then it becomes, it becomes, it becomes a problem, then--

[monzun]

Monzun watches over their people. They teach their Creature. That was all they knew and all they really wanted initially, when they were freshly-created, and perhaps it ever would have been if another god's cruelty hadn't cut in.

Their goal had never been to be the only god. It was that, and then it had been surviving to oppose Nemesis, and now he was gone, and it seemed they were the only regardless.

("Eh, screw 'em! What've other gods been but trouble for us, huh?")

("Well...It is a bit lonely. And Khazar's actions are the only reason we're around today, isn't that right?")

The power of the Creeds trickle back alongside the power of the people. And then torrents, and a flood. The Miracles they use grow stronger beyond even Wonders' assistance.

Generations of their people live and proliferate and die, and Monzun's strength doesn't waver, but increases even as the populations settle lower than the war efforts and post-war burst their levels to being.

("Yeah! We're badass! Even if it could use a lil more fireballin' to make all this peace more exciting, Boss.")

 Their Creature and people are safe. They revel in being only gentle without consequence but worshippers' occasional disrespect, and they find they care little about that--unless they harm others in their village, and then Creature gentle scolding or abrupt relocation across the land tends to work nearly as well as lightning would have.

Their intervention is needed less even as they notice more. Little beacons where their people were, somewhere well beyond the seas, still worshipping where it once couldn't reach. 

And something else. A shard of someone.

Another...another god? Near their people? The numbers waver, some converting to the other, fewer converting to Monzun, as reasonable without them there to demonstrate their power. 

They need to look. 

("Could be a fresh threat we need to squash.")

("Or they may be a new god in need of a Guide?")

A fragment of them even hopes...

...

...Nemesis' brutality means their consciences say nothing while their Teleports are slowly practiced until they look something closer to a Vortex the old gods used.

It's not quite as large. Redder. But far more than a simple Teleport.

The day comes where they reach across the Lands and place it where they sense their lingering people and that god.

("Let's go!")

("It's so exciting! But we don't need to rush quite yet--")

Monzun takes some time to look over their nearest people and discuss. Khazar brought them Disciples; they could bring some possibly willing to convert to another, although they seem confused by the conversation. Do any of theirs know Miracles? Oh? Yes? One of Sable's decedents picked up the Wood Miracle, they hadn't realized that was possible--

A part of them is distant, distant, distant.

Monzun reaches for their Creature and finds they stare down into the Vortex.

Ah. 

It seems their impatience was noticed and acted upon.





In another part of Eden, a Vortex opened on the side of a mountain that Monzun's old Temple still stands on. The air splits with a shocked bellow as a massive Leopard Creature steps onto nothing and tumbles down into the water.

Ouch.

Only a little ouch. It wasn't that far, but Sweetheart wasn't expecting it. She stands and shakes the water off a little--oooh, fish. Scoops up a handful of fresh fish to eat, and then turns around to claw up the mountain to peek over the edge.

There are a few people! Worshipping wrong, or maybe just frightened. That's okay. She's pretty different now. She doesn't mind when they take off running when they un-freeze.

...Most of the trees she grew are missing. She doesn't like that, she worked hard on those.

She climbs up all the way--oh, the Temple's smaller, or she's so big as to match?--and immediately gets to Miracle Watering the withered ones in the worship sites left.

Comments

[lethys]

He recoils. Not physically - his symbol does not move. But the insinuation that another's Creature might obey him -- mortified, Lethys rejects it.

"Your Creature heeded only you. I carried your command. I was merely a messenger..."

[monzun]

Monzun observes him oddly, pausing in their mindless water motions.

"And yet she followed it? I'm certainly grateful. I was merely unsure if it would work," they admit.

whether his "tutorials" are as true as he thinks they are or not are up to you

[lethys]

"She understood her name, and yours..."

He hovers uncertainly over the waves.

There is a winter of a pause.

"No Creature recognises another god," he gingerly explains. "She is yours. None may influence her as you do."

we'll see :3c

[monzun]

"Certainly," Monzun says. Within them, there is an echo of insult--is he implying that Sweetheart is stupid?

It takes only a moment to settle that no; somehow, they don't quite think that's what he's getting at. Because he's getting at...something. They realize they're assuming again, but they'd have to be three Lands away to miss the shift in Lethys' demeanor.

"...I am aware she would not do the same for you as for myself." They certainly would hope not! Sweetheart is no mindless automaton, listening to any order that reaches her ears. Not even their own. They (generally) prefer this.

"However--you may have seen worse, as you say, but unleashing a storm upon unprepared Villages is an emergency to me," they make very clear, finally drifting from the sea, "and at least her giving consideration to an allied god's input in an emergency is...preferable to the contrary, is it not?"

[lethys]

"It is... preferable," he reluctantly agrees, instinctively trailing after them. For this next part he doesn't sound surprised - just cautious. Like he's just checking. "Then we are allied?"

Only, Monzun didn't actually tell him that's what they were doing. The intention was implied, yes, but to Lethys this is a far cry from certainty.

"Against whom?"

[monzun]

"...Yes? There are none to be against. But we are not enemies anymore, are we? I thought neither of us desired this."

Monzun is exceptionally baffled, and it comes across in their tone more than ever before. There are allies and there are enemies. They can think of no other terms off the cuff. Not for another god.

(There was Khazar, and friend-- but this was only another flavor of ally, anyway, and with other beings appears to involve fondness. Lethys has no fondness for them, and their own--their own feelings are...strange, and perhaps not precisely such.)

Sweetheart has finished her very thorough check of the Temple, as well as having done as Monzun had hoped, stopping a few fires the Storm started among the trees. Perhaps she sensed her god speaking of her, because now she's wandering around the mountain range from the other side, tilting her head at the sight of two gods' lights still hovering below her usual eyeline.

[lethys]

"...No. I did not desire to be your enemy. In recent memory, gods of Eden have rarely been afforded the choice." You may have noticed?

They have work to do, then. Lethys draws in front of them now, and sails a little higher and closer to the land, perhaps hoping to draw them out of whatever strange thoughts they're having.

"Do not misunderstand! I am no stranger to the meaning of shared Influence. But it seems communicating your intent slipped your mind. One can never be sure."

As nonchalant as he's playing it now that he has a straight answer, it feels strange to wander into an alliance so casually. And with no decorum. Perhaps he will need to explain a few things, in time.

Lethys is more aware of Sweetheart than perhaps Monzun is at this moment. He has spent a long time on his guard for the shape and pattern of the Leopard; he remains uncomfortably aware of her in the corner of his view. Maybe this too will fade.

Laetes, suspiciously, is nowhere to be seen.

[monzun]

Perhaps he would not have battled with them so harshly without Nemesis, but Lethys' prior insistence on realms being won and alost leaves Monzun somewhat skeptical. "Our circumstances were not natural," they acknowledge, at least.

It's their turn to be mortified, this keeping them from dwelling upon that. "...I did not? Truly? I thought I was obvious upon my arrival!" Their glow, kept sharp throughout the stress compounded by their self-made emergency, flickers muted.

Sweetheart's presence is quite obvious, as it always is. Monzun, used to her wandering off-task and hearing of no deaths to need diverting her back, waits until she's close enough to acknowledge her with a small pat to her back.

The Creature rumbles and sits, as if she's going to tell stories to humans.

Instead of a story, though, she just cuts into whatever the gods are talking about by poking a claw in the direction of shining blue and says "Lethys tell!" with all the dignified tones of a child tattling on a creche-mate.

[lethys]

"You made your tolerance clear."

Fine, then, he will explain. Lethys has a feeling he may be doing a lot of this fairly soon.

"To forge an alliance with you, I would expect somewhat more ceremony," he says, a hint of pointedness creeping in, "which we seem to have skipped over."

And maybe he would say more, but that confounded Leopard seems to have it in for him. As she's asked him to say more, he opts to say less.

"It does not matter. We are allied. As you wish, Monzun."

Lethys continues inland. When he meets one of Monzun's villages, its people fussing at the tail-end of the storm and beginning to pick up the pieces, Lethys pauses over their storehouse and considers how helpful a Miracle might be.

...Best not. It is too early in this alliance to risk their faith.

"What do you need?"

[monzun]

"I see," Monzun says sheepishly. "I thought...I did not realize there would appear to be a difference between the two." As he can obviously tell by now.

Monzun trails partway behind Lethys, this time, ever-so-cautious. The rain continues along the beach, but it seems...weaker. A few errant clouds reach for them, but the rest appear to have detached from their will.

"Lethys tell!" Sweetheart repeats, head twisting to look at Monzun. "He tell!" Her indignation shoves hard against Monzun's tentatively-reaching awareness.

"...Ah!" They sink again, settling their hand against the edge of her jaw. She grumpily rubs her teeth along their fingers. "It appears neither of you are pleased with me," they sigh.

[lethys]

"I am rarely pleased," Lethys returns. It is unusually casual for him. A joke? ...Or, if it's the truth, it is far more flippantly shared than his usual. There is some humour there, even if his tone is dry as a bone.

"It seems your Creature understands better than you do the strangeness of hearing a command from a strange god. Regardless of what was accomplished, I will not be so quick to give her orders again."

It occurs to him that there is no such tugging at his own attention, and has not been for a while. Lethys hangs still in the air for a moment.

"Laetes is up to something," he says, thick with suspicion.

[monzun]

Monzun is hesitant to respond. (Had missing something so small been truly so significant?) They suppose his lack of obvious anxiety is worth the broil of bemusement.

"Yooou?" Sweetheart says suspiciously.

"Yes, yes. The order was mine."

A tension in her shoulders visibly slackens. It was not bad to look at the Temple! But she didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. Knowing it was really her god's idea makes the thought less... itchy.

"It is only for big emergencies, I may request Lethys to this," Monzun tells their Creature, moving to scratch beneath her chin. A purr reluctantly rattles out. "But I will try to avoid it, since it bothers you both so."

Sweetheart perks up at her friend's name. Monzun's attention brightens and shifts back to Lethys as well. "Damage?" they ask instantly.

[lethys]

"I would prefer we came to an agreement beforehand," Lethys admits offhandedly. "I am an adaptable god. But much like alliances, manipulating another god's Creature is not an act to be performed lightly."

He isn't really thinking about that right now. He's more concerned with scanning the landscape for the familiar stooping shape of his Creature. Lethys floats up to the top of a mountain, pensive.

"There is no way to know until I have him in my sight." And then, just as quickly, he catches sight of him. "Laetes! Stop this!"

Caught red-handed with a torn-out tree in his paws, Laetes trots to a halt and snarls over the top of the leafy branches.

In the time it has taken Monzun's distress to be tempered, Laetes has been dedicating his focus to... repositioning some assets. A slight desire path of trampled grass and earth shows a just-barely-visible line stretching the long trek all the way between one of Monzun's carefully managed forests and the bare, uninhabited corner land overlooked by Lethys' temple.

It looks conspicuously less bare now; Monzun's manicured garden of trees, somewhat more so than before.

Lethys hovers directly over Laetes. The Wolf yips at a smart cuff around the head.

"That is not yours."

[monzun]

Monzun follows, their Creature springing up to follow in turn. This response puzzles them--ah, he may still believe it's only their own villages they feel concern about? The trails the massive Wolf left through his earlier were rather visible from a distance.

The damage is to only their Forest, it appears, though a few of their people nearest are watching in breaks between chores with curious caution.

"...Well," Monzun begins slowly, after the surprise of a partly bald mountain wears off, "if he would like--"

They are quite abruptly cut off by Sweetheart's late arrival. "TREE!" she bellows.

Immediately Laetes and his tree are absolutely drenched in an orb--not a rain, an orb, crashing down into a positive wave--of Miracle Water.

Monzun starts laughing too strongly to finish their thought.

[lethys]

There is a high yipe from Laetes, and both god and Creature freeze for a split second, processing.

Laetes is left sodden and dripping, the ground around him already turning to mud with the sheer weight of water. Immediately he shakes himself, a full-body rattle that showers the deluge around in an even wider area, and turns pointedly on Sweetheart with a furious snarl and his fur sticking out in all directions.

As a precaution, Lethys snaps the Leash to his Creature and holds it taut, keeping him from lunging just in case.

"Hm," he muses. A further pause, and then: "'Lack of discipline' was generous of me. Your Creature is unruly."

There is a soft, tell-tale creak of force-grown wood, as some of the Water made it to the exposed roots. The tree grows slightly heavier in Laetes' claws, and he tilts slightly before compensating with a foot forwards.

Laetes maintains direct, angry, glaring eye contact with Sweetheart and slides his claws down, crunching a fist around the roots and slicing-crushing them into splinters, then drags his claw out through them to tear little straggly bits out and scatter them. Before it can get any heavier, he whisks the damaged tree aside and hurls it against the ground branches-first in an obvious display of disgust.

Lethys watches this with mild disdain, but does not punish him.

sweetheart has known to speak for Two Days and already: puns

[monzun]

Gods need no breath for speech nor laughter. "I didn't realize she was capable of such!" is sprinkled with an echoed backing of ^ha_heh^heh_heh^hah and so on. "She is creative," they assert gleefully.

Sweetheart's shoulders slump with momentary disappointment. But! There are other trees! And several of those other trees were near enough to the deluge and Laetes' shaking it off to grow too.

Ignoring warning signs, she tromps over and tears a couple of the still-growing trees in her paws. Now she is showing off her strength somewhat, flexing her arms with their weight. "Laaaaeteees!" she sings. "Laetes, trees. Lae-treeeeees!" She swings one around to point towards the copse by the distant Temple. He wants some there, then? She can help with that easy easy easy!

[lethys]

Lethys feels a kind of sinking feeling, perhaps like mortals treading in snow that was deeper than it looked.

Laetes is not much better. In fact, worse. Humiliated, bewildered, and whipped into what would normally be a biting rage, but held back by the will (and Leash) of Lethys, he understands that is not the appropriate response here. He does not understand what is.

Still snarling and baring warning teeth at Sweetheart, the Wolf's tail curls subtly under and between his legs. This is a battle he is losing, or has already lost. He is unequipped to deal with jokes, let alone being the butt of them.

Frustrated and impotent, he whips his head around and begins biting and chewing on the Leash, spit wicking between his jaws.

Lethys wavers, alarmed.

"Laetes!" he scolds. "Go to the Temple! Await me there." He drops the Leash, the line of ethereal rope disappearing into nothing between flashing teeth.

Laetes rumbles in immense displeasure, and immediately - almost gratefully - begins to lope away.

[monzun]

"Lae-trees," Sweetheart repeats brightly, and trots after him with her haul.

A Forrester of Monzun's, previously gone unnoticed, wanders from the forest's hidden paths and towards the fallen tree, and quickly sinks to his knees into the muddy mess left behind. "Ah!" He throws his arms out, and then his axe to the drier grass.

He tries to tug his legs out. The mud squelches and doesn't give. "...Help?"

It's so confused as to barely be a prayer, but Monzun is right here, and they--still nearly cackling--sweep down and pluck him from the dirt anyway.

They drop a quick Heal when he starts limping off, laughter slightly subsiding when he continues on. They look a little closer--ah, his shoe's gone. That can't be helped without much more poking, and they're busy. He'll be fine.

[lethys]

Seeing Sweetheart begin to follow, Lethys can already envision how this will play out.

"Monzun," he calls, and they will feel a - probably fairly unfamiliar - jolt for their attention. "Retrieve your Creature."

As he watches their efforts to help the mortal man in such a menial way, it reminds him of watching them sometimes, when their territory had begun to encroach on his enough that they were nearby as he went about his own business; and he remembers judging their level of interference with distaste - despite some hypocrisy.

They are allied now, and he can recognise that for what it was. In the end, their methods were superior.

Still, they could stand to pay that kind of close attention to their beast.

[monzun]

They jerk and flash straight upwards--that is new! A prayer, not a prayer, a call. They circle back to Lethys, just on the edge of unsettled. The last they felt that...Khazar, perhaps, in their first few days of stumbling?

Still, their hesitance is temporary. "You do not wish for her assistance in gardening?" they wonder playfully, but snap the Leash.

Sweetheart stops in her tracks and twists back to face them, startled. "Noooooo?"