Kalla, but when I divulged this information to Eurysthenes, he wanted the box like the greedy stain that he is.” Satisfied with this answer, Vakk moved closer, coming out of the shadow of his gateway.

“It will be safe within my sphere.”

Ashalla seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said, “Yes, it would be safer there.” As Vakk came closer, a pseudopod stretched out from Ashalla and brushed against Vakk. “Although, the music did a rather strange and un-soothing thing when Azura listened to it. She was mostly calm, but there was… it was as if something in her, beneath her consciousness, was fighting against the music.”

Vakk gave a shocked expression at the news, shaking his head before he began to speak, ”Perhaps there was something deeply troubling her? I saw Li’Kalla have the same effect, but she grew more at ease as I let the music play, after all, the magic is to remove the stress of a god…” He thought to himself for a moment before he added another suggestion, moving the tendril away from the pseudopod, ”Or the thief, Hermes, had done something with it! Mortals are not to be trusted, Ashalla, they will no doubt do reckless things like damage my box. If that is the case then I must repair it!”

Ashalla let out an extended rumble. “The words of a mortal don’t carry the weight of divinity…” she said slowly. Then she said, “Although, if the effect was due to damage, I would have noticed. Azura was very stressed at the time, so that is the most likely explanation. Although the box could probably do with a little maintenance. I’ve done what I can to keep it clean, but you don’t seem to have designed it for soaking in the ocean.”

“As I have stated before, it was a gift to Li’Kalla, so it is not meant for ocean travel. However, I do appreciate that you have kept it clean and safe for me,” Vakk stated, moving back towards the safety of his cave before asking, “Now, may I have the box?”

Ashalla paused for a few moments. “Very well, I shall return your box to you. It seems to have been running out of new melodies anyway.”

“I thank you. Now, it seems I will also have to ask you something. Who told you that I had attacked Li’Kalla? I feel as if whoever told you would not have known all the facts,” he indulged, continuing to hide in the shadows of his cave.

“I first heard it from some black-and-white birds, magpies. They’ve been flying everywhere telling the story they have. They received their story from K’nell, who told me more about what he knew,” Ashalla stated.

Vakk was silent for a moment, bringing his tendrils back before speaking in a hushed tone, “This seems suspicious. First, Hermes, then K’nell… No…” It was few more silent moments before speaking to Ashalla again, “I may need to speak with K’nell. My anxious mind will be at ease once I recover this box.”

Ashalla began to ebb. “It seems like I should get the box now. Unless you had more you wished to talk to me about,” Ashalla said.

”Perhaps when this matter settled, but for now, I must plan my meeting with K’nell. However, I do hope you will visit once all of this...” he made a general gesture around him, referring mainly to the situation, ”is dealt with.”

“Indeed,” Ashalla said. She started to draw back into the ocean, but stopped just before disappearing. “If you’re meeting K’nell, look out for any fragments of Li’Kalla’s soul. He is trying to restore her lost and broken parts.”

“Very well, and thank you once more.”

With those parting words, Ashalla’s form disappeared with a ripple. As her essence sped off, Vakk was left alone in his island once more, a sinister smile coming across his face before he letting out a singular laugh. It was a laugh of relief that he had managed to get away with his lies. He looked towards the sky and under his breath, said, “I am coming for you, K’nell. And you will be silenced.”

Did Vakk actually do a manipulate?

Ashalla stumbles across the Gateway to Sanvadam. She has some questions for Vakk, but can’t navigate the Gateway, so she calls for Vakk.

Vakk emerges. Ashalla opens the interrogation by asking Vakk about his fight with Li’Kalla. Vakk claims that he only did what he did because he was being controlled by Eurysthenes to retrieve an artifact, the Box of Orchestration.

Ashalla appears to believe Vakk’s story. Also, Ashalla seems not to be overly concerned about the violence. She’s more focussed on the fact that Vakk lost (even though it was a tactical withdrawal) a fight against the weakest of the gods.

As Ashalla asks about the fragmentation of Li’Kalla’s soul, Vakk denies knowledge and shifts the subject to the Box of Orchestration. Vakk asks if Ashalla knows anything about it. Ashalla reveals that she’s had it the entire time, and Vakk is surprised.

Ashalla asks what the box does. Vakk claims it was to produce a soothing feeling, and that Eury wanted to weaponize it to control people.

Ashalla mentions the un-soothing effect it had on Azura. Vakk claims that it may have been drawing out stress, or it had been damaged by Hermes. Ashalla dismisses the latter and believes the former.

Ashalla agrees to return the Box of Orchestration to Vakk for safekeeping.

Vakk asks how Ashalla knew of his fight, and Ashalla answers, telling Vakk of the magpies and K’nell.

After Ashalla leaves, Vakk is relieved to have gotten away with his lies and vows vengeance against K’nell.

No Might spent

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Ashalla

Goddess of Oceans and Storms

The storm which was Ashalla rolled over the northern coast of Atokhekwoi. While it was far easier for her to travel over land as a storm cloud, the sheer vastness of Atokhekwoi tired even her. It was ultimately the dry climate in the middle which made her turn away, for she had begun to lose water faster than she could recover it from the environment. So Ashalla returned to the ocean where she was most at home.

The storm rained heavily over the sea, the cloud slowly shrinking and lightening. A few hours later there were only a few stray cumulus clouds and strands of cirrus, and Ashalla was the ocean once more. Immediately she began to plan her next creation.

Kirron's mega-fauna and the smaller beasts of the forests elsewhere had inspired her. Many of these creatures were warm-blooded, breathed air, gave live birth and produced milk. This mammalian template appeared to be popular, so Ashalla decided she would attempt her own variation on the theme.

Ashalla began to coalesce some biomatter into several new creatures. While they would not be fish, their general form was quite similar to that of a fish, for that form was optimised for ocean life. The basic mammalian physiology needed a few adaptations. Respiration was the biggest modification. The lungs needed to be much more efficient, as did the storage and usage of oxygen. An extra nostril was routed through to their top-sides so they could breathe at the water's surface more easily. The salt balance in the bodily fluids needed to be adjusted so as to allow these creatures to drink sea-water as fish could. They were given extra layers of fat to keep warm in cold waters. A few other modifications were made, such as enhancing their hearing to make good use of water's ability to carry sound, and adjusting their sleep cycles to ensure they did not drown.

This was the basic template for her new life-forms, but she could still fit a lot of variety within this template. She made a few of them massive, larger than Kirron's dinosaurs, because given the buoyancy of the ocean she could do that without complication. The pattern was similar to the Eclipse Whale, but that was mostly by coincidence. The only thing abundant enough in the global oceans to feed such vast creatures was plankton, so these giant swimming mammals were given wide mouths and bristles of keratin in place of teeth with which they could filter out nutritious drifters from the water.

Ashalla also made smaller swimming creatures, although still much larger than most fish. These ones she decided would feast on fish, so she gave them teeth. She also ensured their eyes were near the front of their snouts so they had binocular vision, and their enhanced hearing was combined with the capacity to make sharp clicks so they could locate objects and prey using sound.

Ashalla painted their skin the colours of the ocean. As she inspected the creatures she had made, though, she felt unsatisfied. They were so utilitarian. Adapting a land-based physiology for life in the open ocean had been a fun exercise, but her creations needed a bit of artistic flair. So Ashalla taught them to sing and dance. They would call through the ocean, their thunderous voices carrying their songs for vast distances. They would swim around each other and leap from the water with great splashes. They would be social and have fun doing so.

Satisfied at last, Ashalla gave the creatures life. She named them whales and dolphins, or cetaceans collectively, and sent them throughout the ocean. Ashalla also created new species of fish which would swim in the open ocean in great schools for the dolphins and toothed whales to eat. These fish ate plankton and smaller fish. In their great schools the light would shine off them in dazzling ways as the group danced in their own manner in an attempt to appear larger and more intimidating towards predators. Not that it would stop them from being eaten, but it would give them some defence, and it made them more impressive. These fish Ashalla spread throughout the ocean with the cetaceans.

In roaming the world creating her new life-forms, Ashalla came to the north pole. She glanced at the ice sheet and reflected on it for a few moments. Then she made a decision. Fog rose from the ocean and a storm began to brew.

---

The great storm which was Ashalla billowed over the ice sheet at the northern end of the world. The cloud hung low, a blizzard raging across the ice and stirring up snow. She looked over the ice formations and sculptures, feeling them with her fog and snow. Most of them were different to how she had remembered them. Time, weather and sunlight had eroded away many of the original sculptures and new ones had taken their place. But these new ones contained only abstract forms with no sense of coherence, for the processes creating new sculptures were blind and dumb. Ashalla found it disappointing that the beauty of this place had faded over time.

But Ashalla was not one to wallow in defeat and disappointment. Rather, she was a creator. So she would create a solution. She would create creators to maintain the sculptures and create new ones, and she could marvel in their creativity. She just had to figure out what these sculptors would be.

Shards of ice and snow stirred around within Ashalla. The ice sheet was inhospitable to organic life, but Ashalla had seen from the Curators, cloudlings and Xiaoli that there were other ways to make life. A being of ice crystals and frilly snow formed within Ashalla's clouds. This entity would draw energy as a heat engine, converting heat flow between it and its environment into work and potential energy. Of course, as a construct of ice, it would only survive for long periods of time in areas which were freezing in temperature.

This entity was to be a sculptor of ice, so it would need an affinity for ice. Ashalla granted the entity the power to shape ice with its touch, melting and refreezing the water it touched with its spindly limbs to make the ice malleable. In this way the entity would be able to make ice sculptures and other structures of frozen water with relative ease. With the physical design established, Ashalla began to form more of these icy beings.

While these beings would be safest in the North Pole, if they stayed in the North Pole forever they would have no inspiration for new creations. So Ashalla gave these beings a migratory instinct, such that they would fly south during winter and return to the North Pole in the summer. She gave them a few more instincts to maximise their creativity, tying those instincts to their methods of reproduction.

Finished making these icy beings, Ashalla breathed life into their frozen forms, which accepted souls from the invisible soul ash around them. Then Ashalla withdrew her fog and the beings basked in daylight for the first time. The delicate ice crystals of their wing-like limbs shimmered in the light of Heliopolis, the beings fluttering about with their foot-wide wingspan. Spindly stalks of optically clear ice curled away from an orb at the head of their bodies, twisting and looking at the world around them. Icicle-like legs allowed the beings to land on the ice sheet and rest their wings. Soon all the beings had landed, basking in the sunlight as little rivulets of water ran up their legs and froze on their thoraxes.

After they had drunk their fill and were fat from the ice, a great breeze blew across the ice sheet and picked up the beings, carrying them southwards. Ashalla's voice was also carried on that breeze. "Fly, winter-spirits. Learn and create."

---

Anthony Greninger - Snowfall

The warmer seasons were resting in the Purlieu, leaving winter on Galbar. Many of the higher latitudes were receiving snow from the So'E at this time. The usual greens and browns of nature gave way to a blanket of pure white.

With the snow-falls came the winter-spirits. On the northern parts of Kalgrun, Kalgrun's mountains, Li'Kalla's Island, and even patches of Swahhitteh and Tendlepog the winter-spirits found perches in the snow-covered landscapes. They sat in the branches of trees made bare, having shed their leaves over autumn, or on mounds of snow or frozen ponds, but never in the shade. Their snow-dust wings spread out collecting the sunlight, providing them with the energy needed to replenish ice lost during their migration. During night time, once the winter-spirits had cooled to ambient temperatures, they were inactive, so some sought to find a safe perch out of the way of wandering animals before nightfall. Their actions were also sluggish when the weather was overcast, but when the sun was shining the winter-spirits fluttered about, studying the world around them with their sensory ice-stalks.

The winter-spirits had a curious nature, and flew up to inspect an interesting creatures they saw. And there were many interesting creatures. Kalgrun had griffons, trolls, dire wolves and bears along with a menagerie of other creatures and plants. On Li's Island were Parvus' beautiful insects, frogs and lilies, along with the strange creatures of mud, the beings of the salt-depths, and the monsters which lurked in the caves. On Tendlepog there were walking trees, cloudlings, exotic insects and numerous marsupials. On Swahhitteh, besides what had migrated from Tendlepog, there was also a great forest with muscular undergrowth and clear cords for trees which twisted the light in inspiring patterns. Some of the winter-spirits were crushed or eaten by the subjects of their study, as the winter-spirits were fragile beings, but as agile and harmless creatures with no nutritional value they usually avoided drawing undue attention.

The winter-spirits also practiced shaping ice. They mimicked the flora, fauna and terrain around them in their sculpting. They even built new perches for themselves. In this way ephemeral ice sculptures appeared across the northern latitudes during winter.

Once winter started its journey back to the Purlieu and the first signs of spring were beginning to enter into Galbar, the winter-spirits fattened themselves on the melting snow-patches before taking flight and migrating north. Like giant snowflakes in a snow flurry the winter-spirits carried themselves through the sky and over the ocean until they reached the northern ice sheet.

On the ice sheet the winter-spirits set to work sculpting the ice into shapes they had seen. Each winter-spirit claimed a patch of ice to shape its own sculpture, often using worn down unclaimed sculptures as a base to save on work. The process of sculpting was slow for the winter-spirits were not large, but over time a vast plain filled with art took shape. The forms of the beasts and plants of Kalgrun, Swahhitteh-Tendlepog and Li's Island were common, but other forms also emerged. Some created chimeric fusions of the forms they had witnessed. Some attempted abstract forms, playing with shapes or light. Some shaped landscapes and maps.

For each winter-spirit, the creation of elaborate art had an important purpose. As the sculptures were finished, the winter-spirits took off to inspect the sculptures of others. When a winter-spirit found a sculpture which impressed it, it waited around that sculpture until it could find that sculpture's creator. That second winter-spirit would follow the first back to its sculpture. If the second winter-spirit was not impressed, it would return to its sculpture, leaving the first winter-spirit. But if it was impressed, the two winter-spirits extracted a droplet of water from each others' abdomens and together they sculpted a new winter-spirit. In this way new winter-spirits were made from the best sculptors among them.

And so the cycle was established. During winter, winter-spirits flew south to study the world and gain inspiration. During summer, winter-spirits nested at the north pole, breeding and creating new sculptures from the inspiration they had learned in the previous season. Thanks to the work of the winter-spirits, Ashalla's ice sheet would never be lacking in beautiful sculptures.

Summary

Ashalla feels like creating marine mammals, so she creates cetaceans (whales and dolphins). Besides the utilitarian features, she also teaches them to dance and sing. She also creates oceanic fish which gather in impressive schools to feed the toothed whales and dolphins (baleen whales eat plankton). She spreads these throughout Galbar's ocean as an ecosystem.

At the north pole, Ashalla creates winter-spirits. These are extraordinary creatures made entirely of ice. They are powered mostly by the warmth of sunlight and consume ice and snow. They fly, and look vaguely (very vaguely) like butterflies made of ice and snow with a one foot wingspan. They can sculpt ice like it was wet clay.

Winter-spirits migrate south during winter, where they study flora, fauna and landscape. They are only present in places with ice and snow. They return to the north pole over summer, where they use this inspiration to create sculptures. They breed here, with the quality of the sculptures being the metric for sexual selection. Ashalla made them primarily to maintain the ice sculptures on the north pole's ice sheet.

Might Summary

Ashalla
Start: 1 MP & 5 FP
Spent: 4 FP on an ecosystem (enhanced by Oceans to encompass the whole ocean) involving cetaceans and oceanic fish, inhabiting all of Galbar's oceans.
1 FP on the winter-spirits, an extraordinary species.
End: 1 MP & 0 FP
Portfolios: 4/10 Colour
10/10 Ice

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@Scarescrow No worries, Scarescrow. It takes some maturity to identify your capabilities. I hope you find an RP you'll enjoy.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Ashalla

Goddess of Oceans and Storms


FP: 01 MP: 00

The wet soil of Atokhekwoi served as a blotched and dark sky as K’nell walked upside down, his boots stepping on the invisible veil of the sky as if he were walking upright. Any blue that the sky held was long gone, now cloaked in dark clouds that threatened rain. K’nell didn’t seem to mind; he sucked in a few deep breaths, and exhaled the electric soil tinged air, leaving a metallic taste to cover his tongue.

Truth be told there was too much on his mind to really take in the wonders of life, his hand firmly grasping the dream orb. The task of walking upside down did not in fact ease his thinking, he sighed, and suddenly fell to the ground. With a gentle shmuk he hit the wet soil, his boots standing firm yet somehow avoided collecting the mud. He pressed onward, a soft hum coming to his lips.

As he hummed in thought, his eyes returned to the image of a bird, one that had been following him for quite some time. He had seen it when it broke the horizon hours ago, but only now was it in danger of landing on his own shoulder.

He stopped. The black and white bird was the size of his forearm and held curious eyes that scanned the god many times over. A harsh mimicking hum came from the bird, matching K’nells own. A smile broke across K’nell’s face, “Ah.”

“Ah,” The magpie mimicked, soliciting a bigger smile from K’nell.

“It is a coincidence that you can speak,” K’nell feigned wonder, “Because I have a story, one about the very God of speech.”

“It’s ah!” The bird echoed.

K’nell held out his arm, and the bird landed, it’s tiny feet somehow not even bringing one wrinkle to his jacket. K’nell hummed gently and the bird copied. The two stood like that for hours, until hundreds and hundreds of Magpies flocked the skies. The humming stop and K’nell cleared his throat.

“Ah, very good,” He started, “Now with a proper audience, I shall relay to you a tale of my own eyes and mind.”

K’nell continued to speak, his words exiting his mouth as wisps of glowing white. The wisps held the story of Li’Kalla’s cry for help and the sudden appearance of Vakk’s deadly tentacles, ending it on the story of the subsequent coming of the beast and the splitting soul, and how through these acts Li’Kalla had been broken, only to eventually be saved.

The wispy words flew snugly into the bird’s ears, and before long the flock erupted in a cacophony, their bird tongues twisting as they all retold the story over and over, the moral of the story clear yet unsaid; the God of Speech is not to be trusted.

On and on they talked and on and on they told the story. K’nell nodded at the irony of the situation, his mind twisting with ideas, “A tale for the magpie, for all generations; let it never fade and let the moral stand. With this, I bless your family.”

He lifted his arm, sending the magpie off into a flurry. Without much more, K’nell shoved his hands into his pocket and continued on his way. The roaring flock broke into all directions above him, their voices thunder as they retold the tale of Vakk and Li’Kalla.

---

The walk was uneventful; the stormy clouds remained, as did K’nell’s many thoughts. His eyes fixed downward, and only after a few taps of his chin did he finally look upwards from the muddy plains. His eyes shot upward at the storm, it’s dark haze hiding the sky. K’nell squinted, noticing a large and familiar soul floating along with the clouds -- no -- was the clouds.

An orb of lightning lit up the area around K’nell like the sun. The orb was joined by a second orb, then the impression of a face formed with the two orbs in the place of eyes. "K’nell, we meet," Ashalla’s voice boomed like thunder.

The power of the voice called K’nell to blink as the wind pushed past. Taking a moment to readjust himself, he gave a curt nod, “It would seem so.”

There was a pause, only the sound of rain, wind and distant thunder between them. Ashalla was the first to speak. "I noticed a flock of black-and-white birds telling a rather peculiar story not long ago. Would you have had anything to do with that?"

“Yes,” K’nell took his hands from his pockets, “Did they disturb you?”

"No, although the story raises some questions," Ashalla said, "Where did the beast come from, and whose is it?"

“Li'Kalla,” K'nell answered simply, “In all regards.”

Ashalla rumbled thoughtfully. "Of the battle between Li’Kalla and Vakk, I assume there was a physical counterpart. What was the outcome?"

K'nell had been finger deep in a small silver tin he had produced from his jacket as the question was poised. Quickly snagging a small finger long cigarillo he snapped the tin shut and slid it into his pocket.

“Ah,” K'nell said as if to hold his place in the conversation, “There was no living sign of Vakk, it appears he had fled.”

A wet huff issued from somewhere within Ashalla. The God placed the cigarillo between his lips and deftly lit it with a phantom flame. His eyes flickered upward and he went to reproduce the tin, “I'm sorry dear, how rude of me. Would you care for a cigarillo?”

The great orbs of lightning which were Ashalla’s eyes flickered imperceptibly as they looked at the miniscule tin and cigarillo. "No," Ashalla said. She then continued with her questioning. "If you only witnessed the aftermath of the battle, how do you know these things?"

The end of the cigarillo glew as K'nell took a long vanilla scented pull, he seemed to ponder the question for a moment. Finally he slid the cigar from his mouth and slowly blew a thick stream of smoke.

The smoke turned and floated upwards. As it did, the wisps of grey took on new shapes and eventually colors, until Ashalla was seeing --and somehow hearing-- K’nell’s own memories from the moment he had found the puddles, to the conclusion of his time within the dreams of Li’Kalla. The images were in such dimension as to match the many visions of a God, so much so that it is likely any mortal would have been driven mad attempting to see the story in the smoke. K’nell puffed out a ring of smoke, the new miasma ending the story with the image of the bright blue rose he had placed upon the sleeping beast’s snout.

Another thoughtful rumble echoed through Ashalla, this rumble bouncing off the landscape and lasting for some time. "You now seek to restore the lost parts of Li’Kalla," she eventually said.

K’nell flicked the stub of his cigarillo, the brown wrap disappearing into nothingness before it could hit the ground, “It would appear so.”

"I shall inform you if I happen to locate one of these parts," Ashalla said.

“That would be appreciated,” K’nell nodded with a respect smile, “Thank you.”
There was a lull in the conversation between the two. Ashalla broke the silence. "I met your creation Hermes not long ago."

“And how did you take to her?” K’nell seemed to crane is neck upwards in interest.

"She is a wonderful dancer and appreciates beauty, although her hubris is perhaps slightly greater than what is appropriate for a mortal and your design for her was lacking in a couple key details," Ashalla said.

“It is unfortunate that you feel that way,” K’nell replied with a polite smile. He paused in a humming thought, “Might I ask; how would you create a mortal?”

"If I am creating a fleshy creature, I bring together biomatter and transmute it to form a living creature," Ashalla said, "If you refer to design, the key differences is that I would include a means for the mortal to reproduce and I would include colour."

“Understandable and forthright,” K’nell nodded, “If I may perpetuate the hypothetical; what shall be the purpose of your new creation?”

"You are implying an intelligent mortal being similar to Hermes?" Ashalla said. There was a pause. "I do not know. I was speaking of living things in general."

“As was I,” K’nell smiled upwards, “Forgive the confusion.”

"I created a large bird very recently, near the north-eastern tip of this continent. I gave the bird wind in her voice, lightning in her plumage, thunder in her wings, and midnight blue feathers with a dash of azure. I made it to stand above the large beasts Kirron had made in that region."

“Beautiful,” K’nell’s voice began to swirl away from him, “but if I may ask, why?”

Ashalla seemed to be taken aback by the question. "To show my strength through my creations, of course."

“Of course,” K’nell nodded, his smile unending. A grainy hum swirled around the God for a moment, “Show to who?”

Ashalla rumbled for a moment, then answered, "Everyone."

At this point, K’nell’s smile had arced into a cheshire grin, his head bobbing in understanding, “I’m sure everyone will see.”
Ashalla’s cloudy face gave a nod. "Have you seen Hermes recently?"

“I have,” K’nell’s voice hung between them.

"Did you like my addition to her?" Ashalla asked expectantly.

“I did,” The God of Sleep’s smile flashed again, his voice returning to his mouth.

The clouds above K’nell burbled happily. "So, why did you create Hermes?"

“To see,” K’nell answered cryptically, “We are damned as well as divine. Tied to a purpose and driven by our own means; there are things even a God cannot see or create without a little help.”

Ashalla simply gave a wet huff in response. A smile cracked on K’nell’s face and he slid the tin back from out of his jacket, “Until next time, then?”

"Until next time, K’nell," Ashalla replied. The face in the storm disappeared, and the clouds blew away.

Summary

Taking a stroll on the Krablunds, K’nell is met by an army of magpies. With much on his mind, he decides to bless their mimicking voice and song, so that they retell the tale of Vakk’s assault on Li’Kalla and subsequent soul breaking things. He then sends them on their way.

He soon bumps (not literally) into Ashalla and the two talk about Vakk and Li’Kalla. Ashalla does not respond strongly to the story, but promises to let K’nell know if she finds any fragments of Li’Kalla.

The conversation quickly dies but then is revamped with talks about Hermes and then some deeper questions on what Ashalla would create, has created, why and for who. The talk ends on her fishing for a well deserved compliment, which she receives, causing her to burble.

She then asks K’nell why he created Hermes, his cryptic and somewhat demeaning (to Gods) answer causing her to huff. K’nell finds it amusing and bids her farewell.

Might Summary

K’nell
Start: 0 MP & 1 FP
Spent: 1FP spent on blessing the magpies with a never ending story
End: Nuthin’

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Ashalla

Ashalla was drifting in the ocean currents once more, idly listening to the music box's tune. In truth, the music was starting to get dull, for the box seemed to have no creativity of its own. The music was all of the same style and sounds, and even some of the melodies were starting to get repeated. She would need to find another source of music at some point, for as Xiaoli had demonstrated with her flute there were many ways to produce beauty from sound.

Ashalla also took this time to reflect upon her meeting with Hermes and Xiaoli. She had liked Xiaoli. Xiaoli recognised and affirmed Ashalla's superiority. Although Ashalla lacked the physiology to properly appreciate the tea, her music had been beautiful and even her form demonstrated artistry using nothing but water and river matter. It was odd that Xiaoli, a divine being of water, appeared to have more in common with fleshy beings than herself, but perhaps that was due to her role as Shengshi's advisor. She would have to visit Shengshi some time to discuss Xiaoli, this 'etiquette' and 'manners', and other matters befitting two water gods.

As for Hermes, Ashalla had some mixed feelings. Hermes was a beautiful dancer and affirmed Ashalla's artistry, but unlike Xiaoli she was not submissive. In her hubris she had even attempted to form a pact of friendship with a god! Such a naive attitude was understandable from a simple being like Poppler, but Hermes was surely intelligent enough to know better. Yet she said she had successfully made friends with other gods, so this indicated as much about the other gods' characters as it did Hermes'. It was likely a minor misunderstanding, rather than a claim to godhood. Regardless, Hermes had appreciated her gift, and would surely remember her divine power and show it to all Hermes met.

As Ashalla drifted and mused, land came into sight. Ashalla did not remember there being land here, although she did remember a while back when she felt a vast amount of ocean being displaced and she mentally correlated the two events. A new continent, another feature in her ocean, had been formed. Ashalla quickened her pace towards the new continent.

There were lots of trees, except these trees were different to those which she had seen in the Eye of Desolation or on Kalgrun. She pushed part of her form inland, flooding an area and feeling all the wildlife, identifying some of the plants and animals native to this area. Large, furry, omnivorous quadrupeds stood out as significant, but there were many other species too. She even saw a few Gemstone Gardeners.

She navigated south down the coast, and for a time things appeared much the same. Further along, however, shades of red were added to the pallet of green and brown which characterised the flora and fauna. Ashalla tasted this new land, and could clearly identify Kirron's ichor. So Kirron painted this part of the land. Pretty.

As Ashalla looked further, she realised that Kirron had done much more than simply apply colour. She saw towering beasts of great strength and was inspired by them. Kirron had filled this part of the continent with powerful beasts. What better display of power and creativity than creating something powerful? And what better way to assert her own might than by creating something more powerful than what she saw before her?

The ocean began to churn and swirl as biomatter was drawn in from around Ashalla. The mass condensed in the centre of the maelstrom and began to take shape. Four limbs, a body which extended beyond the lower two limbs and a head which ended in a point took shape. As the flesh was sculpted further, it became apparent that this was the embryonic form of a very large bird, curled up without an egg. As Ashalla continued to shape the creature, it grew, and feathers began to sprout from its skin. These feathers were coloured midnight blue, and crackled with static electricity. It kept growing, its coat of dark feathers becoming complete, its wings and tail gaining a fuller form. From its feet sprung sharp talons and its beak hardened to be sharper than iron. As the great bird grew larger, the electricity in its feathers started to spark and crackle. It only stopped growing once it rivalled the size of Kirron's largest megafauna. As a final flourish, Ashalla added a long azure feather beside each eye, trailing backwards.

The creature complete, Ashalla withdrew from the vast bird, freeing it from its watery womb. Its eyelids snapped open, revealing a brilliant blue-white glow. It inhaled deeply, its voluminous lungs filling with air, its chest expanding and wings stretching out. It then exhaled, a great gale blowing across the ocean and pushing waves onto the beach. It flapped its wings to shake the seawater out of its feathers, producing a peal of thunder as it moved. Arcs of electricity continued to dance across its feathers and the water around it.

Ashalla watched the creature from all angles and admired her handiwork. This mighty beast would surely be a fitting display of her power in this land of great beasts. Ashalla remembered another thing - she still needed to find a home for the music box. Ashalla fashioned a simple harness and net from seaweed, put the music box in it and wrapped it around the great bird so that the box was held beneath its chest. The bird shifted awkwardly as the sling was tied around it, but otherwise did not complain.

With the music box secured, Ashalla withdrew from the bird once more and commanded, "Thunderbird, fly!"

The Thunderbird cried an ear-splitting "CAAAAWWW!" then took to the air in a single mighty wing-beat, producing a mighty pulse of thunder which caused the surface of the ocean to ripple. Ashalla watched proudly as it flew inland, sparkling with lightning and roaring with thunder.

Behold, the flight of the Thunderbird!

Yet, as Ashalla watched, a sour feeling of jealousy grew within her. While she was all-mighty in the oceans, on land she was weak. Her journey across the Isle of Twilight had shown her this. Yet countless species and beings on Galbar could travel over land with ease. It was not right for this bird which she had created to be a more able traveller than herself.

But the feeling did not stay for long, because she had devised a solution. She had seen enough of the world to be sure that this solution would be effective, both for overland travel and for portraying her strength. As the Thunderbird flew, the ocean steamed.

---

A herd of large creatures grazed on shrubs and grasses in the Great Hooflands. Their hefty tails lazily swung side to side as the afternoon sun shone on their tough, thick skin. As they grazed, a dark shape appeared in the sky, coming from the east and announced by distant thunder. The grazers glanced towards it, but did not give it any thought until the dark shape came much closer. The grazers looked up again to see a midnight blue bird larger than they were diving towards them. They turned their rears towards the bird and lifted their weighted tails menacingly.

The bird did not attempt to strike, but instead pulled up before the beasts with a single thunderous wing-beat. The clap of thunder pulsed through the beast before the bird, stunning it, and the terrific noise startled the other beasts who turned to flee. The Thunderbird then dropped on top of the stunned beast, its talons gripping the beast's back and lightning crackling down the Thunderbird's legs. The beast spasmed and writhed as electricity coursed through its body until it dropped dead. As the beast collapsed, the Thunderbird stooped down its head and began to devour the beast with its powerful beak.

As the Thunderbird gorged itself on its first meal, the eastern horizon darkened. The bird's nostrils flared and it looked up from its meal towards the horizon. It knew that a storm was brewing. A vast storm cloud blew in from across the horizon, carried by hurricane-force winds. The storm cast a deep shadow upon the ground beneath it, casting a darkness blacker than night illuminated by frequent flashes of lightning. Rain pelted the ground below, flooding the savannahs of the Hooflands.

The Thunderbird cawed as the storm drew near. It stretched out its wings and was swept up by the storm's mighty winds. The Thunderbird banked around and flew into the dark cloud, unafraid of the turbulence and heavy rain. Lightning struck the bird, but rather than harming the bird its feathers crackled more strongly until it discharged into the clouds. The Thunderbird easily found an updraft in the storm and rode it until the bird was above the storm. From this great altitude the Thunderbird saw the expansive Great Hooflands stretch out beneath it.

A voice like a buffeting gale spoke from the storm to the Thunderbird. "You have eaten. Good. Let us find a worthy roost."

"CAW!" The bird scanned the horizon. The western horizon was rugged from a distant, vast mountain range which tapered away towards the northern end. Yet just beyond the end of the mountain range proper was a lone mountain. "CAW!"

"Very well," said the storm who was Ashalla as the Thunderbird glided towards the lone mountain, riding her winds.

---

Raucous thunder rolled over Mount Chop as the Thunderbird landed on its plateau. Ashalla's howling winds soon followed, her form towering as a colossal cumulonimbus. Two orbs of lightning crackled into being near the exterior of the cloud facing the bird and Mount Chop. "Yes, this is a fitting roost. It has a commanding view of the surrounding countryside, ample flat space to make a nest, and you claim ownership over a landmark sculpted by divine hands. It would be hard to claim a better location," Ashalla said with a voice like pouring rain.

"Coo," the Thunderbird cooed, it's voice still carrying incredible force and volume despite vocalising calmly.

"Now, remove the netting," Ashalla commanded.

The Thunderbird hopped onto one foot, reached up with a talon and tore apart the seaweed ropes around its chest. The Box of Orchestration clattered to the ground. A forceful wind picked up the box and set it down the right way up. "Keep that box safe," Ashalla commanded.

"Caw."

Satisfied, Ashalla withdrew and blew away, deeper into Atokhekwoi. The Thunderbird watched the storm recede over the horizon. Then it circled around the plateau it had claimed as its home. A flap of its wings stunned a warren of small furry creatures, which the Thunderbird promptly devoured as a quick snack. It uprooted the trees which had attempted to grow on the rocky plateau and laid them out in a protective circle around the music box. It strutted some more until it noticed movement in the distant plains below. A herd of creatures. Dinner.

"CAAAAWW!" the Thunderbird cried as it took to the skies once more, thunder heralding its flight.

Let the kaiju battles begin!

Ashalla recovers her music box. She's starting to grow tired of it.

Ashalla reflects on her meeting with Xiaoli and Hermes.

Ashalla discovers Atokhekwoi and the Great Hooflands.

Wanting to one-up Kirron, Ashalla creates the Thunderbird, a gargantuan bird with wind in its breath, thunder in its wings and lightning in its feathers. She straps the music box to it and sends it inland. (-2 FP for a single beast of phenomenal power)

Ashalla claims the Storms Portfolio. (8 FP from the Maelstrom and 2 FP from the Thunderbird unlock it. -5 MP to buy the Portfolio)

To aid in overland flight, Ashalla adopts the form of a colossal storm of tremendous power. (-3 MP for a truly fantastical form, enhanced by the Storms Portfolio.)

We see the Thunderbird in action hunting its first meal, a dinosaur, using thunder to stun and lightning to kill.

Ashalla arrives as a storm. The Thunderbird has an unusual affinity for storms.

They fly to Mount Chop and the Thunderbird makes its roost there. The Box of Orchestration is left here for safekeeping.

The Thunderbird is now the alpha predator in the Great Hooflands.

Might Summary

Ashalla
Start: 9 MP & 8 FP
Spent: 8 MP & 2 FP
End: 1 MP & 6 FP, Goddess of Oceans and Storms
Portfolios: Colour 4/10
Ice 9/10

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@Scarescrow If the aura is extremely bright, like sunlight, that is not something you could get for free. If it is just some gentle illumination or a soft glow, that should be acceptable.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@Scarescrow To be clear, Anzillu can still be your parent if @LokiLeo789 wants. You just have to figure out a different way for him to be his parent.

For the abilities, the light part of Praise Be The Light might be stretching things depending how bright it is, although making others more likely to like you is appropriate. Sacred Bonds does not appear to fit under the Love Portfolio, and even if you could wrangle it in it sounds like a Blessing rather than an Ability.

Give us your revised CS when ready.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Collaboratively written by AdorableSaucer, BBeast and Goldeagle1221

The great continental gears of Swahhitteh-Tendlepog dragged enormous arctic currents down towards the tropics. In these currents drifted Ashalla and her music box. With her touch she felt the vast ocean around her. With her hearing she listened to the melodies of the music box. And with her sight she watched Heliopolis and the clouds drift lazily across the endless expanse of Blue above her.

Yet there was another object, one small and anomalously fast. A pair of large watery eyes manifested in the water to stare more clearly at the anomaly. She triangulated the object’s position and velocity and determined it to be travelling at supersonic speeds. She also resolved that the object was actually two intertwined creatures of the two-armed-two-legged form favoured by many of the gods, although these figures were not familiar to Ashalla. Before she could resolve them entirely, they zoomed overhead and receded into the distance.

It took Ashalla only a moment to decide that she would investigate. What gave her pause was determining what to do with her music box. She could not swim fast enough to catch up while also dragging the box with her. Reluctantly, Ashalla released the box to float on the ocean. However, she did not intend to abandon the box completely. Ashalla gently tugged the ocean, and a small current broke off from the large one to carry the box after Ashalla. Then Ashalla was gone, rushing away as a submarine pulse.

While the anomaly was fast, Ashalla was much faster and soon overtook the two speeding people. Ashalla then drew herself up as a relatively small mountain of water, clearly visible in the open ocean, although she did not quite reach the altitude of the flying duo. Ashalla called out at the approaching creatures with a booming voice that reverberated from the entirety of her vast form. “What are you?”

Xiaoli looked down, spotting the unnatural formation in the sea through the blur. She squeezed Hermes a few times to grab her attention and tried her best to yell, “STOOOOOP!” through the chaotic winds, thumbing desperately at the mountain of water below them as she tried to hold on.

Xiaoli’s voice whipped past Hermes before her ears could even perceive it. Fortunately, her squeeze did not go unnoticed and the Dreamer slowed down, “What?”

Xiaoli let go of Hermes’ waist with one arm, clutching desperately on with the other as she pointed down at the funny pattern in the water. Hermes furrowed her brow, causing her spiral to squish up. She held Xiaoli tight again as she zipped down to the water, circling around it in examination.

The peak of the watery mountain shaped itself into a head which twisted around to follow Hermes. A vast tendril of seawater stretched up towards her, and Ashalla repeated her question. “What are you?”

“Hermes,” The Dreamer answered, suddenly coming to a complete stop, “What are you?”

“I am a god, and I am the ocean. My name is Ashalla,” the goddess answered. The tendril reached Hermes and licked at her sandals. “My question is unanswered. What are you?”

“I’m a Dreamer, and I am… Hermes,” Hermes cocked a brow, “Dreamer, Hermes,” She started counting off her fingers to make sure she got it all, “I beat Kalmar in a race; Befriended Narhak, Li’Kalla, Poppler, Xiaoli, and of course, Kalmar. I’ve explored all the lands of Galbar, was created by my God: K’nell, and I want to make more Dreamers, of which I am one, the only one. I was created to live, and to experience, which I have done very well, if I say so myself, but I am allowed more purpose than that as is natural.”

As Hermes spoke, the tendril felt its way around her. The one named Hermes was a mortal creature, yet she carried divine objects. Her winged sandals bore K’nell’s essence and the metal club on her back reeked of Narzhak. The tendril brushed against Xiaoli, then prodded her. “What about you, fragment of Shengshi?” Ashalla asked.

Xiaoli shuddered as saltwater licked at her body. Her grip around Hermes waned for a moment and she slip down slightly, causing Hermes to squeeze. “I-I-I… I am Xiaoli, first advisor to His Lordship Shengshi of the Thousand Streams, Your Holiness!” She kicked around with her legs, which were now dangling a little below Hermes’ feet.

“I, uhm, forgive my unacceptable rudeness, Your Holiness - I am currently not able to perform a proper greeting, as I am… Uh-...” She hesitated again, looking downwards at the sea far below.

Ashalla rumbled slightly, then said, “Your body types are suited to land. Perhaps this would be easier if you had land to stand on.”

Hermes nodded as she attempted to keep her grip tight around Xiaoli, who made an attempt to climb back up into a favourable position.

A line sprouted from Ashalla’s form and pointed over the horizon. “The nearest land is in that direction. A short flight at your speed.”

With a final nod, Hermes and her catch turned into a blur once again, leaving nothing but a loud clap of sound in their wake. Xiaoli held on tightly as they soared off.

---

The island was a jagged outcrop of rock off the coast of the Kick. In mere moments Hermes’ feet were planted on the ground again, her arms falling to her sides, and Poppler escaping her braid with a happy pop. Xiaoli held on to her for another second before letting go, seeming relieved to have solid ground under her feet. She looked around for where Ashalla had gone to, and saw a mass of water rise up from the ocean before them and adopt the figure of a woman staring down at them.

Xiaoli did not hesitate. She turned so her entire body faced the goddess, cast herself on her knees and leaned forward to press palms and forehead to the ground before the deity.

“Your Holiness - this servant apologises profusely for her uncultured tone as we met. This servant wishes to express such an arrogant request for Your Holiness to forgive her, and to listen as she vows to never again fail to express the appropriate manners before Your Holiness again.” She kept her pose after speaking.

Ashalla leaned in closer, a look of curiosity and confusion on her aqueous face. “What are you doing?” the goddess asked Xiaoli.

“It’s a special kind of manners,” Hermes smiled and nodded politely, her tone helpful. Poppler landed on her nose, crackling in what could have been agreement, or hunger.

Xiaoli sat back onto her ankles, still not facing the goddess quite yet. “Yes - as my dearest friend Hermes said - it is a manner of greeting. As this servant is but a pebble on the riverbed compared to Your Holiness’ grandness and eternal glory, it is expected of this servant to properly demonstrate her rank in relation to Your Holiness’.”

Ashalla rumbled thoughtfully, processing this new information. Her face then twisted to face Hermes. “Why do you not do as she does?”

“Oh,” Hermes gave an apologetic smile, “It’s because I’m not her. We come from different places, and have different experiences. Please,” She looked down at Xiaoli, copying her speech pattern, “Allow me to show you my own custom?”

There was a moment of tense quiet. “Very well. Show me your custom,” Ashalla said.

Hermes zipped on over to Ashalla, hovering just in front of her. The cloudling whizzed around the two as Hermes extended a finger and placed it on Ashalla’s cheek. “A pact of friendship.” Hermes explained as she kept her finger on the watery surface.

The contact did not bother Ashalla in the slightest, but Hermes’ words did. A pact. From her pause, it appeared that Hermes wished her to reciprocate to seal the pact. Ashalla considered it for a moment, then receded from the finger. “You have not yet earned such a pact,” Ashalla said, her voice a disdainful ripple.

“I understand,” Hermes smile was unwavering, “Narzhak had reservations, too.”

She pondered for a moment, “We can talk, relax together, and then circle our way back at a later date. What do you like to do for fun?” Far below, Xiaoli looked a little concerned.

Ashalla perked up slightly as the conversation turned to herself. “I create all manner of beautiful things,” Ashalla answered.

Hermes looked down at Xiaoli, then back up at Ashalla, “I like beautiful things, can you show me?”

“Of course!” Ashalla said before her form collapsed into the ocean with a terrific splash, which promptly caused Xiaoli to hunker down behind a nearby boulder. After several seconds, a colourful web of algae floated to the surface. Within this algae danced jellyfish with many forms and fish with iridescent scales flashing in all the colours of the rainbow. Ashalla then rose back up beside her sampling of sea life. She pulled up a watery limb, flash-freezing the water into an ice sculpture of abstract, twisting forms which caused the light to dance and refract in a mesmerising pattern. Ashalla then pulled up another limb to create another ice sculpture, this one a remarkable rendition of a majestic feathered bird, the light sparking in the ice crystals. Ashalla then looked expectantly at Hermes and Xiaoli.

Xiaoli, who had been hiding behind the rock for half the spectacle, still appeared utterly awestruck, carefully walking closer to the shore with a slack jaw and wide eyes. She then grinned from ear to ear and applauded the sea goddess enthusiastically, clapping her hands and skipping in place.

“Absolutely marvellous, Your Holiness! A spectacle unforeseen in beauty and skill!” she exclaimed through the clapping and the cheering.

Hermes excited zipped around the sculpture, admiring its many angles, Poppler following suit. With twinkling eyes Hermes gave a big cheshire grin, “It’s gorgeous!”

Melodious laughter echoed from the goddess, swollen with pride. “What of you two? What have you created?” she asked with a cheerful swish.

Xiaoli stepped forward, bowed once more to Ashalla and presented her a small leather pack bound with elastic river weeds, which she had taken out of the band around her waist. A pseudopod reached out to grab the gift, lifting it out of Xiaoli’s hands and slithering around and inside the pack. The inside of the pack was divided into two sections: The left half was full of yellow flowers that gave off a sensual smell; the right half was almost empty, but at the bottom of the pack laid a few green leaves which gave off a gentle, soothing scent.

“Your Holiness - this servant wishes to introduce Your Holiness to a little treat the River Lord and His servant made together some time ago, now. It is known as tea, a drink made by putting the contents of that pack into almost-boiling water and allowing them to infuse the water with their tastes, scents and elements.” She bowed again. “This servant prays Her Holiness would be interested in a demonstration.”

“Art for the senses of taste and smell…” Ashalla mused. The pseudopod returned the pack to Xiaoli, only slightly damp - she accepted it with two hands and a bow. “Yes, do demonstrate it,” Ashalla said.

Xiaoli smiled and bowed once again. “The preparation will take a little while. May this servant trouble Her Holiness with waiting for a few minutes?”

“Such a wait is not an issue,” Ashalla said.

“Thank You, Your Holiness. The tea will be ready posthaste.” Xiaoli bowed yet another time, walked backwards for a few steps while still bowing before turning on her heel. She proceeded to stroll around and collect pebbles on the beach to, most likely, turn into a tea set.

Ashalla turned her attention to Hermes. “And you? What have you created?”

Hermes looked nervously at Poppler for a moment, the question hitting a sore spot, but a crackle later and an idea popped in her head, “I’d need Xiaoli to show you.” She turned to the River Avatar, “If that’s okay with you both?”

Xiaoli, at this point a bit of a distance away, turned around with her hands full of pebbles in all shapes and sizes. She hummed inquisitively. “Did you say anything, Hermes?” she yelled a distance off.

With an apologetic look towards Ashalla, Hermes suddenly darted off. She stopped next to Xiaoli, whispering in her ear, Ashalla’s hearing picking up the words, “Do you dance?”

Xiaoli flushed, nearly dropping her rocks. “D-dance?! I mean, I-... I can, but… It might not be how you think,” she said, making herself a little smaller.

Hermes pursed her lips, “What if I lead? K’nell has taught me all sorts of dances, they are easy.”

“S-sure,” Xiaoli said quietly, her cheeks a racey shade of pink. She put the pile of rocks on the ground and waved her hands a little. The rocks then slowly began to move and sand each other into different shapes: There was one teapot, one kettle, three teacups, one serving cup, one discard bowl and one spoon. She waved another hand, and the leftover rocks rolled over to the beach in front of Ashalla and formed a small tea table, which the dishware soon gathered on top of.

“Okay, ready,” she said, grinning nervously at Hermes.

Gripping Xiaoli’s hand, Hermes walked her back to Ashalla. She looked up at the God, “It’s not much, but here is what I can create.”

With little else Hermes pulled Xiaoli close and then took a step back. Then a step forward, and in a few moments the pair was spinning, stopping, and moving in such a way that one could just hear the notes of the music that must have been playing in Hermes’ mind. She would twist, and you could feel the vibration of the piano. She would suddenly stop, as if the brass called for her to do so. She would rapidly -- yet smoothly -- move Xiaoli and herself in patterns that dazzled, as if lured by the violin. In the end the orchestra of the Palace of Dreams was playing in her head, and expressed in her very movements, with Xiaoli acting as her second self.

As the performance drew to a close, Ashalla burbled cheerily. “Wondrous!” she exclaimed, “Beauty from motion.”

Xiaoli looked almost ready to pass out, but whether it was from exhaustion, embarrassment or entrancement was difficult to determine. Hermes smiled a wide cheshire smile, her heart aflutter with joy at the compliments. She let go of Xiaoli, but not before giving her a friendly tap on the shoulder, “We did it!”

The river girl snapped to and looked around, her eyes eventually fixing on Hermes’ face, followed by a wide grin. “Y-yes… You were beautiful,” she blurted out quietly, then promptly flushed again. “Uh, right! Tea! Apologies, Your Holiness - it will be ready shortly!”

With that, she scuttled over to the tea table and begun boiling some water in the kettle by heating a few rocks and setting the kettle on top of them. As she waited for the water to boil, she hummed sheepishly to herself. Eventually, the kettle began to radiate heat, as well. At that point, Xiaoli extracted a handful of flowers from the leather pouch, attentively measuring the ideal number that would fit in the teapot. She left the flowers in the discard bowl for the time being. Shortly thereafter, the water had, presumably, reached the ideal temperature for brewing, seeing as Xiaoli lifted the kettle off the hot rocks and poured the teapot full - she then poured the teacups and the serving cup full of hot water and set the kettle back on the rocks.

“The cups must themselves be warm - both to clean them and to keep the tea’s flavour from changing too much as it is poured.” Xiaoli tipped her torso in the direction of Ashalla yet another time. A subtle nod from the goddess indicated for her to continue.

The cups warmed sufficiently, at which point Xiaoli removed the flowers from the discard bowl and held them in her left hand; with her right, she poured the hot water out of the teapot and replaced it with the flowers. She then poured some more hot water over the flowers, discarding the hot water in the cups as they waited for the tea to brew. After merely thirty seconds, she poured the tea into the hot serving cup, and then from the serving cup into the smaller teacups. She picked up one of the cups, stood up and offered it to Ashalla with both hands and an inclined head.

“Your Holiness’ tea is complete.”

A watery pseudopod stretched out to the teacup, dipped into it and withdrew, taking all the tea with it. The darker water of the tea swirled around the end of the pseudopod. “Compounds in the flower have been extracted by the hot water, making them more prominent to the senses. Among the compounds is one which enhances bond formation in fleshy beings,” was Ashalla’s dispassionate analysis.

“An excellent analysis, Your Holiness. This servant created this tea with the intention of it being used as an instrument of peace, friendship and lo-... Love. The effect can be quite strong if it is brewed for too long, but that would also completely ruin the flavour. Speaking of, does Her Holiness have a comment regarding the flavour?”

“The flavour is amicable. An entire body of water made from this tea would be overwhelming, but in small quantities it presents no issues,” Ashalla commented.

Xiaoli shuffled back and once again kowtowed before the goddess, while Hermes and Poppler watched from atop a sitting rock. “Your Holiness’ words humble this servant deeply. This servant is eternally grateful.” She sat back up and held up the serving cup. “Would Your Holiness like some more?”

Ashalla looked blankly at the serving cup. “No,” she said.

Xiaoli’s smile faded somewhat, but she nodded curtly and sat back down. “As Your Holiness wishes. Would Your Holiness mind if this servant shared a cup with Hermes in Your Holiness’ presence?”

“You may,” Ashalla said.

Xiaoli grinned and beckoned Hermes over, pouring a cup for Hermes and herself. The Dreamer plopped down next to Xiaoli, Poppler stealing a sprinkle from Hermes’ tea before she managed to get ahold of it, “Thank you.”

Squirming, Hermes unlooped her club and her spear, and placed it down next to her as she took a slow sip, Poppler crackling nearby greedily. Xiaoli giggled and had a sip from her own cup, wincing a little at the heat. She hummed in satisfaction to herself.

“What do you think, Hermes?” she asked softly.

“It’s even better than the first time,” Hermes smiled, inciting a grumpy Zzt!. At his wits end, Poppler zipped into Hermes’ cup, his fluffy white body staining a deep tea color. Content pops crackled as Hermes attempted to shoo the cloudling between amused chuckles. Xiaoli let out a humoured sigh and refilled the serving cup with another batch of tea from the pot.

“Oh, Poppler - if you wanted some, you could’ve just asked!” She enchanted a rock into a cup and filled it with tea for Poppler to dip in.

Hermes placed down the cup that contained the bloated cloudling and inched towards the new cup, “It is probably easier if I just take his.” Xiaoli chuckled and had another sip of her own cup.

“Oh!” Hermes nearly spilled her tea as an idea popped into her head, “Xiaoli,” she slurped, having not quite swallowed the gulp she had in her mouth, “What if we added the sweet grass to tea?”

”...Pop?”

Xiaoli’s face lost all colour for a moment. “Y-.. You mean it’s not sweet enough for you?” she whimpered.

Hermes waved a hand, “No- no! It is, but I mean,” She looked for the words in her tea, “Just a new flavor -- a Tendlepog flavor.”

Xiaoli looked down in her tea and rocked her cup somberly from side to side. “I… I don’t know… I think it’s-... It’s fine as it is.”

“Okay,” Hermes returned to sipping her tea, but her voice was without conviction, betraying the idea that perhaps the conversation was not quite finished. Slowly her black eyes shifted to the side, casually glancing at the God of the Ocean, who had extended a pseudopod out to taste the metal club.

Xiaoli followed her eyes and looked up at the Ocean Goddess. In contrast to Hermes, she turned her entire body, inclined her torso and spoke, “Does Her Holiness believe the tea needs additional sweetness?” Hermes’ brow collapsed into a squint as she finished her sip, but silently awaited the response of the Goddess.

Ashalla paused, looking between Xiaoli and Hermes. “Fleshy beings instinctively desire flavours such as sweetness. Whether such a flavour will benefit the tea or unbalance its composition, I cannot say,” Ashalla stated. Her pseudopod crept onwards towards the spear.

Hermes shot a knowing glare at Xiaoli before smiling at Poppler, “What about you, Poppler?”

The small cloudling popped a few times before buzzing around the spear as well. Hermes gave Xiaoli a satisfied nod, who pouted quietly.

“Well… P-please do not add any to my cup, in that case,” she muttered into her cup, causing Hermes to purse her lips in concern.

At this point Ashalla let out a bewildered outburst with a voice like a crashing wave. “What is this thing?” Her pseudopod burgeoned in size as it tried to sweep up the spear, which stubbornly ignored Ashalla’s presence even as dust and gravel were stirred up into the pseudopod. “I can see it but not feel it.”

“Oh!” Hermes watched in confusion at first, but slowly the puzzle fell into place, “That's Kalmar's gift. It is for fishing, and makes no fuss of the water when you use it.”

Ashalla withdrew her quivering pseudopod and huffed with a sound like spraying water. Xiaoli eyed the situation intently, as if watching a performance with tea as her refreshment.

Hermes looked at Poppler helplessly, scooting closer to the spear, “Do- do you want me to show you?”

Ashalla gave the spear an icy stare for a second longer. “Yes,” was Ashalla’s terse response.

Hermes scrambled to her feet and picked up her spear. Walking over to the lapping waters by the rocky coast, she gave it a few test thrusts. She looked down into the murky waters, looking for a shallow enough place to toss it. After picking her target -- a little sandy bank by one of the rocky spires -- she tossed it with practiced agility. The spear darted through the air, and without a sound or splash slipped through the water like a sewing needle, embedding itself in the sand with nearly the exact same force that it was thrown.

Smiling up at Ashalla, Hermes presented the scene with wide arms, “See?”

Ashalla saw, but did not feel, even as the spear was thrown through her (although Hermes knew not that her form extended beyond what had an obvious shape). “Yes,” Ashalla said curtly, still apparently dissatisfied.

“Okay,” Hermes bit her lip, “Is something wrong?”

Ashalla did not answer. To answer honestly would be to admit weakness. A dishonest answer would be woefully transparent. So she silently considered her adversary, the untouchable spear. She flowed over it, and this flow moved some sand which in turn nudged the spear. This movement gave Ashalla a flash of inspiration. She lifted a watery limb out of the water, freezing into shape two rectangular blocks of ice. She then picked up the slabs of ice and clapped them around the spear. She lifted the blocks of ice, and they carried the spear with them.

Ashalla swirled triumphantly as she hefted the ice-encased spear up high. She then lobbed the chunk of ice at one of the island’s rock spires. The ice shattered and the spear clattered off the stone onto the ground. “I will not be bested by a mere tool,” she declared in a voice like a crashing wave.

“You did it,” Hermes encouraged, making her way over to the spear, a little unsure of the entire situation. She slipped the spear back into its loop and turned to Ashalla, “Is there anything else you want to try? To experience?”

Ashalla regarded the question carefully. “There is much I can create and do, but that is beyond your concern,” she answered. Ashalla then swept her gaze across the island and it fell on Poppler. She reached out with a narrow tendril and gave the cloudling a gentle poke.

The cloudling popped and sprinkled a thimble of salty rain. Poppler then floated along, following the tendril back to the source. Buzzing on up to Ashalla’s face, the cloudling began its investigation. It whirled around with thoughtful crackles before finally stopping in front of Ashalla’s face, hoving ever so slightly away from where a nose might be.

“Where do you come from, living cloud?” Ashalla asked.

“Pop!”

“The lands of K’nell and Eurysthenes,” Ashalla said. “Is that the continent which moves?”

“Crackle.”

“I thought so. And you travel with Hermes, drinking the scraps she lets you consume.”

“Zzt!” The cloudling spun in a proud protest.

“Then why do you follow Hermes?” Ashalla asked.

There was a thoughtful pause and then the cloudling resumed popping and crackling in front of the Goddess, as if explaining a long story. Poppler fell silent and landed on Ashalla’s “nose”, letting out a long crackle.

A bubble rose through Ashalla’s face. “Is that so? You’re unusually ambitious for such a simple creature.” A ripple shook the cloudling off Ashalla’s nose. “It is unlikely that you will surpass a god again, though.”

Poppler let out a quick pop that to the untrained ear almost sounded like a clicking tongue. The cloudling did a quick spin around Ashalla and then crackled.

“Remember your place, tiny one,” Ashalla admonished.

The cloulding let out a single pop and floated off back to Hermes, disappearing into her braids with a wet smack. The Dreamer looked at Ashalla with interest in her black eyes, “I think it is really neat that you can understand him. Though, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, it only makes sense.”

Ashalla shifted slightly in acknowledgement of the comment. Then her gaze settled on Xiaoli. “The motives of a simple water-being like Poppler are easy to understand. I am yet to learn much about you, though,” Ashalla said.

Xiaoli put down her cup, placed her hands on her thighs and bowed. “This servant is more than willing to answer whatever questions Your Holiness may have.”

“You are advisor to Shengshi and a fragment of his divinity. Yet you are nowhere near him. Why?”

Xiaoli tensed up. Her eyes darted first at the goddess, then at Hermes, then at the ground. There was perhaps slightly too long a pause before she finally opened her mouth. “His Lordship thought it best if this servant explored the world with Hermes, in order to learn more and return more capable at advising. This servant has learned much on her travels - she hopes her lord will be satisfied.” She kept her torso at a sharp incline towards Ashalla.

Ashalla rumbled thoughtfully, then inquired, “What have you learned?”

Xiaoli looked to Hermes with a warm smile, who smiled back, then up at Ashalla with a slightly more servile expression. “Hermes has brought this servant to all manner of places, Your Holiness. She has taken this servant to see the Lustrous Garden, where we met Liana, the first serv-... Correction, good friend of Asceal; then she took this servant to see Tendlepog, her home, where she introduced the beautiful continent, like the stampeding trees, the dreamweavers, and this servant even got the pleasure of meeting His Holiness, K’nell. These experiences have taught this servant much about the cultures of these two deities, and His Holiness K’nell even bestowed upon this unworthy servant a magnificent gift.”

Xiaoli paused and presented with both hands the beautiful flute box to Ashalla. She opened it to reveal the flute within. Ashalla’s neck extended so she could look at it more closely. A watery tendril extended to taste the flute. “What is it?” Ashalla asked.

“It is a flute, Your Holiness. It is an instrument with the power to produce soothing music if played. Would Her Holiness like a demonstration?” Xiaoli said, smiling.

“Music? Yes, do demonstrate it,” Ashalla said enthusiastically.

Xiaoli extracted the flute from the box, discreetly dried the seawater off it using her oversized sleeves, and put it to her lips. She concentrated and blew a gentle puff of air that crescendoed calmly into a comfortably loud note, followed by a string of more notes that swung side to side in a soothing, almost somber melody. The sound from the flute coursed through the air like water through sand, dancing its way to the ear canals like a leaf blowing through a window. Poppler let out a weak zzt... and collapsed into Hermes’ lap for her to nurse with a few gentle pokes. Upon finishing the song, Xiaoli clutched the flute to her bosom and bowed.

“Lovely,” Ashalla said in a voice like a gentle trickle. “I had found a box which also produced music, although a different style of music. It seems that there are many possible ways to make beauty with sound.”

“Her Holiness’ observation is true; sound has a wonderfully vast potential in the arts. His Lordship thinks so, too, and often plays His harp in His chambers,” Xiaoli said and momentarily lost her warm smile. She glued it back on, however, and added, “This servant believes Hermes heard some when she first boarded Jiangzhou.”

“Yes,” Hermes nodded, “I did, it was nice.” She pursed her lips, “You found a sound box?” Xiaoli followed her gaze back to the ocean goddess, picking up her teacup again for a few more sips, only to find it empty.

“I did,” Ashalla answered Hermes.

“I found one once,” Hermes explained, “But I lost it over the ocean.” Putting the pieces together she went on, “Perhaps it's the same one?”

“Perhaps,” Ashalla said.

“Perhaps,” Hermes nodded, looking at Poppler uneasily, “You can keep it, if it is.” Xiaoli shot some worried glances between the two.

Ashalla’s gaze regarded Hermes for a moment longer before she said, “Thank you. It makes very nice music.”

Ashalla appeared to think of something as she looked at Hermes. She stretched out a pseudopod which licked against Hermes’ arm, causing her to squirm uncomfortably. Ashalla commented, “You lack pigmentation. Does K’nell not perceive different wavelengths of light?”

Hermes looked hurt, quickly glancing at Xiaoli then back at Ashalla, “You don't like how he made me?”

“Your design is lacking,” Ashalla said.

Ashalla's words seemed to hit deeper than they meant to, causing Hermes to defensively wrap her arms around herself. Without wasting time, Xiaoli put down her cup and hurried over to Hermes, casting her arms around her, whispering, “You are beautiful, my dear, but let us not dismiss a god so curtly.”

The goddess rumbled thoughtfully, then offered, “I can grant you colour.”

Hermes seemed to ponder this closely, “I like how I look… But what do you have in mind?”

“I can create pigmentation in all your external surfaces. But that’s not all,” Ashalla almost danced as she explained her idea. “Regular pigmentation is too simple, not a proper demonstration of my creative abilities. You will be able to change this colouration at will, and these pigments will be able to adopt every colour imaginable.”

“So I can be any color of any kind, whenever I want?” Hermes’ smile started in her eyes before turning her lips into a curl, “That's amazing!”

“Yes,” Ashalla said. Her pseudopod brushed a crackling Poppler out of Hermes’ lap before she said, “Hold your breath.” Xiaoli reluctantly let go of Hermes and shuffled back a little.

The pseudopod suddenly swelled to dwarf Hermes and surged forwards to swallow the Dreamer. Hermes was lifted from the ground as the water crept into every pore and crevice of her body. Her skin and eyes stung painfully from the intrusion. Hermes struggled in pain, causing a worried Poppler to circle the event with anxious popping and a concerned Xiaoli to place her palms over her mouth to hide her panicking gasps.

After several excruciatingly long seconds Hermes found herself sitting on the ground once more, soaking wet but unharmed. “It is done,” Ashalla declared.

Hermes blunk, frozen in shock. Her hands were a strange crimson, which faded into a dark orange as it crept up her arms, which in turn turned yellow, then slowly into green by her shoulders. Prying her shirt away from her neck with her thumb, she let out a gasp as she looked down, “I’m so…”

The colors of her body shifted to a totally new palette as she spoke, her eyes growing ever wider in wonder, “...I’m so pretty!”

Ashalla burbled proudly. “And as you wander the world, all shall see the beauty wrought by my, Ashalla’s, work.”

Hermes’ hair turned a solid black, and her skin copied the complexion of Xiaoli’s. The Dreamer wore a playful smile as she looked over to Xiaoli, who looked absolutely slack-jawed, then back at Ashalla. Suddenly shifting to a beautiful oceanic blue, her smile widened to that akin of K’nell’s own, “Thank you very much, Ashalla.”

Ashalla let Hermes appreciate her gift for a few more moments before her burbling stilled. “However, it appears that colour is not the only thing K’nell neglected when creating you,” Ashalla said more sombrely. Hermes’ smile faded and twisted into one of worry. Her brow collapsed on itself and all her new color seemed to drain away to the original. Ashalla continued, “You have no capacity to reproduce.”

“I know,” Hermes said defensively, her arms wrapping around her abdomen, Poppler landing on her crossed arms with a comforting crackle. Xiaoli, looking a little guilty, chose to stand by Hermes, but not to touch her.

Ashalla rumbled thoughtfully for a long while. Finally she stretched out a line pointing vaguely northwards and said, “In that direction is the island of Arae, whose domain is family. She may be able to rectify K’nell’s short-sight.”

Looking out in the direction the God had indicated, Hermes gave a firm nod, “I think I will pay Arae a visit, then.” Xiaoli blinked, but soon formed a smile at her.

”Pop!”

Two and 70% Waters

Ashalla spots Hermes and Xiaoli zooming overhead and intercepts to investigate. After hasty introductions, they move to a nearby island just north of the Kick to be properly introduced.

In the pursuit, Ashalla left behind her music box, floating on the ocean. She’ll go back for it, but hypothetically someone could find it first if they were quick.

Xiaoli kowtows, and on questioning explains to Ashalla that this is a gesture of humility and recognition of Ashalla’s superior rank. Hermes refuses to bow and instead asks Ashalla to be her friend. Ashalla rejects the offer.

The suave divine diplomat she is, Hermes turns the conversation back to Ashalla, a topic Ashalla is happy to discuss. She demonstrates some colourful sea life and ice sculptures to show off her creativity. She then asks what Xiaoli and Hermes have created.

Hermes demonstrates dancing with Xiaoli as her dance partner, a talent she’d learned from K’nell. Ashalla considers it wonderful.

Xiaoli demonstrates tea and the tea ceremony, using the love tea flowers. Ashalla is indifferent, her senses not suited for appreciating food. Xiaoli and Hermes drink the tea, before Hermes suggests adding sugar Tendlepog sweet grass. Xiaoli objects, Ashalla is indifferent, and Poppler is all for it.

Ashalla then discovers the spear of fishing and that she can’t touch it, because it ignores water. This infuriates her, because it implies weakness. She eventually picks it up using ice and throws it, and her temper subsides.

Ashalla and Poppler have a conversation.

Ashalla then interrogates Xiaoli as to why Shengshi’s Avatar and advisor is not with Shengshi. Xiaoli claims she was sent to learn, and then tells of her travels. She then demonstrates the flute K’nell gave her. Ashalla likes it.

Ashalla mentions the music box she found. Hermes recognises the description, but lets Ashalla keep it.

Ashalla notes Hermes’ lack of colour, who gets offended at mention of her incompleteness. Ashalla then blesses Hermes with colour. Now all exterior surfaces of Hermes is colourful, and Hermes can change the colours at will. Ostensibly, this gift was given so that Ashalla’s artistry can be seen by all who see Hermes.

Ashalla brings up Hermes’ infertility, striking another nerve. Ashalla suggests that Hermes should visit Arae at Dragon’s Crown.

Might Summary

Ashalla
Start: 10 MP & 8 FP
Spent: 1 MP blessing Hermes with colour
End: 9 MP & 8 FP
Portfolios: 4/10 towards Colour
8/10 towards Storms
9/10 towards Ice

Bloopers

“I am a god, and I am the ocean. My name is Ashalla,” the goddess answered. The tendril reached Hermes and licked at her sandals.

“Dis some fetish shit, bruh.”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

---

Hermes looked down at Xiaoli, then back up at Ashalla, “I like beautiful things,”

---

“Yes,” Hermes nodded, “I did, it was nice.” She pursed her lips, “You found a sound box?” Xiaoli followed her gaze back to the ocean goddess, picking up her teacup again for a few more sips, only to find it empty. Thus, she refilled it from the serving cup only to find it replaced with a bear. She discarded the bear with a sigh and put a fresh pot over the fire. Damn Tuesdays...