[IC] ANKL, Chapter II: Touching Oblivion

[Hiss13]

Luck. That was all she was given. In the end, it did not answer the part of the question she really wanted to hear answers about: why the goddesses were even here.

However, Sion felt it was not in her right to question a reincarnated goddess. There were too many questions she had and in the end, she honestly felt that any courage she had mustered to ask any more questions had fallen flat. So, she just watched.

[rustytengo]

Lyre was doing her best to keep up with everything that was being said. The few things that she understood where that they where talking to the Four Goddess well two since two where incapacitated at the moment. That caused Lyre to stumble a bit in her thinking but not much.

The other thing was something about powers that where given to her by Layla. She almost wanted to ask about those but she decided to not after all her head was still hurting from all of this anyway.

[Shamitako]

(OOC: Sorry for the delay, had a horrendous week)

Natalie

That was it. That was the last straw. She was not going to put up with this inane prank another moment.

"Fuck. Off. Bitch." She spat as she shoved herself onto her knees, glaring at Miss Katherine, "I don't know what you think you're going to gain from this, but I refuse to play the fool in your idiotic game."

She punched the floor as hard as she could, barely even noticing the blood that began to trickle from her knuckles. Sparkling light began to form at her feet, rapidly shooting up her body at such a rate that if you blinked you wouldn't have noticed what happened. Her upper body was now clothed in a pair of pale green sashes crossing her chest, a skirt of the same color hung from her waist, splitting just past her thighs into separate strands. Her arms and legs were covered in lacey markings matching her lavender eyes, which no longer bore her glasses. Her nails on the right side were painted white (though if one looked closely they would notice a hint of green tinting to them) and on the left in lavender. She screeched in rage and without fully rising allowed her bare toes to propel her towards Miss Katherine. From out of seemingly nowhere, two swords formed in her hands. On the right was a blade that seemed to be made of pure ice and on the left was a strange lavender one that looked extremely dull. She raised both weapons and swung them as hard as she could in Miss Katherine's direction, moments later feeling her face hit the floor.

Kallisto

Nayru gave her plenty of warning. Even with the sped up transformation sequence Kallisto had plenty of time to prepare herself. Right before the enraged guillotines of Ice and Soul sliced her in two, Kallisto sidestepped calmly.

"Ah so we are going to play that game." She said, "I suppose I better get dressed then."

Golden sarks formed at her feet the same way they had with Nayru. However, instead of hastening the processes, Kallisto let it draw itself out. Her feet became adorned in golden silk slippers. Her legs were coated in a red triangle-y pattern. Her long orange skirt was were replaced by a short, uneven gold one. From the waist of the skirt a golden ribbon wrapped its way up and around her upper body, tucking back into itself after passing over her chest. Her arms had a matching pattern to her legs. And her nails were painted, the middle finger and pinky of each hand in red and the rest in gold. Her hair was now in a long ponytail that looped around back into its starting point, and it was now so long that the lowest point on the loop managed to hang down below the edge of her skirt.

Natalie

By the time this sequence had completed, Natalie was back on her feet. She didn't look injured, just angry.

"Alright, I'm ready now." Miss Katherine taunted, "Though I doubt you can do much in that state."

"I'll show you!" Natalie screamed, flinging herself at Miss Katherine once more.

This time though, she didn't end up on her face. Her blades were met by a glowing golden orb surrounding Miss Katherine. Or at least one of them, the icey one seemed to cut through it like butter. Natalie backed off before going for another charge, same result. Perplexed on how to deal with this new obstacle and enraged at Miss Katherine's smug smile, Natalie didn't notice when a flaming red circle appear on Miss Katherine's arm and was flung in her direction. She barely raised her purple sword in time, surprisingly, it stopped the circle in its tracks. This dance repeated several times, with Natalie becoming more rational and less enraged with each bought. Then she realized what she needed to do.

"I don't know what's going on." she said, "But I think I just realized how to beat you."

Natalie charged again. But this time instead of putting rage behind her attack, she backed it with precision. First she would slice through the orb with her ice sword, then use the purple one to block whatever counterattack formed, then use the ice again to cut through Miss Katherine. But just before she reached the shield, something collided with her face and slammed her to the ground.

Alexus

Alexus had been watching the fight from the start, debating how she was going to stop it. It was a bad idea to start fighting each other right before an enemy attacked you, so she really didn't want to just join in and make things worse. Eventually she gave it. Like Nayru she accelerated her transformation. Almost instantly she was clad in a white and sky blue outfit. Her upper body was covered by a simple white shirt and short-sleeved jacket with light blue trimmings. She wore a large multi-layered skirt--the top layer white and the rest sky blue. Around her waist was a large white ribbon tied in a bow at her back Her arms were covered in wild sky blue markings that appeared to primarily be a bunch of randomly distributed acute angles and her nails were painted light blue with white raindrop shapes in the center. In addition to matching markings, Alexus's legs each had a pair crossing ribbons in sky blue working their way up to just over her knees. At her feet they combined together into ballet-like slippers.

As soon as her transformation was complete, she shot like a rocket over to where Nayru and Kallisto were clashing. Nayru would back off and then charge in. Kallisto would deflect her attack and then retaliate. It would have been a fairly mundane fight if not for the explosions of light each time their weapons clashed. Alexus arrived just as they were about to clash again. Speeding in between them, she turned towards Nayru. Just as her sister was about to collide with Kallisto's shield once more, Alexus grabbed her face and channeled her Hope Fury ability into her hand, stopping Nayru dead in her tracks. With a roar of determination she raised Nayru off the floor and shoved her straight down with all her might, slamming the Goddess of Reason's head into the ground.

"Now I hope that knocked some sense into you!" She scolded, "This is no time to be fighting amongst ourselves. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself Nayru. both as a Goddess and as Helen Opium's daughter. I would think you would have a more reasonable sense of priorities."

Then she spuna round to face Kallisto, who was standing there looking extremely triumphant.

"And you!" She began, intending to give a similar lecture, until she noticed her sister's outfit, "You're a teacher! You should be setting an example, not walking around in... that! I mean dear-" She paused to consider her next sentence a moment, "-Dear me what even is that? There is no way that fits into the dress code. I for one am ashamed to be your student, er, sister."

With a stern glare still on her face, Alexus stepped back from her sisters, hoping her lectures had at least gotten through to them a little. What she got, once Nayru stood up, was a set of disgusted glares at her and then her sisters storming off in opposite directions. All things considered, she called that a success. That just left waking Layla and defending themselves against, whatever.

[Chevaleresse]

"What the fuck is going on?" Arturia blurted, still holding the presumably unconscious goddess in her arms. She would have spoken further if she wasn't thoroughly terrified at this point. She had actually taken a couple awkward, involuntary steps backward, dragging Layla's heels across the floor slightly. There were many things she was unsure of at this point: the identity of the alleged goddesses in front of her, how they had all seemingly transformed in front of her (presumably it was something to do with the power Kallisto referred to), how Natalie - Nayru - wasn't dead or close to it after Alexus attempted to force her skull through the floor, the power Kallisto had mentioned, and to top the list off her own sanity. After taking a couple breaths, she asked a question. "Can someone just tell me what power I've supposedly got now, and why we're attempting to murder one another?"

[Code: PIRULUK]

Rein walked up to the visibly sulking Natalie. She had been somewhat surprised when the object of her prodding suddenly got up and transformed, but she quickly got over it. It was just magical transformations, after all. Not exactly a reality-bending display. She reached upwards to touch Natalie's shoulder, confirming her partner's status.

"Natalie. Uninjured? Don't see any wounds. Internally?"

[Sutoratosu]

"Well, you certainly all act like goddesses..." Arya snidded under her breath. "Maybe religion really is a lost cause..." With that type of power and obvious resilience though, They were definitely some type of deities, she had to admit. Just the not the type she had been hoping for, not with that conduct; growing up and hearing all the old stories and legends and scriptures as a kid... well, she expected a little better then just exactly what Alexus had claimed- just humans with superpowers... but still humans who weren't that much above all the vices of mankind.

She couldn't help but rub her temples a little, sighing. Just screw it... screw manners, I want some actual talk. "So, there's a point to all this, right?" She finally asked, as blunt as she could be. "Aside from losing it and going after each other, like rabid dogs locked in the same cage? You have to have wanted something, otherwise why would you single us out and give us..." She looked down at her palm. She couldn't notice any visible change... but the surge was still going, just beneath the skin... something was definitely there. "whatever powers you were talking about? So what is it? Why are we here? What do you want with us?"

The slew of questions was directed at none of them in particular. She already knew Alexus hadn't had much to tell them, but at least one of them had to know something, right?

Plus it was better to actually try to oh... maybe try to figure some of this shit out, rather than stand by and watch them attempt to tear each other's throats out like she had just been doing.

[Shamitako]

Natalie

Natalie did her best to calm herself and respond to her partner.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just pissed off." She said, shooting a glare at Miss Katherine's back.

She wasn't sure why, but this entire situation just made her angrier every moment. She didn't usually have a very bad temper, even when she was upset she tended to keep her cool and snark away.

Alexus

Alexus was a bit in over her head. It wasn't that she couldn't answer everyone's questions--not that she actually could--it was that she was disoriented. There was too much happening at once and she couldn't deal with all of it. She looked at everyone around her, their faces were a mixture of confusion, anger, and more confusion. She just couldn't deal with it.

"I don't know." She said in frustration, "I DON'T KNOW OKAY!"

She sat down and shoved her face in her hands, trying her best not to cry.

"I'm sorry guys, I'm not much of a goddess." She whimpered.

She felt a hand on her back that she knew was Riley's, but didn't look up or speak. As comforting as her sis's touch was, it wouldn't do anything to fix this problem. They were in trouble from an unknown source and they were bickering like children. A moment before she'd more or less had a plan, but now that was out the window. She couldn't deal well with all this pressure, that was something Kallisto or Nayru was more suited for, but the two of them were proving utterly useless. She didn't know what to do.

Kallisto

Kallisto couldn't help sneaking a peek over her shoulder when Alexus freaked out. She saw Alexus's friend comforting her, and Nayru's friend with her. It made her feel lonely. She had thought she had befriended Emberly, but she understood that it was a tentative enough friendship that after a display such as the one she had put on she shouldn't expect much from her. Still, she wished Emberly had at least come over and said something, a lecture would have helped the Goddess of Faith just as much as a consoling.

Lilith

There was a stirring from the fourth goddess's body.

"Light..." Lilith muttered.

She wasn't sure what it meant, but the hands touching her held power, and she could somehow discern what that power was.

"Light, Fury." She said, slightly louder this time.

But despite this, her eyes remained closed and her mind mostly blank. She could feel herself waking up, but she was doing everything she could to avoid that. She wanted to stay forever in the darkness of her mind, away from the world where her power could hurt people. She was so scared of hurting her friends again, just as she had been scared of making friends in the first place. Although a part of her was screaming that she couldn't hide anymore, more of her was fighting tooth and nail to stay hidden away.

Alexus

At the sound of Layla's voice Alexus's head shot up out of her hands. Her eyes were watery but her cheeks held no sign of tears.

"Did she just speak?" Alexus said, directing her question to the girl holding her sister.

If Alexus had heard right, Layla had just spoken the name of a power, presumably the power of the girl cradling her. And if Alexus knew what power it was, she could explain how to activate it. The reason she hadn't done so sooner was that she didn't know what power it was, only Layla and the one with the powers could figure that out, and these girls were far too inexperienced to do it themselves.

(OOC: So Alexus is partially wrong, Rein could probably figure out her power for herself if she tried. Due to being a Laylite with the Thunder element. Up to you if you want to have her do so, Acqui)

[Chevaleresse]

"I think she said 'light fury.' At this point I'm going to assume that's talking about divine wrath or a creature of similar nature. Or some sort of power, I guess. Is it something she's supposed to be able to do?" Arturia wasn't really sure of, well, anything at this point, but she figured that it was either ask questions and try to figure simpler things out or break down into some sort of anxiety attack, and the latter option wasn't particularly attractive. Though, Alexus seemed more than slightly flustered herself...

[Hiss13]

"Mmm..." While the gears in Sion's brain were grinding, she realized that Alexus may have been too flustered to really answer the barrage of questions that were flying her way. As such, she made her way over to Miss Katherine, who seemed to be the only one taking this entire situation relatively calmly. "Um...Miss Katheri--"

She immediately paused though. She was not sure how to address a goddess. In fact, she was not sure she could say she held the right to directly address supposed divinity. She twiddles her thumbs for a bit before finally working up the courage to speak again. "Umm, Miss Katherine...i-if you're okay being referred to that way…what exactly is going on?"

Hopefully, she'd get a single unified answer here...hopefully.

[Shamitako]

(OOC: I'll get Alexus later this afternoon. Also feel free to have your characters move to join Sion for storytime)

Kallisto

Kallisto looked over at Sion, her glare still set on her face. But seeing the girl's nervousness brought out the teacher in her and her face softened.

"You may refer to me however you like, you can even mimic Alexus and call me Kalli if you want, I'm hardly deserving of any sort of respect after the things I've done." She said.

Her eyes watered as she considered the past, she hated to admit it, but this was mostly her fault. She was so stubborn. If she had just listened to Nayru's warnings, if she had let Alexus calm her down, if she hadn't pushed Layla so far, and if she hadn't... If she hadn't... Not even her thoughts would let her admit it, but she had to. Not just for the sake of the girls she had dragged into this, but for her own. The burden of the truth hung heavily over her, shading her light in guilt.

"Alright, let me see how well I can explain this." She said finally.

Her voice was raspy and her eyes no longer shown with their usual fire, the pain she felt was evident throughout her body.

"I'm sure you've heard the standard creation story, the story of the four goddesses in Eden. Layla appeared on her own, shrouded in darkness. Alexus soon followed, filling the darkness with hope. Then Nayru appeared, bringing then both the ability to control their minds. And finally me, bringing light to help guide us all." She began, "Well that's only half true. We didn't just appear from nothing, there was a fifth, both the oldest and youngest of us and easily the most powerful. Ethan. He has always existed, even when time itself didn't exist. However, he was not self-aware until time began to flow. Once it did and he realized his existence, he found himself lonely. From this loneliness he crafted Layla. Although he created her, she was separate from him entirely, a being with a unique personality and abilities. But although he was no longer lonely, he didn't stop there. He came together with Layla and they formed Alexus, who filled them both with hope. Alexus, however, bored easily. And from her boredom came the creation of three new beings. The first was Nayru, the second myself, and the third utter nothingness which had to be filled. Nayru and I were tasked with that, and we quickly realized the only possible way to fill it would be to give it Ethan's power. But we couldn't come to an agreement on how to create him. With Eden nearing destruction, Ethan took it upon himself to fill it, resulting in the universe; this planet at its center. The price of this, was his ability to be remembered by the world he had created. So while the four of us became revered as goddesses, our brother became obsolete, losing his place in time once more."

Kallisto paused her story here, clearing her throat and allowing the mass of information to sink in.

"But I regretted this failure." She continued, "Although I outwardly blamed Nayru for our brother's fate, inwardly I blamed myself. And thus I took it upon myself to somehow bring him here. I realized that he wasn't lost to us, simply trapped in Eden. I devised a plan to get him back, becoming so self-absorbed I ignored my followers and allowed my virtue to be abused. Nayru tried to stop me from executing my plan, warning me that trying to bring Ethan into existence would require something equivalent to be removed from existence. Alexus agreed that we had to bring Ethan back, but she also knew that I was going to make a mess if I continued in the state I was in. And when they both failed to stop me, Layla tried to stop me by force. In anger I lashed out at her, but she was easily more powerful than I, and I was defeated. But that wasn't the end of things, Layla had been pushed too far, she couldn't handle the emotional pressure. She had lost the person she cared about most of all and now she felt like she was losing another of her siblings. I had been prepared to sacrifice myself for my brother, but with Layla's power going out of control I saw another option: I could keep all five of us if I just gave a little of each of the four of us. And with Layla's ability running rampant I had the perfect opportunity. But I was no more able to control Layla than she herself, and instead of taking part of each of us or all of one of us, it took all of all of us."

Again Kallisto paused to let things sink in.

"If you have any specific questions feel free to ask them now before I continue." She said.

(OOC: Pretend it's still yesterday afternoon...)

Alexus

Alexus clenched her fist in triumph.

Thank you so much, Layla. She thought.

Even unconscious, Layla was still able to discern the girl's power. And now that Alexus knew what it was she could teach the girl how to activate it. Even better, the girl had a Fury modifier, the same as Alexus, which would help a lot in explaining how the ability worked.

"Alright, repeat the following chant." She explained.

By the light of your heart

By the strength of my trust

With the raging fury of the believers

And for the salvation of all humanity

Bestow upon me your strength

That I may bring light to the world

(OOC: After the chant you'll immediately transform into your magical girl form. It will be the slow transformation the first time, so describe it as such)

[Chevaleresse]

"Um, alright." Arturia wasn't entirely on board with this business, but just repeating a chant would, at worst, do nothing, or so she supposed. She took a deep breath, then repeated after Alexus:

"By the light of your heart

By the strength of my trust

With the raging fury of the believers

And for the salvation of all humanity

Bestow upon me your strength

That I might bring light to the world."

As she finished the last line, the girl felt a strange sensation as power started to surge through her, starting at her toes and moving upward. A shimmering effect started their and moved upward, first replacing her shoes with boots made of a silvery-white metal, coming to slight points after the toes and protecting her shins. As the sparks moved upward, they replaced her jeans with pristine white leggings, and a somewhat short skirt with three layers that briefly appeared to attach to nothing at all. The violet bottom layer appeared first, succeeded by an orange layer and a white one. It extended upward into a white dress, this coming with a chestplate that matched the boots. The sleeves of her shirt were replaced by a set of similar bracers, these with orange bands around each end, and her now-exposed arms were covered with a large number of seemingly random triangular patterns consisting of two lines, along with her normally unpainted nails being violet. The short sleeves of the dress that now covered her were also banded with orange on the ends. As the transformation reached her shoulders, a cape appeared and extended downward to just past the backs of her kness; this a deep violet, with an orange band running halfway back up it with fringe to match this.

After the transformation finished, Arturia looked down at herself with more than a fair degree of surprise showing on her face. However, her shock faded after a moment and she turned in place for a moment, examining her own outfit. "I have no idea what just happened, but this is pretty cool." After she had rotated about entirely, she looked back up at Alexus, waiting for her to answer the implied question.

[Sutoratosu]

"..." Arya hadn't spoken another word. After seeing Alexus more or less nearly breakdown from a few simple, if admitably pointed, questions, well... it wasn't like she was trying to make anyone cry. Goddamn it though, she had to admit it was more than frustrating to just sit here after all this crap had gone down and have barely any context at all. But hell, she obviously wasn't making things much better, was she? Perhaps shutting up for now really would be for the best...

But she was still listening to it all. And lo and behold, it looked like someone else was actually getting somewhere. Figures.

She sighed under her breath as she walked over towards the bit of exposition being spouted, taking in whatever pieces she could get as she got closer. At least she'd learn something about all this.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

"So... something that profound. I can't say I ever thought I'd end up in something this crazy, this... important." the tall girl looked down at the ground. This really was a lot to process all at once. She didn't even believe in the Goddesses until now... she didn't really put faith in their stories. But, now, all of a sudden they were right here in front of them all and not only that, but fighting and carrying on and going on about some... event unknown to the world. It was a lot to process from a young woman out of nowhere. And yet, Emberly didn't feel like she was being lied to, she didn't feel like it was fake. She sould feel the truth in it. Her gut telling her as much that it was in part, true.

More importantly, Emberly easily saw the pained expressions flash into her teachers...[former teacher's?] Face and her body. It was there as she explained the past of her brother and her sisters. The events that had transpired... who knows how long ago. Even if it wasn't clear to others it was very clear to Emberly. Was it... guilt at her own actions? Or that she couldn't save him? Either way, it was pain nonetheless. She promptly walked up to her and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Of course, she normally would have to look down, but she bent down enough to be eye level with Miss Katherine... or Kallisto. After all, it was much more meaningful to look into one's eyes when you talked to them. Her soft green eyes sparkled as she looked into the gloomy ones that Kallisto now possessed. They harboured not judgement and not malice. They harboured only understanding."Kallisto, Don't be so hard on yourself. I'm sure those events were hard on you... I'm sure they were hard on all of your sisters. Each of you each took a route that you believed was right. And one can never know what that route will bring unless they go through with it. I know I don't know the details, and that I don't know everything's that's transpired, but that pain... I know it in my own way. You shouldn't blame yourself for what you thought was right, you shouldn't regret what you did. It's what you believed was right in the moment. Sure, it might not have turned out not as planned. However, it would never be known if you didn't do it. There's no shame in that despite what other people say. No one is infallible. Goddess or not, we make mistakes and we have errors in judgement. But, we can never know that until we see them through. As long as we learn from them, they cease to be mistakes. I might not have believed in all of this yesterday... and I'm not not entirely sure to be honest. But, I can see that despite what happened, you're still a good person, one mistake no matter how large doesn't change that. You made that mistake trying to save someone. That's honourable. You tried your hardest to save them. Maybe that time it didn't pan out. But... your still here. As long as your still around you can always try again. "

[Shamitako]

(OOC: Not sure how many thingies I'm going to output tonight, but starting here)

Alexus

Alexus could be dense at times, but she quickly picked up on what Arturia needed.

"Alright, good. The next part is fairly easy, just imagine having a storm around you." She said, "Luckily for the both of us you've got a Fury modifier, which is super easy to use. Just thinking about the storm will make it appear."

To demonstrate, Alexus focused her Water element into the storm around her.

"There's some fancier applications of it, but as far as I know there's yet to be a natural human who's successfully done more than the storm."

[Chevaleresse]

The sudden appearance of a whirling mass of water around Alexus startled Arturia somewhat, her outfit making a muffled clanking sound as she jumped. "Okay," she acquiesced somewhat hesitantly after recovering. Focusing for a moment, she took a step backward and looked upward. "Imagine a storm around myself. . ." she thought out loud. After a moment, lines of light appeared around her, and then burst outward, whirling around her in continuous motion.

She stood there looking at what she was apparently producing for a moment, wide eyed, then looked at Alexus. "I'm not gonna lie, this is pretty fucking awesome." She frowned after another moment, however, thinking. "What do you mean by 'natural human?' And it doesn't seem like it'd be hard to modify this if you knew what the hell you were doing. . ." Somewhat belatedly, she realized that she was cursing in front of a goddess. Her cheeks flushed slightly red, but she didn't speak any further.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Rein had watched Arturia undergo the transformation with marked interest.

She had a good eye for combat potential, and it was clear to her that Arturia's combat potential had drastically increased in just a few seconds. Perhaps it was whatever magic the four Goddesses had granted them which strengthened her; she didn't really care. What she concluded, was that this transformation made them more powerful and let them use special magic.

But most importantly, it gave them a super-cute costume. Without the hassle of having to actually wear it.

Rein's lips tilted up slightly as she imagined the possibilities. This could potentially revolutionize fashion! More than anything else at the moment, she really wanted to see what her own costume would look like. After all, if Arturia could do it, it was only logical that everyone else in the room could do it. Since it was something that granted power, she should be searching within herself for traces of power. She closed her eyes and forced herself into a meditative state.

Deep in her psyche, past the memories of the teddy bears she used to collect as a child, alongside the reminiscence of the nice, comfortable sofa of her home, she felt a spark. She heard the cackling of electricity. Two words surfaced in her mind.

She snapped herself out of her meditation and ran up to Natalie, looking up at the tall girl and tugging her sleeve.

"Rein, Thunder Elemental."

[Shamitako]

Kallisto

Kallisto smiled softly at Emberly, "While I appreciate the sentiment, I quite literally murdered all three of my sisters, I'm not sure there's any way to truly atone for that."

It was foolish of her to think she could bring Ethan back, and even more foolish of her to think she could do it without consequence,

"But that is clearly not where the story ends." She continued, "Another force, one brought about by humans and not the divine was somehow able to insert the four of our souls into the wombs of four women. Something that would only be possible if the embryos possessed the exact same mental traits as each of us. Also something especially terrible, as it means those children's souls were voided."

The thought of this brought a grimace to Kallisto's face, even though the soul she had replaced would have been identical to her in every way except memory, she couldn't help but feel like maybe they would have been a better being and she felt terrible for having stolen their life.

"Basically they gave an unborn child who would be just like me my memories." she added in an attempt to be more concise, "I know not why, but I do know that as each of us regains ourselves they send their minions after us. When I remembered I was shortly assaulted, and on several occasions I've had to evade capture. Add to that having to protect Layla after she realized herself since she was in denial over it and you could say I've been rather busy. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't know why they wish to capture us, let alone how they managed to bring us back in the first place."

She was going to say more, but Haley came over and clearly had something to say.

Haley

While her elder sister went through the story of the goddesses, Haley Lucille stood quietly off to the side. She always hated hearing the part about Kallisto "stealing" her body. No matter what she said, Haley couldn't have asked for a better sister. It didn't matter to her that supposedly her real sister had been destroyed, her real sister was the person who had cradled her in their arms when she needed shielding from a thunderstorm. She absentmindedly noticed that Alexus had made progress with Layla and thus made her way over to Kallisto, who bent down to let her whisper into her ear.

"Alright, looks like story time is over." Kallisto said, "If any of you wish to leave you may, if you don't then go over to Layla, it seems Alexus has made some progress."

Haley quietly moved back out of the way, keeping a watchful eye on the door to see when their final guest would make her entrance.

Natalie

Natalie looked at Rein, her face a mixture of rage and confusion.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" She snapped.

She said this even though she knew full well what it meant, she simply wasn't willing to admit knowing it. The idea that anyone could actually believe this idiocy about some fake goddesses was absurd. It made no sense.

"None. It just doesn't make any sense." She whimpered, her thoughts spilling out of her mouth involuntarily.

How did she know what those two accursed words referred to? What venomous tongue had infected her to make her wonder if it might be true?

"Why?" Her tongue slipped once more.

Alexus

"I know right?" Alexus said, adding her own excitement to Arturia's.

It was strange, she felt like the Alexus that had existed in Eden would have found dealing with the mundane side of humanity to be boring. But after living with them for so long she had come to see them not as boring but as friends. Her life was so much more interesting now than it was back then. She much preferred being a person to being a goddess. After she'd had a moment of thinking and excitement, she moved on to answering questions.

"Well, natural humans refers to all humans that aren't any of us four goddesses or direct creations or procreations of ours." She explained, "Although you have equivalent power to us now, there's very little chance any of you possess the ability to control your abilities that accurately. For example, with this ability you'd be trying to take the energy of your storm and concentrate it all into a single spot. That takes about as much concentration as telling your heart to only beat once every thirty seconds while falling from a ten story building. Which may seem like a good idea at the time, but trust me when I say it's really not a good idea ever, so please don't try to do that."

[Sutoratosu]

Arya said nothing as she listened to the first hand account from Kalisto. A lost Elder God, mentions of Eden, sororicide... deities falling from grace. the story was certainly a lot to take in- a bit complicated even -but honestly, as shattered as her world view had already become today, hell in just the past hour or so no less... it all seemed legit. That last part though... if the children's souls all had the exact same traits as the goddesses and would've been virtually the same as basic copies anyway, just lacking the actual powers and memories... did it really matter that they were replaced then? If they would've virtually become the same person and made the same types of decision and had the same personalities anyway-

"Of coarse it still would've mattered," She scolded her wondering quandary, eyes filling with shame for just a moment while she turned her gaze down to the floor. "A person would still be a person, even if they did happen to just be a copy of someone. It still would've mattered even if they were just like them; Why would I even start thinking something so... awful like that?" she knew exactly why though. In the deepest parts of her mind, she knew. In the darkest corners of her heart, she knew. Even if she still didn't want to admit it to herself.

"Alright, looks like story time is over. If any of you wish to leave you may, if you don't then go over to Layla, it seems Alexus has made some progress."

"Alexus?" Arya lifted her gaze back to where she had been during that earlier... outburst of hers. She froze from what she saw there, eyes wide as she watched one of the other girls surrounded in some strange, otherwordly light swirling around her, body clad in some type of literal battle-dress, with the goddess standing nearby, both of them apparently excited by whatever was going on...

"So, um, I'm guessing those must be the... powers someone mentioned earlier." She finally said out loud, to no one in particular.

[Hiss13]

Sion tried to let all of what Kallisto said sink in. But, in the end, it would probably take time. The concepts of godhood or being forced to kill someone close to oneself were things that Sion never understood and honestly never wanted to understand. She could only hope she had the time to digest everything later. But, story time seemed to be over.

"Alright, looks like story time is over. If any of you wish to leave, you may. If you don't go over to Layla. It seems Alexus has made some progress." She heard Kallisto say.

As she looked over to see the other girls wearing…different clothing from before, she wondered if these were the powers that she heard being mentioned. It seemed Arya had the same idea. "I…think so…" she said.

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia pursed her lips. "Hm." She concentrated for a moment, attempting to call the storm off for now. Just imagine that it's not there any more, right? Worked one way, should work the other. "What happens if I try to, anyway? You make it sound like a Very Bad Thing." The emphasis on the last three words was subtle, but certainly audible to anyone that was paying attention. Arturia was thinking about her power, and another question - this one feeling like it should have been asked sooner - came to mind before Alexus could answer. "And uh, what does this actually do?"

[Code: PIRULUK]

Rein frowned over Natalie snapping at her. Not that she didn't understand the apparent goddess incarnate's confusion, but if Kallisto was right - and with her level of confidence, she was probably right - Natalie was a goddess, specifically Nayru, goddess of logic, and had a higher duty.

Not that she cared much about the duty or the goddesses, most importantly she wanted her own convenient little frilly cute outfit.

More importantly, the fact that she had said "why" as well as her reaction - not of confusion, but of anger - to Rein's utterance likely indicated some dorm of conscious denial.

Now, Rein considered herself a fairly logical girl. She could probably talk to Natalie, walk through the steps with her, take her through the logical processes and help her recognise that her denial was pointless.

But that was too much effort. That wasn't Rein.

So instead, she levelled a punch at the taller girl's abdomen.

[Shamitako]

(OOC: I never neglect my roleplays, what are you talking about?)

Natalie

Natalie was unprepared for the punch and it connected solidly. But instead of being flung backwards or doubling over, she simply stood there dumbfounded. She felt no pain from the strike, she wasn't even angry at Rein for punching her. She wasn't certain what she felt really, but it was a calming feeling.

"Very well," she said finally, "I suppose I can't deny what's standing in front of me. I'll be a goddess if I must. But I'm not Nayru, even if I do have her memories and power."

She seemed to be the only one who hadn't accepted herself as the goddess she bore the memories of. Layla was asleep, but Natalie understood how the Goddess's mind worked enough to understand that she was just as much Layla as Lilith.

"If these memories are accurate, you're going to want to say this chant." Natalie told Rein,

"In the frightening dark
With sheer force of will
Through becoming one with fear
And the might to overcome any obstacle
Lend me your power
That I may free myself"

It was a silly chant, but Rein was going to need it until she got a better feel for her abilities. Natalie would make a point of teaching Rein how to avoid the chant and extended transformation as soon as possible. Being flashy was a frivolity that neither she nor her partner had any need to indulge in. Although she couldn't deny she kind of liked the outfit... Not that she would ever be willing to admit that out loud.

Eden

Eden stared disdainfully at the building before her. The building itself was not the issue though, the issue was the people inside it. The perimeter of the building was blocked off to prevent morons from re-entering the supposedly flaming building. Eden figured that the supposed fire meant her targets knew she was coming, which also meant it was a good thing she had come personally instead of sending some of Her's worthless goons. Eden's surrogate mother wouldn't exactly be pleased that she had sneaked out, and probably even less pleased when Eden failed to return with live prisoners--assuming she returned at all. But Eden didn't give a shit what Her thought, she had her own agenda. Inside the building stood the only four beings for whom she held any form of animosity, and she was going to take pleasure in murdering them. Feeling the time was right, she exerted a small portion of her power. The ground beneath her began to warp and time seemed to move slower around her. An instant later she stood inside the large school building. She took off at a run, searching for her prey. Unfortunately, she didn't know exactly where her targets resided, so it would take her a while to find them. But knowing who she was hunting, that while would be a short one.

As she rounded a corner she saw a firefighter. The man gave her a concerned look and opened his mouth--presumably to tell Eden that it was dangerous inside--but froze in place as Eden quickly extended her hand to touch him. She felt remorse at freezing him, he was probably treated terribly already without her freezing him for an hour. If he was lucky he'd only be scolded for being tardy, she didn't even want to think what would happen if he wasn't lucky. But as strong as the compassion she felt towards the people of this world was, her hatred for those who did not belong was far greater. Nothing was going to prevent her from achieving her goal. And so with one last pained look at the frozen firefighter she continued her sprint down the hall

Alexus

"Well, in your case it harms people you view as your enemies who stand within the storm." Alexus explained, "And it heals yourself and those you perceive as allies when they are within it, I think."

Alexus didn't voice her concern that it might not be as black and white as "enemy" and "ally." Instead she considered Arturia's first question for a moment.

"As for your other question, there's a 90% chance that nothing bad would happen." The percentage was less an accurate number and more a very loose approximation she pulled out of her ass, "But there's also a teeny chance whatever part of your body you were trying to focus it around would implode. Although in your case it would come right back since it would implode with a superdense healing storm. You would just feel the pain of your hand imploding and rebuilding itself repeatedly within the space of a few seconds before you passed out from said pain."

Alexus wondered what would happen with other Fury abilities for a moment.

"I think with a Thunder Fury it would probably just shoot electricity through their nervous system and fry it, but I wonder if that would fry absolutely everything and kill them, or just stop some of their nervous functionality..." She muttered absentmindedly.

[Chevaleresse]

"Hmm. . . Well, if the limb is what is affected, presumably the nerves in it would just get fried? I guess it's a matter of how much power is being output, but it could just stop after the nerves in the limb are destroyed. If it originated in your brain then anyone would pretty much instakill themselves if they did this and fucked up." She pondered along with Alexus for a moment. "I guess this assumes that they all malfunction similarly, though. I don't really know."

"Anyway, uh, judging by what Kallisto said we're going to be in trouble in the very near future. Do we have any plan for dealing with that or. . .?"