Post by Her Imperial Majesty Kalinda I on Nov 18, 2020 18:11:57 GMT -5
The Goddess was silent. She had been silent for several minutes, of which she had spent the last ten or so occasionally flicking her gaze from the floating, glowing panes of light to me and then back again.
It's amazing how much emotion can be conveyed purely through the eyes.
Well, one eye.
Well, a series of glowy shapes in front of a crystalline orb held in the mouth of a bronze-and-jade statue of a serpentine monster the overall effect of which looks like an eye.
Anyway, I was getting looks that conveyed confusion, wonder, respect, admiration, and a little bit more than a touch of jealous indignation.
"How?" she asked, the glowy quasi-eyeball narrowing. I was honestly surprised how expressive a mostly inanimate object was. But then again, what form would you really expect from the Goddess of Dungeons aside from a Dungeon Core?
I shrugged.
Well, I tried to shrug. You can't really shrug when you don't have arms and are currently a floating orb made of magic.
"I dunno," I said honestly, "It's just something that seems to happen with things like this. When you create something complex you kind of put yourself in a box with your intended design. You can only see what you intended and the one way that you intend for things to fit together. You can't see the forest for the trees when you make a bunch of things over a long period of time."
"You don't think about all the potential ripples that one little change or additional can make. The way the puzzle pieces you make today could fit with the ones you made in the past to create a picture far different than the one you intended. And those pieces will also fit together with future pieces that you'll never be able to predict the interactions of."
I trace slow, lazy figure eights in the air as I speak. Dammit, I don't even have a body and yet I'm still somehow having trouble figuring out what to do with my hands when I'm speaking.
"Even though you're a Goddess, you're just one mind with one perspective. There's no substitute for setting a few dozen minds to the task of completely and utterly taking intended mechanics and spanking them over a barrel."
The gemstone shifted color and brightened for a moment, and then dimmed again. Perhaps something akin to drawing in a breath and slowly letting it out?
"You, little one, are my last chance for survival." the Goddess said, her voice coming not only from the orb before me, but from the whole of the titanic hall around me as the entire breadth of the Labyrinth spoke.
"Four times before I have incarnated souls and sent them out into the realms within my reach. Each has failed, each death bringing me closer to oblivion, and should the last halls of my Divine Domain be sealed into nothingness so too will go the last hopes and dreams of all whose lives are touched by the Grand Labyrinth."
I darted slightly to the side and back to avoid a falling rock from the ceiling knocked loose by the rumbling voice.
"Yeah, you don't look all that well, Subby." I said.
The glowy eye narrowed into the thinnest of thin lines, "Subby?" she repeated incredulously.
Ack! I don't even have a mouth at the moment, and I'm still managing to stick my foot in it. Even though I don't have one of those either.
"Well, Profane Goddess of Labyrinthine Darkness is a bit of a mouthful," I said, laying out my thought process for the nickname, "And Underworld Serpent isn't really a name either, and it's still pretty long."
"So Underworld Serpent, with my crummy second hand knowledge of Latin would be Submundis Anguis. Thus, Subby!"
Shut up, me, before you the mother of all catacombs stuffs your currently disembodied soul into a box and throws it into the back of the dungeon equivalent of a closet filled with boxes of shoes.
Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.
I floated around in erratic circles and did what I always do when I'm nervous; start rambling and/or singing.
"We could shorten that. Stick the two words together. Subanguis? Sanguis? Sanguis!"
I drew in a deep metaphorical breath, "Sanguis! Bibimis! Corpus! Edimus!" and warbled the rather sinister opening theme from some horror movie.
Rather than dispose of me like an unwanted Christmas gift, the Goddess instead sighed and muttered softly to herself. Well, softly for her. It's not much of a mutter when every surface in a sports stadium is making the same noise.
"Oh by my own sealed corridors, it sings."
"Tolle corpus Satani, aaaaaaaave!" I continued. Ack, no, stop, stop! Abort! Abort! Cease annoying the thing that yanked me into the void between dimensions to begin with.
The glowy eye contracted a bit in a way that a normal eye couldn't express, it looked like something akin to pursed lips. It tilted upwards and away from me, moving up and down slightly. I think she was kind of appreciating the sinister theme, even though my ability to remain on key was not the greatest.
"Ave, ave versus Christos!" I continued, now sounding a bit more cheerful, though the change in tone earned me a scowl, so I just let it trail off.
"Are you sure that these choices you've made regarding your incarnation are the ones you truly wish to have applied? Even as the ranking Goddess of Darkness, once these are applied I cannot change them."
The Goddess' gaze looked over the floating data displays once more.
"You will be inhabiting the form you've chosen, perhaps for years, perhaps even decades. It will not be... pleasant, especially in the beginning. In fact, it's going to hurt quite a lot."
I grin, which makes my glowball form brighten a bit in lieu of actually having facial expressions, "Meh. I'm not going to actually remember much of that bit anyway. Plus, you know what my life's been like. Things were put in motion long before I was born, and once I did pop out into the world it's been non-stop training." my glow dims slightly, "Though I was told it would be another few years before y'all could get your cosmic body snatching thing on."
Subby's light formations arrange into a pattern that makes her look a bit thoughtful, "Hmm. Yes. That IS very strange. Almost as strange as you. The currents of time between the Four Realms and your world do ebb and flow, but the window of opportunity to choose champions from your world always begins within a variation of 6, 7, or 8 years from the last. It has done this for as long as we have chosen champions from your realm, and I am not sure of what it could mean. For good or for ill."
I attempt to shrug once again, "Honestly, I'm quite surprised as normal as I am considering my upbringing and my parentage."
The Goddess' eye bobs up and down in a nod, "Yes, I suppose with a Chosen of the Auran Geas in your lineage it would be an accomplishment for you to wear your trousers on your legs instead of on your head."
I laugh, "That sounds exactly like my father's behavior, all right. But yeah, you shouldn't expect to end up with a big ball of normal when you have a parentage polycule comprised primarily of professional wrestlers who live in a run down amusement park in the middle of the desert named after the capital city of Hell who run a special effects company, make horror genre B-movies in their spare time, and also utilize they artifacts and abilities they acquired in this particular piece of Isekai bullshit to put down the occasional magical critter that survives on our low-mana world by NOMMING ALL THE SOULS!"
I'm not quite sure what the look the Goddess was giving me meant, but I'm pretty sure she was wishing for both a face and a hand with which to palm it. "Those are all perfectly recognizable words, mostly, and yet remain utterly incomprehensible."
Yet another soul-shrug from me. "Well, you can send me on my way to get started with the whole experiencing excruciating physical torment in order to be remolded as your divine champion thing."
Oh boy, I'm getting really bright for some reason. If I had a body, I think I'd be smiling so hard it hurt.
"Plus," I continued, "The sooner I get out of your metaphorical hair, the sooner you can go back to your brooding. All alone. In the dark. Just waiting for the opportunity to angrily shout 'WHO INTRUDES UPON MY PERFECT DARKNESS?!'"
Oh and while she's wishing for things, I think having a brow to properly scowl with has just been added to the list. Very, very high on the list.
"Unless you wish to change or review the options once more, I do not think there is anything further to discuss."
"I don't think I could be any more readier than I already am, Subby." I answered as my glow began to dim as the Goddess sent me onward.
Profane Goddess of Labyrinthine Darkness, Underworld Serpent thought to herself that disembodied souls had no right to be quite that chipper and cheerful.
But finally there was quiet and darkness within her halls and corridors at last.
There was something decidedly wrong with that soul.
And Ancestral Divines help her, she'd went and staked the minuscule remainder of her faded power upon the silly thing.
But at least that song had been quite catchy. A quite fitting hymn for the Goddess of Darkness and Dungeons.
At least she had something pleasantly sinister to listen to while awaiting her inevitable doom.
It's amazing how much emotion can be conveyed purely through the eyes.
Well, one eye.
Well, a series of glowy shapes in front of a crystalline orb held in the mouth of a bronze-and-jade statue of a serpentine monster the overall effect of which looks like an eye.
Anyway, I was getting looks that conveyed confusion, wonder, respect, admiration, and a little bit more than a touch of jealous indignation.
"How?" she asked, the glowy quasi-eyeball narrowing. I was honestly surprised how expressive a mostly inanimate object was. But then again, what form would you really expect from the Goddess of Dungeons aside from a Dungeon Core?
I shrugged.
Well, I tried to shrug. You can't really shrug when you don't have arms and are currently a floating orb made of magic.
"I dunno," I said honestly, "It's just something that seems to happen with things like this. When you create something complex you kind of put yourself in a box with your intended design. You can only see what you intended and the one way that you intend for things to fit together. You can't see the forest for the trees when you make a bunch of things over a long period of time."
"You don't think about all the potential ripples that one little change or additional can make. The way the puzzle pieces you make today could fit with the ones you made in the past to create a picture far different than the one you intended. And those pieces will also fit together with future pieces that you'll never be able to predict the interactions of."
I trace slow, lazy figure eights in the air as I speak. Dammit, I don't even have a body and yet I'm still somehow having trouble figuring out what to do with my hands when I'm speaking.
"Even though you're a Goddess, you're just one mind with one perspective. There's no substitute for setting a few dozen minds to the task of completely and utterly taking intended mechanics and spanking them over a barrel."
The gemstone shifted color and brightened for a moment, and then dimmed again. Perhaps something akin to drawing in a breath and slowly letting it out?
"You, little one, are my last chance for survival." the Goddess said, her voice coming not only from the orb before me, but from the whole of the titanic hall around me as the entire breadth of the Labyrinth spoke.
"Four times before I have incarnated souls and sent them out into the realms within my reach. Each has failed, each death bringing me closer to oblivion, and should the last halls of my Divine Domain be sealed into nothingness so too will go the last hopes and dreams of all whose lives are touched by the Grand Labyrinth."
I darted slightly to the side and back to avoid a falling rock from the ceiling knocked loose by the rumbling voice.
"Yeah, you don't look all that well, Subby." I said.
The glowy eye narrowed into the thinnest of thin lines, "Subby?" she repeated incredulously.
Ack! I don't even have a mouth at the moment, and I'm still managing to stick my foot in it. Even though I don't have one of those either.
"Well, Profane Goddess of Labyrinthine Darkness is a bit of a mouthful," I said, laying out my thought process for the nickname, "And Underworld Serpent isn't really a name either, and it's still pretty long."
"So Underworld Serpent, with my crummy second hand knowledge of Latin would be Submundis Anguis. Thus, Subby!"
Shut up, me, before you the mother of all catacombs stuffs your currently disembodied soul into a box and throws it into the back of the dungeon equivalent of a closet filled with boxes of shoes.
Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.
I floated around in erratic circles and did what I always do when I'm nervous; start rambling and/or singing.
"We could shorten that. Stick the two words together. Subanguis? Sanguis? Sanguis!"
I drew in a deep metaphorical breath, "Sanguis! Bibimis! Corpus! Edimus!" and warbled the rather sinister opening theme from some horror movie.
Rather than dispose of me like an unwanted Christmas gift, the Goddess instead sighed and muttered softly to herself. Well, softly for her. It's not much of a mutter when every surface in a sports stadium is making the same noise.
"Oh by my own sealed corridors, it sings."
"Tolle corpus Satani, aaaaaaaave!" I continued. Ack, no, stop, stop! Abort! Abort! Cease annoying the thing that yanked me into the void between dimensions to begin with.
The glowy eye contracted a bit in a way that a normal eye couldn't express, it looked like something akin to pursed lips. It tilted upwards and away from me, moving up and down slightly. I think she was kind of appreciating the sinister theme, even though my ability to remain on key was not the greatest.
"Ave, ave versus Christos!" I continued, now sounding a bit more cheerful, though the change in tone earned me a scowl, so I just let it trail off.
"Are you sure that these choices you've made regarding your incarnation are the ones you truly wish to have applied? Even as the ranking Goddess of Darkness, once these are applied I cannot change them."
The Goddess' gaze looked over the floating data displays once more.
"You will be inhabiting the form you've chosen, perhaps for years, perhaps even decades. It will not be... pleasant, especially in the beginning. In fact, it's going to hurt quite a lot."
I grin, which makes my glowball form brighten a bit in lieu of actually having facial expressions, "Meh. I'm not going to actually remember much of that bit anyway. Plus, you know what my life's been like. Things were put in motion long before I was born, and once I did pop out into the world it's been non-stop training." my glow dims slightly, "Though I was told it would be another few years before y'all could get your cosmic body snatching thing on."
Subby's light formations arrange into a pattern that makes her look a bit thoughtful, "Hmm. Yes. That IS very strange. Almost as strange as you. The currents of time between the Four Realms and your world do ebb and flow, but the window of opportunity to choose champions from your world always begins within a variation of 6, 7, or 8 years from the last. It has done this for as long as we have chosen champions from your realm, and I am not sure of what it could mean. For good or for ill."
I attempt to shrug once again, "Honestly, I'm quite surprised as normal as I am considering my upbringing and my parentage."
The Goddess' eye bobs up and down in a nod, "Yes, I suppose with a Chosen of the Auran Geas in your lineage it would be an accomplishment for you to wear your trousers on your legs instead of on your head."
I laugh, "That sounds exactly like my father's behavior, all right. But yeah, you shouldn't expect to end up with a big ball of normal when you have a parentage polycule comprised primarily of professional wrestlers who live in a run down amusement park in the middle of the desert named after the capital city of Hell who run a special effects company, make horror genre B-movies in their spare time, and also utilize they artifacts and abilities they acquired in this particular piece of Isekai bullshit to put down the occasional magical critter that survives on our low-mana world by NOMMING ALL THE SOULS!"
I'm not quite sure what the look the Goddess was giving me meant, but I'm pretty sure she was wishing for both a face and a hand with which to palm it. "Those are all perfectly recognizable words, mostly, and yet remain utterly incomprehensible."
Yet another soul-shrug from me. "Well, you can send me on my way to get started with the whole experiencing excruciating physical torment in order to be remolded as your divine champion thing."
Oh boy, I'm getting really bright for some reason. If I had a body, I think I'd be smiling so hard it hurt.
"Plus," I continued, "The sooner I get out of your metaphorical hair, the sooner you can go back to your brooding. All alone. In the dark. Just waiting for the opportunity to angrily shout 'WHO INTRUDES UPON MY PERFECT DARKNESS?!'"
Oh and while she's wishing for things, I think having a brow to properly scowl with has just been added to the list. Very, very high on the list.
"Unless you wish to change or review the options once more, I do not think there is anything further to discuss."
"I don't think I could be any more readier than I already am, Subby." I answered as my glow began to dim as the Goddess sent me onward.
-o-
Profane Goddess of Labyrinthine Darkness, Underworld Serpent thought to herself that disembodied souls had no right to be quite that chipper and cheerful.
But finally there was quiet and darkness within her halls and corridors at last.
There was something decidedly wrong with that soul.
And Ancestral Divines help her, she'd went and staked the minuscule remainder of her faded power upon the silly thing.
But at least that song had been quite catchy. A quite fitting hymn for the Goddess of Darkness and Dungeons.
At least she had something pleasantly sinister to listen to while awaiting her inevitable doom.