story_teller | IC INBOX: STORYTELLER

[Really, Kravitz, their temple is practically one of the first areas many come across. At the least, you could've asked for directions.

At the least, the stone temple is a delightful reprieve from the tropical air outside; despite the sunlight that streams about the place in abundance, it's cool, quiet.]

That is correct. [The Storyteller says from above. Overhead, a sloth dangles from a series of vines- seemingly innocuous, if not for the rather sparkly antlers adorning the top of their head.

They've been taking fashion tips from Lup. Sue them.]

[Okay, listen here, since when did you get a straight answer out of Magnus, Taako, or Lup? That's right, I thought not.

Kravitz tilts his head up, following the voice, paying no mind to the fact that it's an animal who answers. Not unusual; plenty of deities prefer to keep less than human forms. He's had audiences with Pan before, and this feels more or less the same for the moment.

He'd say not including the sparkles, but well. Nah. Sometimes, they're just like that.

Regardless, he straightens up, hands behind his back as he nods his head in greeting.]

Thank you for your time. My name is Kravitz, and I come as an emissary of the Raven Queen, the goddess of death and the natural order. I have some... concerns, about your operation here, and also my acquisition into your realm.

[This is the politest anyone is going to get him on this matter, frankly, because he knows his rank here. But that doesn't stop him from being utterly rankled about the entire experience.]

[They aren't the only person he could've asked? Don't be a recluse???]

I see. [Really, they do. Folding their hands beneath their chin, they blink down at him, all too aware of what is about to come.

A bigass complaint disguised as a lecture.]

I am here to listen. Please, tell me of your concerns.

[Hey don't tell him how to live his life. As if Kravitz is not here to tell the Storyteller, precisely, how to live his life.

But he's given the okay, and he clears his throat into a fist at his mouth, getting ready for what he sees as A Simple and Rational Complaint and will probably sound like a sixty five page essay.]

Alright. Well... for starters, as you might already know, people can't just come back to life whenever they want. It's intricately damaging to the mortal psyche to not have a healthy fear of the permanence of death, which I've already seen around some of the residents here. If people cannot die, they become reckless and damaging, and the lack of consequence descends into chaos.

[With that point made, he carries on to the other thing he's worried about.]

To add to that, as much as I imagine you're expending some sort of energy or magic to bring people back from the dead, dying creates energy and necromantic rituals are some of the most powerful energies in any plane. Not that I mean to accuse you off the bat, but this is incredibly suspicious. What is being done with that energy is so far unaccounted for.

[He looks back up towards the Storyteller directly, face a little softer, betraying that this does actually mean something to him.]

I have seen setups like this before. Things meant to destroy worlds. People's souls, ripped across time and space. I don't wish to see that happen. So I want to know what you're doing to stop that-- and more specifically, what you're doing in the first place.

... Also, what the purpose was of bringing me back to life, as I was perfectly fine the way I was.

[Y'know, just a little personal salt. He's tired of having to like, sleep and eat and things.]

[That's quite the list there, Kravitz. The Storyteller patiently waits for him to finish, not intruding on what they imagine has been a rather well thought out argument for his stance on the way things are.

A soft tsk.]

I do not wish to make your argument seem invalid, Kravitz. Certainly, I agree with you- death is, and has always been, the mark of the end. It is...healthy, for beings to have a point where they may stop.

But this world is not the place for such ends to occur.

The power that I use has, and always will, come from stories. It is my element. It is my name. The Storyteller. Any such power I may utilize comes from the lives of those around you, what they are willing to share with me and each other. This energy...feeds the ground upon which you stand. I do not deal in terms of necromancy, Kravitz- my field is within life, and life alone.

If you have seen setups such as this before, perhaps you understand the damage that occurs to the stories of such worlds when such integral people are taken from them. It is, perhaps, a guess, but a highly accurate one, to say that such worlds cannot function without these people at all.

Should I allow anyone to die upon this world, their own may simply cease to function. It goes far beyond the element of resurrecting a single life. That is simply one thing I am doing to stop this; before the effects of your presence here destroys everything you have known.

[They curl their arms beneath their chin, lips pulling into something akin to a fuzzy smile.]

As for your now mortal state, I could not hazard a guess. I was not the one who brought you here- I am not the one who changed you. It is a question we may very well answer in future, amongst other things.

[Part of him is relieved. It's nice to hear that this god does actually have an idea of what he's doing, or some sort of plan. But it's worrying to hear he's essentially putting a bandaid on what the real issue is- how they got here, what's doing this, how it functions.

He was also hoping there might have just been some easy answers. But if people have really been here for months and not gotten anywhere, perhaps that was foolish to hope for. But there's always that hope, that everyone around him really was just incompetent enough to make this easy.

It's never this easy. He should know that.]

I appreciate that you have some structure in place, and that this isn't necromantic activity, though I will say it didn't feel like it in the first place. But are you telling me you don't know what brought anyone here? If this is your domain, you should know what's bleeding lives into it. From my understanding, people have been here for months. You must have some benefit to this, if it's gone on this long.

[Forgive him for still being wary, Storyteller. He can't let you off the hook that easily.]

As I have explained to others before you, the last thousand years of this world are still largely unknown to me. [Said in the exact tone one would expect to hear from a teacher asked the same question for the hundredth time.] Whilst this amount of time is very little in the grand scheme of things, it does allow for change. I am not omnipresent, nor am I all knowing. As an emissary to the Raven Queen, I would have assumed this knowledge you are well aware of.

[Surely he is not unused to gods without answers. As large as a realm may seem, in the grand scheme they are also

very small.]

What I am capable of doing for you, Kravitz- for you all, is what I have been. My reach is not so extensively vast as to find the solution to this question, no matter how troubling that may be. Continuing to work together to discover both answers and solutions- it is the best I can do.

[He's not sure why he expected a different answer. Maybe it was just the desire for that dream to not have been real, to have not have heard it properly, just for something to make a little more sense. Things have been so out of control recently. It's making him deeply uncomfortable. And while it may not be their fault, he wishes, just a bit, that it was.

Kravitz sighs, the motion uncomfortable when his chest truly rises and falls.]

I appreciate your... honesty, as it were, Even if the situation is not a preferable one.

[He still needs something, here, something he can work off of, even if he doesn't know what.]

Do you suspect this is the work of another god, or perhaps this realm? I don't recognize it as a plane I'm familiar with, but I also have no way of cutting through to check.

Not all worlds work upon the system of planes you are comfortable with. In this respect, I'm afraid there would be little to glean even if you could- "cut through", as it were.

[Another, likely uncomfortable truth. One cannot reach to other planes when such things do not exist- not in the manner one is used to.] Perhaps it is better to state that the ground upon which you stand is a conglomeration of what those planes may imply- it is all of them, and none of them.

As for who or what may be behind this, I... believe at this time it is better to assume the workings of an individual. [They sound unsure of this.] If it were the work of this realm, surely, I would be capable of parsing it as such.

[He's going to open his mouth and argue that a world can't exist without a planar system before the Storyteller answers his question before he can even get it out. That's not-- that's not how it's supposed to work. But if this plane is every plane, or a mashup of them, that might truly explain why there's no death. And if souls can't go to the Astral Plane, perhaps it isn't actually his job.

It makes him uneasy, still. He can't just go pledging his service to another god just like that. Even if they are being agreeable about it.]

Well... I suppose it's better to know that this amalgamation of space isn't out to get us, as it were.

[He doesn't sound happy about it, but if that's what he has to go with, it is.]

So when you say an individual, are you thinking another god? Some person who might have something to gain by manipulating all of these lives? Or both? Are we actively looking out for them, or just-- still stumbling blind?

[He sounds much harsher than he's actually taking this, already tending towards acceptance and trying to move forward.]

It is not.

[That much, the Storyteller can be certain of. Another slow blink, fuzzy muzzle stretching out into what may be capable of interpreting as a smile.]

For one who has been here for such a short period of time, you are far more impatient than those who first arrived on this island.

We have been investigating this matter for not even a year, Kravitz. I realize from a mortal perspective that this feels to be a long time, but for answering a question wherein the answer lies somewhere across a vast world, we have barely begun to scratch the surface. We have yet to reach a stage where anyone may actively seek anything- what we are finding is the questions in need of answering for us to do so.

[Hey, don't drag him like this? He's a man of action. Or something like that. Besides, after having so few answers about what's happening to his home, after being so knocked off base with uncertainty at every turn, he was looking forward to knowing what was going on for once. Waking up and being affected like this has shaken him more than he wants to admit. He doesn't like it. So when he doesn't like it, he works to fix it. You can't be sad about a problem that isn't a problem anymore.

He sighs, trying not to let the words mortal perspective get to him too much.]

No, I-- I understand. I suppose I just feel like I'm... not caught up.

[Not confident that he really knows enough to make that change, so it's time to fret about it some more.]

I just, uhm. For clarification. When we do get to leave, it will... be like we never left, yes? There won't be those outside wondering where we've gone?

[Maybe if you stop acting like a sulky mortal they wouldn't act like you are one, ever consider that?]

Understandable. [They say, not unkindly. It is all too easy to become overwhelmed in such a situation- that, they know all too well. It can culminate in...destructive, rash decisions.]

To my knowledge, undoubtedly. Too many of those here are strongly tied to the fate of their realities- just as a story cannot proceed until a character makes an action, so too do you worlds remain dormant.

Although... [Another, rather fuzzy impression of a smile.] I cannot guarantee one such as the Raven Queen will not pick up some sense of discrepency.

[I JUST SAID DON'T DRAG HIM LIKE THIS

Kravitz presses his face into a tight line, trying to will down the embarassment in his cheeks.]

Well, if you do ever make contact with her, I would... I would appreciate if you let her know where I am. I wouldn't want her to think I'm shirking my duties.

[But with no connection to the Celestial Plane back home, either, it's... mmmmm, maybe he should ask about that, too.]

This may seem silly to ask, and I promise this is my last question, but... you don't have influence in our universes of origin, correct? If something was happening there before our arrival, it wouldn't be your consequence?

[Did he get overtaken by that tar again? Did it flood the Stockade, continue to cram itself down his throat, is that what this is?]

[TOO LATE lookit the ickle mortal getting embarrassed over mommy hearing he skipped town c: ]

If I do, I can promise your status will be the first thing I'd relay to her. [They assure, slowly reaching down (or up) to scratch at their leg. And reaching. And... reaching. And...

...

There we go.]

I do not. Whilst I am aware of various elements of your universe, it is only due to your presence here, and that of others. Nothing more.

[Sorry, Kravitz. As they've already had to explain time and time again-]

I am not omniscient, Kravitz. What may have happened to you, what will? I cannot say.

[W O W!!!! HEY!!!! UNCALLED FOR

His shoulders drop as much as he's able, exhaling a suddenly too necessary sigh. It's not the answers he wanted, it's-- it's not even close. And more than that, he looks like a damn fool for doing it. It's the most uncomfortable he's been since he got here, being chastised like he's a child.

At least whatever surged in before he was, presumably, consumed, was not the fault of this deity in front of him.]

Well, that's-- okay. I mean not, okay, but, you understand.

[Do they?? Sure. Okay. Let's try harder here. He claps his hands together, bringing them to his lips before he can finally speak.]

I suppose that's all, for now. I... appreciate you hearing me out, and listening to my concerns here, even if I'm not the first person to have asked about them.

IC INBOX: STORYTELLER

IC INBOX: THE STORYTELLER

you mean earlier last month because I am a fool

its fiiine, ur fine

/you're/ fine -eyebrow waggle-

kissu u3u

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