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 Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:27 pm
Fish frowned and pushed the door to Seasons open, avoiding the tendrils of a carefully manicured kudzu as he stepped inside. The shop looked empty to him, aside from the copious amounts of quietly shifting foliage.
"Miss Floros?" he called tentatively, casting a sidelong glance towards the register. No dice. And he'd actually thought of what he wanted to use his saved up questions on. That frustrated him.
Where was she?
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 6:04 pm
"In here, kid."
Persy closed the door behind her into the back rooms, dusting off her apron as she looked at Poseidon's child. He was a pretty consistent regular, but even so, she hadn't been expecting him this time: she hadn't wanted anything at the moment. Which meant he wanted something...
Great. Just great.
"What do you want?" Persy added, an irritated note to her voice, but both of them knew it was just a front. Not that Persy would ever admit it, but she was somewhat fond of the boy, despite his faults. After all, how dare he want retributions for his favors? He should run errands out of the praise that she was a goddess.
Oh well: favors were favors, Persy supposed, and she could afford to help him out if need be.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 7:21 pm
Fish met her at the counter and stood on his tiptoes so he could rest his elbows on it. "Answers, I guess. Isn't that what everyone wants from you?" he asked. "Don't answer that. It's not one of my questions."
Fish had a fair idea of what Miss Floros did, and even a notion of her possible greater power -after all, no one could make things grow like she could-, but she still was pleasantly mysterious to him. Whenever he asked Poseidon about it, the sea god would become smugly quiet and tell him to ask her.
"I should have three, right? And my free one? Three favors for three answers. And that's not one of my questions, either."
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 7:25 pm
Persy arched a brow: the kid was good, she'd give him that. Crossing her arms, she leaned against the counter, taking some sort of smugness in the fact that she didn't need to sit on the tips of her toes to reach it. Barely, but even so, being taller than the kid certainly had it's advantages, for however long that lasted.
"You've got three earned questions, and one free one. What do you need to know?"
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 7:31 pm
"Okay, my first question's about you," stated Fish, rubbing a finger against the grain of the counter and studying her face intently. "I know you're not human, but you don't feel like a Player. You don't feel like Poseidon, either, though. So, I wanna know, what sort of thing are you and how do you relate to the Game?"
He paused and then added, "That's one question. The answers are connected."
Even if it killed him, he was going to make the questions go as far as they could.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 7:53 pm
Persy smiled, expecting some sort of childish question about the other godlings: after all, however much the kid might have been trained by Poseidon, he was still only a kid, and that much was to be taken for granted. However, her brow furrowed as he asked about her instead: what was it with these kids wanting to know about her? Sighing, she shook her head, and decided it would be best just to respond and get things over with.
"You're smarter than you look: I'm neither human nor a Player, in any sort of essence of the word." Her brow furrowed, and she thought of the best way to word her sentence without giving too much away. "Most gods choose a mortal vessel separate to themselves to interact in the Game. I am a goddess bound in my own mortal vessel, which in lamens terms means that for my time on Earth, I am considered human, though afterwards I will take my place in my Pantheon." She made it a point not to reveal specifically which goddess she was: Fish would have to use another question for that.
"I'm the scorekeeper of the Game...I keep tabs on all the kids, run surveillance, and make sure no one does anything too far out of line. Mostly, though, I make observations, keep records, that sort of thing. I have files on each and every one of you in the back room, with tabs on everything you've done since joining, as well as a device that allows me to know exactly where you are at any given time." For once, she smiled: giving away this sort of information was more of a scare tactic than a necessity.
"So, what's your next question?"
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 8:02 pm
"Okay, next question, and this is all one question," continued Fish, making sure he was clear. "I want anything you can tell me about Len and Cthulu. His powers, his weaknesses, his motivations, even his cultural origins. Whatever you've got."
It wasn't Fish speaking anymore. It was Poseidon, feeding the boy words. The child's pupil-less blue eyes sparkled like the ocean, lit with some sort of inner flame. "He's gonna try to off me. I want to know anything that'll let me stay in longer."
Poseidon nudged Persy a little, possibly to emphasize that this was a common foe and that he knew she didn't like Cthulu, either.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 8:12 pm
The next question chilled Persy to the bone, and she had to put her hands together to hide the fact that a shiver had run down her spine and throughout her body. Cthulhu was bad news: she didn't want anything to do with him. Anything she could do to help the kid, she would. Hell, if it weren't for Game regulations, she would've given him the information free.
"I don't know much about Cthulhu: he's new. He's never played this game before, and usually, first timers get ousted in the first few rounds or so." The goddess spoke in hushed tones, as if perhaps even now the vile creature could be violating her sanctum. "He's got raw power, though: a lot of it. Between you and me, if he'd gotten himself a tough kid, it would've been Game over."
"But Len...he's soft. He's only just now come down with traits bonding him to Cthulhu, and he's from Uppers, so I wouldn't be surprised if Cthulhu breaks him pretty easily. I mean, c'mon, the kid thinks the Game's only gonna last a few weeks." Persy shrugged, almost wishing she had something to drink to make her seem less fidgety.
"Len's got family attachments in Uppers, and I'm sure those can be exploited. If not that, then there's tons of other things you can play off of. He's a scared, confused kid: he's unstable enough that a push in the right direction could force him to not even want to play." In response to Poseidon's nudge, Persy's aura fed out into the room, and although Fish wouldn't be able to directly sense it, she sent him feelings of confusion and fear as well. Cthulhu had torn at her foundations, and it left scarring that only by being near a family member could Persy begin to heal.
She wouldn't ever admit it, but she missed home, and she feared for the next time she would have to encounter Cthulhu. However, her tough girl front was still pretty convincing, and she shrugged off her anxiety like it was merely a passing emotion.
"So, what about your third question?"
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 8:30 pm
Fish frowned. He didn't like being rushed on to his final question like this. After all, he would have liked to discuss the matter of Len and Cthulu further. After all, it seemed like it scared Miss Floros, and as far as Fish knew, Miss Floros didn't get scared. But, she had answered the question thoroughly and so the only thing left for him to do would be to consider every one of her suggestions, because she had given them to him.
This information had been expensive, so he had every intent of using every last drop of it. Keeping that in mind, he pondered his third question. He wanted to keep one saved up, just in case he needed it in a pinch one day, but what sort of thing would be useful...?
Licking his lips, he carefully formed the words of his last question.
"What happens if you lose the game, and is there any way to come back from defeat?" he asked, and then hastily added, "That's all one question."
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 8:40 pm
Persy was relieved that Fish decided not to push the issue of Cthulhu and Len: in all honesty, she'd have to tell the kid that that was all she knew, that for once she wasn't holding out on him, and that she honestly wanted him to beat the snot out of tentacle boy. However, that would definitely ruin her oh so frightning reputation, so she decided to keep it cool, listening to the final question with a sense of detachment. The question no longer involved her: good.
"You don't necessarily have to die to lose the Game, though in the past, that's how most people 'lost'," Persy explained, toying with a piece of her hair nonchalantly. "Either way, though, if you lose, you lose, and that includes all your powers. You'd be reduced to a normal human boy, and you would no longer be qualified to affect things on a supernatural level. However, you could probably still sway the tide being normal, if that's what you mean. You just couldn't come back and win, that's all."
A grin came across Persy's expression, and once again she leaned against the countertop, looking straight into the boy's eyes. "What's all this about? Are you really that scared of an attack? I've never seen someone in so much need for information." In all honesty, she had no right to tease, but it was her domain, and damnit, she would do as she pleased.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 8:52 pm
Fish froze. Miss Floros was right, of course. That was his reason in visiting, as much as he'd tried to push it to the back of his mind. Hearing her say it made it seem all that more real, and Fish couldn't help but tremble a little. "I think you know this already," he murmured, "But Cthulu has declared that he will kill Ciro and I. Ciro's god is Shamash, who Poseidon says is an old god, maybe even older than Poseidon is."
He seemed to shrink, his elbows dropping off the counter.
"I shouldn't be scared. Ciro seems strong and I have my trident and we're in it together, but Poseidon is making me worry. He's making it important that we get rid of Cthulhu now, instead of leaving him in," explained the boy. "But I don't think I know how to take someone out of the Game. Other thank killing them. He's allied with a Goddess called Izanami, Poseidon says. I think that's Maria. She gives me a funny feeling sometimes, because even if she seems weak, somehow that doesn't seem like something Izanami would do if she wanted to win."
Fish paused to listen to the bubbling space at the back of his mind, and then, like someone handing off a telephone call, he told her, "He wants to talk to you."
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 9:42 pm
Persy nodded: she knew all about the rivalries between the Gods. However, it had never occured to her how it would affect the kids, and for the first time, she was perhaps seeing things from their perspective. "Izanami's something else, really: I don't understand what strategy she's using, but so far it doesn't look like anything special to me."
A solemn look came upon her face: she was being asked for by Poseidon. "He can come in here, then," she responded, motioning to the room around them. In all truth, the purest concentration of her power lay in the back room, where she had the most control, but in asking for him to come into a lesser room of her sanctum, she showed that she was giving him a degree of trust.
That, or she simply was too lazy to move them all into the next room.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 9:51 pm
Fish, who was not entirely certain of how Poseidon was going to get there, looked around blankly, his eyes finally settling on a growing, bubbling wet spot on the ceiling. The spot began to drip, and then it turned into what could be called a concentrated thunderstorm, the water transferring from roof to floor and shaping itself into the form of a tall man, dressed similarly to the boy next to him. There seemed a similarity between the god's chosen form and that of his prophet, as if they had been carefully coordinated to suggest a familial relationship.
Poseidon placed a large, cool hand on Fish's shoulder, and the boy shuddered a little. It was like the ocean god was trying to reassure him and power him up at the same time. And certainly, it was the closest Fish had ever had to a religious experience.
"Why aren't there rules to keep maniacs like Cthulu out of the game, Persephone?" Poseidon asked sternly.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 10:12 pm
Persy glowered at the storm gods choice of entrance: would it hurt to use the front door? It seemed no matter what, across cultures, when it came to dieties and their entrances...Persy honestly didn't know what the big deal was. Even so, out of respect for her brother-in-law (and her uncle, but she preferred not to dwell on that), she stood with a heightened posture that still left her shorter than the man, if not slightly more refined.
"The rules allow any of immortal worshipping status to enter the Game, you know that," Persy responded, chills forcing her to hesitate before she spoke again. It'd been a while since anyone had used her full name: it made her feel young, vulnerable, very much unlike the powerful woman she'd made herself on Earth. "It'd be too complicated to try and determine who gets to play and who doesn't, and in the end, it'd be a rightful mess."
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Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 5:26 am
Poseidon seemed sullen. He was a traditionalist by nature, and the fact that Cthulu had only emerged sometime in the 20th century left him disturbed. "He was only ever a minor cult," sighed the ocean god. "I wasn't expecting such ambition. He's come on very, very strongly. Do you know how he informed Shamash and I that he would be offing our prophets in only a matter of time?"
He didn't wait for more prompting one way or another.
"He called us to a conference and informed us. And then he laughed."
The god's expression hardened, his sea-colored eyes turning gray and stormy. His grip on Fish's shoulder tightened, and the boy looked questioningly up at him.
"I could understand being second to your father. I could put up with being second to Him. But I will not settle for being second to that cocky divine b*****d."
He seemed to direct the statement offhandedly to Fish, and his grip was so tight that the boy felt if he even tried to shrink away, his shoulder would risk being pulled off his body. And yet, it didn't hurt. Instead, Fish could feel Poseidon's desire to win. all his reasons and plans and hopes.
And that made Fish want to win, too.
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