Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

“I take it we won’t be seeing Amethyst, then. I’d be surprised if a small-time thief made it into the upper class here.” Gaia chuckles.

 

"I believe she's still under their care," Lux mentions, "My head kingdom has very little crime, mostly because many of my children aren't violent."

"I wanted to see Amethyst to thank her again for the beautiful dress she made in tribute to me. It was so kind of her." Gaia says cheerily.

 

“Their care...? How’d she even get here in the first place? There aren’t any persistent portals to and from... well, anywhere, it seems.” Gaia asks, curious.

 

"I think she was dropped off by Tenebrae's king, or his party." Lux says, shrugging.

"They do seem to get up to a lot." Gaia comments.

 

“A shadow coming... here... that doesn’t... ah, that doesn’t matter now, does it?”

 

"He's got a couple of relics with him that lets him invert his form to withstand the light of here should he need to. I'm not entirely sure how he came to acquire them, though they're not as devastating as one of Temporus' relics." Lux says.

The palace seems a lot closer now, and a lot larger. Gaia's counterpart can see a giant sprawling garden out the front of it, as if it was built atop a large grassy hill.

 

“Would that said relic be the ‘Watch of True Time?’ He messed around with it in our reality as well, but... since we don’t have a god of time, there were... repercussions, so to speak.”

 

"Indeed. It was able to be traded for one of Caelia's creations, a gun that shoots portals that link to each other," Lux says, "It's far less destructive, and it was easier to trade it with him lest he try to use the watch for malicious purposes."

"It was partly my idea to trade for it." Gaia says proudly.

 

“That sounds similar to a gauntlet add-on Ruby gave Abigail before she passed. Regardless... this palace is indeed a sight to behold.” Gaia says, glancing around a bit more.

 

"Thank you, that means a lot." Lux says, appreciative of Gaia's counterpart's kind words.

The trio pass a high-quality school building with smart children in uniforms out in a playground. Many of them seem to be chasing each other around, while some appear to be swapping and placing cards and others sitting together in groups. One child looks over the fence marking the border of their school playground, shouting to their friends when they see the gods pass. As they continue, they pass a large mosaic made out of various tiny coloured crystals. As the sunlight shines on them, different crystals seem to light up depending on the location of the sun, changing the look of the mosaic to form different scenes. The current scene appears to be a depiction of light creatures - depicted with yellow and blue crystals - clashing against Shadows - depicted with purple and red crystals. A king and a queen of both sides look over their warring subjects, though the king and queen for both sides don't appear to be the current royalty in each realm.

 

“Neither royalty set here don’t appear to be current. I take it there was a... slightly troubled history here?”

 

"Both sides ended up killing their opposite's royalty. My old queen killed Tenebrae's old king, and in response, Tenebrae's old queen sent her armies to my realm to take revenge. She was killed during the battle, and Tenebrae's current king and queen were the pair we chose to end the war, since they seemed to be a cut above the rest in battle. In killing my old king and queen and overtaking their palace - as well as their armies overtaking many of the other kingdoms and taking their royalties hostage, more than my children had taken Tenebrae's - the war was ended and a treaty was made." Lux says, "Tenebrae sometimes likens it to a game of chess, though I find it a rather twisted one at that."

"That war was horrible. I still remember the meeting we had right after it had started." Gaia says, sounding a little depressed.

 

"A shame it took something that extreme to set things right." Gaia sighs. "But I suppose life flourishes more after the ashes settle."

 

"With a bit of a push in the right direction from me afterward, too..." Lux says, trailing off a little.

"Hopefully we won't have to experience anything like that again." Gaia says positively.

 

"Too true..."
Pause.
"That reminds me... has Vire'tus ever come here? I feel like he would want to visit his counterpart more than anyone, for more than one reason."

 

"What do you propose I do about it? 'Hey, Aj, I know you have a ton of resources and gods on the dial-up, but could you stop being such a maniac for, like, forever?' That wouldn't go down well."

 

"Might be because she was actually angry then. Now it's different maybe?"

 

“I don’t mean change him, he’s fuckin’ lost. I mean you, why didn’t you just ditch him or something?”

“Whatever the case, I’m tired of trying to track her.”
Pause.
“Regardless, all I can say about Anne is that she went along the coast going around the mountains. Since she’s not big on water, she probably cut north and followed the trail upstream.”

 

"I don't recall, though I don't believe so." Lux says.

"How many of us actually have counterparts?" Gaia asks, curious.

 

"She didn't go into the mountains, did she?"