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Post by 0 on Oct 8, 2017 20:07:59 GMT
D--DOUGHNUTS! R...real doughnuts? Not just something made out of pencil drawings and sidewalk chalk?
The shadow reached forward to grab the box as it was shown, only to have it ripped away from its grasping fingers. Not that it couldn't simply hop around and start trying to snatch it up anyways (or so it would think), yet instead it began to squirm, wriggle, and writhe nonetheless, losing its mirrored form of the stranger's silhouette as it degenerated into a simple cloud of smoke.
Its turnings and twistings slowed as the human mentioned what exactly it is she wanted to know, the number trying to think past what was running through its head at that very moment--"[...]donotdonutdoughnutsdoughnutzz[...]".
"'Magic'?" it said, the voice seeming a bit strained now. "That's just what you reals call somethin' when ya can't explain it, i'n' it? 'Witchcraft!'" It giggled.
Ah, but that didn't quite answer her question, now did it? That was magic to others, not unto it. The smoky cloud swirled where it hovered, drifting closer to the circle in which the human sat, not quite understanding what purpose might lie behind the shape, other than it perhaps being some form of strange art. ...Doughnuts.
"I can pull a rabbit out of a hat," it said after a beat. It knew a small number of "magic" tricks and sleight-of-hand maneuvers that it could perform in both reality and surreality, no strings attached. Did those count? "But," it continued in a serious, warning sort of tone, "always pick it up by the scruff! They tend to be rather cross when they come outta there, so ya gotta watch yerself. Hard to see when a rabbit's ready to bite, and those buggers are rather quick 'n' sneaky about it."
Instead of trying to breach the circle, the cloud began to swirl around it, remaining densest in the spot closest to wheresoever the box of doughnuts happened to be, waiting patiently...for the moment.
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 8, 2017 20:24:57 GMT
magiK? MAgiK it made a sound like the high pitched chittering of a swarm of a thousand bats with the maddened flap of that many beating wings.
Tendrils of obsidian smoke reached out abruptly, seeking to break through the magical link by force and properly manifest within the same state of being so that it could truly hurt her, spiritually or physically.
Despite the rudimentary nature of the magic, it still held firm enough that blunt mental-spiritual force would not break it in one go. He hadn't expected it too. Brute force was not the best way to break set ups like this. He could spend far more worthy energy picking apart the strings of it in subtler ways.
How about? Yess... He could possibly make the process of closing the link very painful indeed.
how abouts I take off a cut the top just alitttzel closErrr than a hairclippering. he teased for the price. He tended to get what he really wanted out of a deal one way or another. He wasn't in a hurry to attain his desires.
magic he whispered sounding almost sane. is a lie.
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Post by Jay on Oct 9, 2017 1:16:37 GMT
Kenessa Choushin "Not eager, just cautious. Just breaking the tension," she responded to Choushin. After all, not every being followed human morals. Hells, most didn't. Even still, she listened to his words carefully. The answer wasn't surprising; something like a kitsune wouldn't think a lot about what was essentially a fundamental biological process. It didn't really help, but... hey. "Ok... and what about sorcery? Calling upon the energies around you. What is that to you?"Shagul "A lie. That's what you've got to tell-" She was acutely aware of the violent appendages trying to worm their way through. "-me?"
Still, she was confused by its price. Was it asking her to cut her hair... or scalp herself? Smart money was on the darker option, befitting a being of general evil. "No deal for that. Name a new price," she said. "Or I'll end our chat here, and you get nada."0 Breaking the Circle would be nigh-impossible. Even for low-tier magic, the properties of the spell followed a set of physics all their own that kept them inside of it. In reality, it was more that they were interfacing with one another on a separate plane within the Circle, projected as a demiplane in the real world, while the two of them were astrally connected from their own projected demiplanes. Demiplanes inside of a demiplane on a Prime Material Plane. Kenessa understood at least that. She didn't know it yet, but planar physics were easier for her to grasp since she was, in essence, multiversal. Nevertheless, she watched the being warily, moving the box away from it as it began to circle her. Being inept at magic didn't mean inept at dimensionality - as a Planeswalker, she had a natural sensory that was almost peerless. It was her saving grace, beyond... well, walking the planes. "Real is relative," she said to the creature, but she suspected that it was completely aware of that fact. "Everything's real and explainable to me cause I can experience it. Wherever you are, I could jump there and I'd be fine. Comes with the territory..."
Still, it answered one of her questions, so she took out a doughnut, and threw it over her shoulder to the cloud. The doughnut would pass from her dimension into wherever the being was being projected, allowing for consumption. That was reward #1 for being a good sport about it. "Next question, two doughnuts," she said. "Magic, as I read in a few books, means to interface with reality to achieve a goal... does that mean anything to you?"Kishar Surprisingly humble. Kenessa was pleasantly surprised by it. Or, maybe she was just quiet. She didn't feel the need to announce her power. That made her more dangerous than most. "Well, I'd love to take it back, but uh..." she scratched the back of her head. "Don't think this thing goes two ways. So, you're kinda stuck with that vial. Not really a loss, though."She asked another question, seeing as the Goddess was feeling generous. "Sonlas is in Eokia, isn't it?"Planeswalking human True Neutral | 31 | Female ninjasoilder Loner。 Kishar 0
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Post by ninjasoilder on Oct 9, 2017 2:25:15 GMT
Choushin ended up sighing. "I can't say that my answer will be a good one. While it can lead to normal people getting access to tools for self defense and to make their lives interesting, it can also lead to chaos and bad news for the person." He said, shrugging. He didn't have much on it, other than it can be good, but also bad. "IF you were to ask about illusions and mind magic, I might help you with that, show you a thing or two about it or show you how to resist it a bit better." He said.
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 9, 2017 2:33:25 GMT
The furious ball of chaotic spirit vaguely began to resemble an porcuotter an ugly sinister one, lounging on its back while holding a wine glass in a bird-clawed hand. "Course itszzz a lie. It makes zense." He stated matter-of-factly. "give yourselv a lobotomy or few and you'll See the zenseies tooo." He encouraged, sure that few beings ever would try such a thing, or even come close to understanding how cutting off parts of the brain could even help in the understanding of magic. Of course it could just be that be wanted to get her to hurt herself but he could see that the girl was the gonna fall for something like that so his words were practically a tease.
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Post by 0 on Oct 9, 2017 3:00:52 GMT
The shadow swirled, a black blob upon yet more blackness, creeping ever closer to the ring. Before it could touch it and learn that there was an actual border there, a doughnut was being tossed its way. Whatever words the human had returned was forgotten instantaneously.
"WHOO!" The shadow whirled backwards into a tight ball, drawing away from the doughnut as it was thrown out behind the human in an arc. An oblong piece of itself shot out like the arm of amoeba, grabbing the doughnut and pulling it into the dense cloud of smoke, where it disappeared among the dark whorls.
Ah, yes, now THAT was a REAL doughnut. All bread and sugar. It was as real as they get.
But...only one. Apparently, the human had yet more questions, and she promised to give it more in turn. Ahh--the number saw now what this was.
Slowly, the cloud pulled itself back into something of a humanoid shape again, folding its legs over one another as it sat down politely, hovering in the empty darkness beyond the circle, candlelight flickering across its pitch-black surface. Honestly, it had very little clue as to what was going on, although that was hardly unusual in and of itself; there was rarely ever very much to go off of. This whole thing seemed rather strange for a phone call, but it was hardly the oddest thing to happen.
"About" twenty doughnuts, it thought. One down, two coming in for the taking--adding one to each question...five total, leaves five remaining? But what would happen to the remainder? Maybe there were actually twenty-one doughnuts...six questions!
"Uhh...," said the number at this next question. That...was a hard one. It couldn't quite tell what it was that she was asking, actually. "Throwin' a curve ball at me, ain't ya?" it joked, falling into thought.
After a short while, it finally offered up a dumbfounded shrug. All it could think of was sensory input and utilizing chemistry and physics, but that wasn't really very magical, was it? Well, maybe it was, but it didn't think it was what the human wanted. Didn't want to lose those two doughnuts...had to think of SOMEthing to say.
The number sighed at itself. Then it clicked--
"Oh--!" It held up a finger. "Mathematics. Math is a Big Deal. Nothin' works without it--" It made a sound that was something like a sneeze or a snort, a bit of the smoke puffing out from a random part of its body. Ehe...relativity. "--an' yet everythin' still comes undone with it. Ever hear o' chaos theory? Fun stuff." It added in a very quiet whisper, "Dnoz."
How a number of all things could possibly forget the existence of math was beyond it, but, hey, it had more important things on its mind. Like doughnuts. Which the number was now waiting expectantly for two of them to come flying its way.
Before the human could ask another question, or perhaps right as she began to, the number broke in to ask its own: "So, you're a jumper or somethin'? A lone rambler? Seen anything particularly sweet? Cool places to visit?"
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Post by Kishar on Oct 9, 2017 4:18:52 GMT
I thought for a second on how to maybe return it through this connection, but it all required the creation of a new Sorcery or getting something new out of the Book of Three Circles rather than something I could already do. Unfortunate, but it wasn't something I could really do anything about. Could possibly be done with an Artifact, but while that took less time, I didn't quite know if I had the resources necessary for this particular thing. It wouldn't be too hard at least. Projects for later I supposed. Then again, I had more than enough of those already. At this rate it would be necessary to see if I couldn't tease a few more manses out of the Sanctuary in order to get more Hearthstones and maybe some more Factory Cathedrals. I'd work that out later and see if I couldn't run some extra simulations in the AI as well to make it work. "Oh well, I suppose I can just answer as many questions as you'd like. This doesn't take too much time out of my day and my adviser says I need to take more breaks from research anyway and this provides for a nice enough little distraction anyway. Plus you seem pleasant enough to make conversation with, far more concerned with what I know than who I am and what kinds of blessings I can give and the like. I do enjoy my research after all," I said, getting more than a little bit sidetracked from the point at hand. I tended to end up like that sometimes, but I just assumed it came from my field of study and the like.
Managing to push my mind back on track and away from a few designs that had popped up in my head on how to exploit this sort of connection with Artifice or Sorcery, I returned to listening and heard her question. "Yes, or that is at least what my adviser tells me. He's the one who does a lot of the research on the outside world after all. Unfortunately I don't have a mantle like this that would let him answer prayer like this in his Magical Material so you can't contact him directly, but I do have his rather encyclopedic set of notes memorized so I should be able to answer like he would for the most part," I said, giving her a bit of an apologetic smile as I said that. That wasn't exactly the area I had a lot of expertise in or ability to just peruse like he could with that spider of his, but I could offer some other insights and whatnot if she liked. "I can also tell you a bit about where I am from or the kinds of magic I could offer you if you would like? Or perhaps just a lesson on theory if you prefer that sort of thing. I would be much more confident about my answers on those types of subjects. Not that I distrust my adviser, it's just that compared to my knowledge of those things, those notes look like an introductory lesson or something like that," I said, explaining a bit about my areas of expertise before saying, "But feel free to ask me about anything really. I will try my best to answer your questions no matter what they might be related to."
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Post by hekate on Oct 13, 2017 19:29:36 GMT
Of the three bodies that Hekate was currently using, it would end up being the white haired one that responded to the call for help, the prayer for power. Power was always good, but it was obvious that this summoning had been half-arsed, and that the other probably didn’t mean to summon a deity through an astral connection, anyways. Does this child even know what could happen if she summoned the wrong kind of creature, or ended up summoning a dozen different things at the same time? Chaos and destruction. Luckily for the other, Hekate wasn’t in the mood for chaos nor destruction. A glass of wine was held by her astral form, just as it was held by her true form in a faraway land. A smile played on her lips, and she gave a wave with her free, left hand, gauging the reaction that the other had to the seemingly mostly human body of Hekate she had summoned. ”Hello.” She said, looking around. Hekate made a short-lived humming sound that died out as quickly as it took her to examine the circle. ”You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” She asked, her smile changing to one of amusement. ”I am Hekate, Mother of Angels. Tsk, tsk, tsk… you should be more careful.” Hekate said, ”much more careful.” Her short introduction was over. Now she waited for the girl to respond. Hopefully she was smarter than her spell, if you can call it that, made her appear.
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Post by Jay on Oct 14, 2017 1:17:17 GMT
Kenessa Choushin Kenessa's eyebrow raised. No, it wasn't completely helpful, but lessons were also welcome. She'd need everything she could get. "Help with illusions, huh? And where would these lessons take place?"Hekate This new one was a deity. A very mouthy deity. Good, one of those. "'Mother of Angels'. Poor guys," Kenessa muttered, shaking her head. She kneew something about unbearable mothers, so she could almost feel for those poor saps. "Posturing aside, nice to meet you, Mom," the planeswalker took a sip of her tea. After the other meetings today, she was more or less out of it. "Don't worry about me, shitty magic isn't blocking your almightiness - physics is."She continued after that point. "I'm asking questions about magic. Feel like being a good samaritan and giving this newbie some advice? There's stuff here for you if you do."Shagul "How about I don't do that," Kenessa growled, though the fear she was feeling toward the being was unmistakable. It's newer form was somehow more unsettling than its abstract one. Still, what it was saying raised a point. "What are you seeing that I'm not here? What's so... fake about magic?" She asked. The creature was denying something that was, more or less, a hard fact in the grand scheme of things. She hadn't seen willful ignorance like that since first visiting Sanctuary. 0 Just like math, huh? Kenessa had a lot of trouble actually believing that. Mysticism and science tended to disagree, to put it very lightly. Still, maybe there was a science behind it - after all, she had seen magic and science work in tandem. However, that was less an inherent relationship and more of a reconciliation. Still, that answer was a satisfactory one, so she threw two more donuts at the creature. The next question, however, came from it, and that was unexpected. "Oh... me?" She rubbed her knee, trying to think. "I've been... well, to a lot of places. I've seen a lot. Grandiose, small, powerful, weak; ya know, variety," she took one of the donuts and took a bite unconsciously. However, she did slide another one to the creature. "I've seen things like you; weird abstract-o's that kinda exist, just not in the way you think."To be honest, a great number of the things she saw would fit that description if she wasn't a planeswalker. "What, uh... what even are you, Abstracto?" She decided that Abstracto might not even have a name, so it was better to just give it one. Kishar The Goddess was being awfully generous, now. And, this was setting off all kinds of red flags again. However, Nessie decided to answer her. "We can discuss it further when I see you," she said. The Goddess was introducing a lot of fringe information that would factor into a lot when she got there to Eokia, so the things she was saying didn't escape her mind. Still, on the surface, she seemed nice enough. So, Kenessa nodded to the Goddess. "Thank you for your help, Kishar."It wasn't that she didn't want to be irreverent, but she found no reason to add an honorific. Planeswalking human True Neutral | 31 | Female ninjasoilder Loner。 Kishar 0 hekate
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Post by ninjasoilder on Oct 14, 2017 1:26:50 GMT
Choushin grinned. "Well, not when I'm astral. I would prefer it be in the living so I can give better examples of the fun you can have with illusions!" He said happily, his tails wagging like a happy dog's would.
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 14, 2017 1:53:29 GMT
"tsk tsk. equal losses is required for every gains...." the spiritual being pointed out in a snakelike hiss. " while tendrils quietly worked in the unseeable background. "if the human can't work even that personal loss is required..." he wouldn't accept any items or tokens that didn't somehow cause the girl physical mental or spiritual, preferably irrivicable harm. "than the human will never understand."
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Post by 0 on Oct 14, 2017 2:09:00 GMT
It wriggled, catching the next two doughnuts in its newly formed body: one in the face, and another through the fingers, both of which seemed to simply make the confectioneries disappear.
When it looked up, it saw-- hey...the human was eating one of its doughnuts!
Another puff of smoke poofed out of its head, caressing the edges of the circle--BZZT! The small cloud disappeared in quite the neat display of sparks, which rained down over the head of the shadowy human. The burning embers that made up for a lack of eyes gave a couple blinks of confusion and surprise.
WHAT THE WHAT
Once more, before it could manage a proper investigative reaction, something else came along to distract it. What else but...: ANOTHER DOUGHNUT!
"Your brand new doughnut!" the number absentmindedly shouted in glee, snatching up the ring-shaped edible up when it was slid over to its side of the...place. This time the pastry did not disappear, and the silhouette [presumably] opened up a mouth that was next to impossible to see, nibbling on the dough in such a way that simply made it seem like the entity was pushing the object into its head one tiny piece at a time.
It listened closely to what information the human had to offer it; all vague, nothing substantial or particularly noteworthy, but still a little interesting nonetheless. Seemed the stranger was quite the well-traveled realist! It always found the time a welcome one whenever came the opportunity to meet fellow roamers 'n' voyagers, feeling something of a distant kinship with each one of them. Something of a crescent grin, the yellow of the moon when it rested upon the horizon, wrapped up around its head, twisting in a lazy spiral.
"Oh, I'm just a mathematical object," answered the number simply, dismissively waving the partially eaten doughnut in the void. It extended its second arm out when it shouted, in as heroic and manly a voice as it could muster: "The number zero!" Then the arm was dropped, and it went back to nib-nib-nibbling the doughnut, enjoying the fine taste and texture of bread, frosting, glazing, nuts, sprinkles, and whatsoever else happened to meet its practically invisible jaws.
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Post by Kishar on Oct 14, 2017 5:09:22 GMT
It seemed that the woman had gotten enough for now, and as such I decided that it was time that I got back to my work. After all, leisure was naturally something done in moderation to interrupt work for one's own mental wellbeing, and it was only necessary every once in a while, even if Shinzo liked to insist otherwise. There was very little he could do that would make me give up my rather focused work ethic in favor of something more slow paced, I had been at this for thousands of years at this point, so I was quite stuck in my ways on top of being rather willful to begin with. So without further ado I nodded at her when she thanked me for my help. "Very well then, I shall take my leave. Do let me know when you are stopping by, it wouldn't do for the servants and automatic defense systems to attack you on sight as a trespasser," I said, giving her a smile as I said something rather ominous about what my territory was like before cutting the connection from my end.
I had everything I needed to help her out, so right now what I needed to focus on was the analysis of this material, and as such I set about gathering the appropriate catalysts that I had on hand, and after a few minutes of doing that I nodded to myself, satisfied that I had everything besides what was currently in Elsewhere that I needed. With that done, I wandered off to the storage area and began to dig around for the various things that I would need, not even stopping for a moment to rest after that or bother with food. I had a mission now, and I was ready to get to it. There was science to be done after all.
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Post by hekate on Oct 16, 2017 22:51:11 GMT
Physics were fun, especially when one was a deity that was more than capable of teleporting from where one was to another place. Hekate was one such deity. Nearly all Greco-Roman divinities were, and clearly this street magician wasn’t aware of that. Maybe she should go to Vegas. It might be easier for her to make a living there.
Being a motherly divinity and all - one even seen by some luckier followers as a mother - Hekate was going to bite her tongue when it came to judging someone she had just met. A bad day and a bad meeting with Zeus had soured her mood, but now it was time to do her duty. Judging a mage that had apparently just started their journey was probably one of more important parts of her duty.
”I find it fortunate that several of my dominions cover magic. Out of my entire pantheon, I am the best deity you could have… stumbled upon.” She said, her astral form moving to a chair that looked to be in a board room. Hekate reached forward with a single hand, seemingly adjusting a camera that flew outwards so that Hekate could sit comfortably in the chair at one of the heads of the table she found herself at. The full form of her body - at least the parts not hidden by the table - and the remnants of energy left behind by the deities that had held a meeting with her were visible. Those deities were gone, now. Embarrassment had been narrowly avoided.
”The most important part of any magic user’s foray into honing their skills, no matter whom they are, is educating yourself. Your first action should be to find the nearest grimoire. Find one that goes over things that coincide with magic, such as the different types of magic users, and how some magic users are religious while others may in fact be atheists that harness the power of the self.” Hekate looked over the ritual circle again, grimacing.
”Please also find a bestiary, and learn how to guard yourself against anything you may summon. Summoning someone in this manner will not always protect you.” Hekate didn’t like the idea that someone randomly summoned her. There were specific rituals for that, and haywire magic was never good. It was her job to fix this. If that meant giving two or three coins of blessing, and maybe a coin of the pathways, then so be it.
”There are entities far less kind than me that would teleport into this room, steal your memories, kill you, and then make your ghost watch as they massacred everyone close to you so that you may become a vengeful spirit that is more… filling.” She continued, ”you must learn how to close these things in an emergency. The finer points of a summoning are the most important.” Hekate said.
”I know not if you are capable of instantaneous forms of travel. Perhaps because I don’t care at the moment. There is a continent called Eokia that you may be aware of.” Hekate made a motion with her hand, and a bag of coins appeared in front of Kenessa.
”In that bag are three coins of blessing. Each one of them will call me to aid you a single time, though I may send one of my servants instead. Each use, however, will see me seeking a favor later.” Hekate interrupted herself with a sip from her cup.
”The coin of the pathways - one of my specialties - in there has a maximum of five uses before its magic is exhausted. It will allow you to travel anywhere needed, or to cross any barrier. Be careful with that. It’s more powerful than it looks.” Hekate said, quirking her head at the magic user.
”I hope for us to develop a repertoire. I am always in need of new allies, but we must earn each other’s trust.” Hekate said.
”I am not sure I will have the time to personally train you, but I will be watching. Maybe in the future I’ll aid you without a use of a coin of blessing.” Hekate said, and a small roll of paper appeared in front of the girl.
”On that piece of paper is the name, location, and an image of a very special book store in Eokia. You can use one of the coins of blessing - charged or not - as currency. They’re rather open about that. If you keep it charged, you should be able to afford a blank grimoire, pen, ink, books - including a grimoire or two to copy from and figure out - and a bag of keeping for what you’ve purchased.” The Titaness quirked her head.
”Did you have any specific questions?” Hekate asked. ”I am quite bored right now, and don’t have any appointments for the better part of an hour; with this body, at least. For now, I am free to gain an ally… you could be quite capable in the future, Planewalker.” She said.
”Oh, right. Trivia. It’s one of my other dominions. I have a lot. Keeping track of them was agitating for a while, but you start to get used to it as time goes on.” Hekate said.
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Post by Jay on Oct 17, 2017 8:20:51 GMT
Kenessa Choushin The planeswalker nodded, taking out a notebook. "And... where would you like to meet? Eokia, I'm guessin, yea?"Hekate "Got twenty two separate volumes of bestiaries in this room alone, but thanks for the tip," Kenessa pointed out, writing things out. This Goddess was not only extremely wordy, but exorbitantly full of herself. Despite wanting to, Kenessa would have loved to inform her that she was literally one of the least impressive things she's seen in the multiverse. Though, that would have been a slight lie. Most gods were grand, and their egos matched. Still, this chirping bird of a deity wasn't a fraction as interesting to the planeswalker as she thought she was. "Personally, I prefer my allies to be a little more..." she tried to think of an adjective. "Likable. Guess that's hard to find in a cosmos like this though, huh? Might as well be my payment to you for you willing help."Shagul "Something needs to be sacrificed, huh?" She said. She internalized that, writing it down, but then pointed to her side. "That's why I've got these offerings. How about I give ya some... uh... goat's blood."0 "The number 0, huh... doesn't ring as well as Abstracto," was the planeswalker's decree. Something came to mind when Abstracto was talking. "Oh. I just remembered something."She held a container that held something within. This something was obviously some kind of substance, yet it didn't feel right to look at. Something about it was off, as if it weren't supposed to physically exist. "This is somethin' I found skulking in the Outer Planes," she said. "It's somethin like congealed antiexistence. When I hauled it here, it started breakin reality where I stood. Had a couple of angry dudes on my back from it."Somebody she knew said it was like proving division by zero to be a physical law. Which, in the case of the multiverse, it was actually very provable. Kishar When the Goddess left, Kenessa nodded. She'd have to visit Eokia. If this lady was willing to offer her hand, she needed to jump at the chance. Free-ish help was always hard to find. "Better start gettin' that goody-goody juice packed up," she said to herself. Planeswalking human True Neutral | 31 | Female ninjasoilder Loner。 0 hekate
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