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]

Their smaller concerns confuse him even more than their larger godly manners.

Lethys stalls, still stuck in the rut of the previous topic. But the rain might be - just a slight bit - softer... so he ought to adapt.

...Does he agree? Does he not? Lethys has not had this breed of conversation in a long time.

"Mortals are..."

Silence; waves, rain, distant thunder.

Mortals are what? Small? Beneath his notice? Significant, or insignificant? Both? Mortals are...

He flounders for an embarrassingly long time.

Maybe Monzun might care to elaborate, since Lethys has apparently run into a stumbling block.

[monzun]

Appreciative for his not pointing out their fumble, they wait politely.

And then somewhat incredulously. Surely, Lethys has considered his mortals before?

...Perhaps his opinions are low, and so he fears sharing them? Monzun tries not to give the second part of that thought overmuch attention. Mortals are capable of great stupidity. They can understand lingering irritation.

"Mortals are prone to being so fickle and so helpless, and they can believe such bizarre things about me--us," they decide to say. "And yet they can be incredibly industrious and have their own strange abilities. It is fascinating to watch if one pauses to do so."

[lethys]

Part of him recoils from us, as it always has with Nemesis, as it always has since Nemesis. Perhaps longer. There is no us - only gods against gods against gods. Only rivalry, often bitter, often to the end.

But Monzun does things differently. Curse them. He bites his tongue, as ever. (If he really had one, he might have bitten it in half aeons ago, with how much unsaid.)

It is a shock to realise he is not used to giving his opinion on something like this. Thoughts are had, and then his world moves on. Rarely is it strategically viable to give the truth.

But Monzun seems expectant. And he does not know how to give an answer they might like; but the storm rumbles. He must give them something.

"I have known many," he begins. "They are as industrious as they are wilful."

Yet Monzun is getting at something. Lethys knows what it is - but...

"It is pointless to look too closely," he finishes, a little defensively.

[monzun]

"It is not always pointless. Individuals can give surprising advantages if you look carefully," Monzun counters. "Miracles, Creatures, information..."

Ah, but that's something that can stray towards war talk. That wasn't their initial thought, besides.

"And is there something wrong with doing what's pointless? If it is enjoyable and causes no trouble..." Monzun questions, genuine.

[lethys]

"That is not what I meant."

Lethys is at a loss. They asked him for - they know what they were asking! Now they discuss advantages... Do they, or don't they want him to speak strategically!?

The ocean beneath him crackles briefly as a thin skin of ice forms on its surface. Mindful, he wanders upwards, though the effect already fades.

"It is frivolous. A waste of time and resources on lives that may barely reach a century." He bristles, a bit. They are about to scold him, he feels, but they led him here.

[monzun]

"Perhaps it is." Monzun stays where they are, just barely resisting the urge to prod at the bobbing pattern on the water. It's already fragmenting with the weakening waves. "I have had time for frivilosity. You have had less," they acknowledge.

The war cannot go completely ignored. Even in the throes of battle, they felt they had moments to do as they wished, and that was before the Creeds.

Lethys has had an heavily fearful existence.

"You have more time for such desires now, if you like."

[lethys]

You have had less. Has he! (...Has he?)

"I have had more time than you -" that much is true "- and I have no such desire," he tries out. That sits oddly with him, after.

The ice he created fractures and melts away quickly as he floats out of proximity to the ocean, evidence erasing itself. Lethys is becoming rapidly and uncomfortably self-aware of how odd he sounds.

As if to mitigate it, he offers - well, an explanation. If Monzun were to squint at it, anyway.

"I am not accustomed to a god who concedes territory wilfully and attempts to speak without veiled meaning." It is not easy to say, but he finds relief in its saying. "You are strange to me."

Then, because he is still stewing over being walked in a circle about mortals and their intrigue - as well as everything else...

"And you could assume less of my opinions," he says, icily.

[monzun]

For a time, Monzun is silent.

They give in to their most miniscule of desires and make lines in the water. Not Gestures, no shapes with known meaning; just crisscrosses, breaking up ripples.

"...We are strange to each other. You confuse me. I do presume your opinions with... limited information. You do not speak freely to me, leaving my information still limited."

It is raining, but only that. The skies have been quiet for a while now.

"It will take more time for understanding. This day was meant to be frivolous, you know," Monzun tacks on. "Although not pointless. I find my Creature's enjoyment necessary. But it was, before I..." Water droplets flick towards the sky.

but enough about me, i'm going to talk about my dog. psyche! talking about me again

[lethys]

I do not speak freely to any--

Well, he does not speak to...

...He has not spoken freely since...

Exhausted of fending off thoughts like these, Lethys closes off that whole avenue. He does not have to talk about himself any more. Perhaps this god will permit him that. They do not seem to have insisted upon much, so far.

"My Creature has spent centuries obeying my every command. That yours intended sport likely did not cross his mind."

With a gesture - not a Gesture, only a gesture - the droplets freeze in mid-air and shower back down to the ocean as short-lived sleet.

"I am in no position to judge your conduct. But if I were, it might benefit you to know that I have seen worse." Really, this is what he meant to say earlier.

[monzun]

Monzun would permit, though it is just as easy to say they're lead astray, not entirely realizing so.

"You've seen, what? More pointless chaos?" they ask, trying not to focus too hard on it. One of the frozen drops is flicked again, shattering against the tip of their nail. "... The storm should have passed beyond your Village by now."

They are wary of reaching to check. The storm, and--

"My own Creature listened to you somewhat?" Lethys hasn't mentioned leaving her to wander, but perhaps they've assumed.

[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.