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Starlight Serenade; [Old!Asta / Greater Vesvia / Ariadne]
Tweet Topic Started: May 14 2012, 06:17 AM (511 Views)
Astaroth May 14 2012, 06:17 AM Post #1
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[To be colorcoded later. Second snippet... upcoming. Ugh. Not a fan of how this turned out, AT ALL, but we'll see how I feel when I wake up.]

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." Astaroth snorted with the grace of a wounded bull elephant, pondering the meaning behind the idiom. He had no idea who had come up with it, but the stupid thing seemed to come true more often than not - even across dozens of loops, hundreds of years, countless experiences, some things really never changed. The first time he had summoned her was an experience that would forever be burned into his memory... much like Arima's first summon, though more literally so in the case of the latter.

Sometimes things did end up differently, though. With a satisfied quirk of the lips, something vaguely resembling the thinnest of possible smiles, he surveyed the boundaries of the seal, his eyes tracing each of the impossibly intricate designs. Whorls within spirals within lines, Essence channels, chakra pathways, even designs on the motonic level - all connected together in glorious harmony, a network so complex that he couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride in his work. It had turned out to be - somewhat more difficult than he had hoped to figure out the original seal, and it had taken a few years of reverse engineering to properly grasp some of the more esoteric concepts, but it had worked out. ...Hopefully. The original seal was never intended to support that degree of accuracy, but he'd done the best he could with the tools at his disposal.

The thought of who or what had coded the innate design into the very fabric of the world itself occurred to him once more, but the elder daemon forced his scientific inquisition down, determined to not be responsible for turning the evening into an impassioned discussion of fuuinjutsu. For now, he had the dubious pleasure of hoping that the heavily modified seal would actually piggyback properly on the original, correct Working. It was somewhat similar to fitting a hippopotamus through a needle, or convincing Ariadne to be a pleasant human being for an entire ten minutes. Astaroth considered which was the more likely, but put an immediate cessation to that line of thought when he realized he already knew the answer. Enough idle thought. He forced himself to focus on the actual summoning, reminding himself that he had already checked over everything dozens of times. Even Fatima hadn't been able to find anything wrong with it. ...With this version, anyways.

His voice, quiet but intense, echoed throughout the enclosed space as reality abruptly ceased to function along the borders of the seal. He might have chuckled had he not already been focused on not tripping over the phrasing the first time had been so similar in some ways, and yet so very different in others. "O emerald light that illuminates eternity in her radiant glory." Where once only the inchoate shadow of the Wyld had been sprang forth light and form, a glimpse of the endless grassy field he remembered so well. Astaroth continued, emboldened by what might have been success. "The gentle breeze that carries Creation aloft upon her wings."

The world about him flickered for the briefest of instants, but the field did not return, nor did the Wyld recede again. He glanced at the massive seal that was now the effective floor of his little elevator to nowhere, confirming that it was indeed still active; the dizzying array of lights was mesmerizing, a constantly-shifting set of hues that changed with every passing moment. No hesitation. You did it right. Just keep going. "As it is written in the ancient pact," he intoned, feeling the colossal pulse of chakra - of Essence - as the words from the original binding array took hold, the World forced to accept his command by the Working forced upon it aeons ago, "I call forth the verdant blessing of your presence."

-And the field was there again, but no longer a field so much as a glimpse of - so much that he wasn't even sure what anymore. Light, color, sound; an overwhelming tidal wave of sensation, of emotion without beginning or end that simply flowed onwards like the sea itself, and then it was all gone again. Where his conscious mind despaired for an instant, his training took over, the need to see her beyond an instant of doubt, and his voice rose in tempo and volume. It was do or die, and he would put his life on the line if it meant success.

"Vesvia, the Breath of Creation, Lesser Elemental Dragon of Wood."

The seal simply shattered, every node, every chakra battery, every pathway overloaded in the instant it took for the shifting, formless aesthetic of the Wyld to be replaced by the dull crimson hues of his Academy office. He was left sitting there, half expecting something to happen, half disappointed that there had been no apocalyptic explosion.
 
Astaroth Jul 10 2012, 05:48 PM Post #2
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Soundtrack

Even given all he had experienced, Astaroth found himself still unable to process to rush of feeling that had completely overwhelmed him, the tsunami of light and sound and emotion without end. There had been order there, though, the barest hints of a pattern he could not begin to comprehend, and that intrigued the ancient kage as much as it bothered him; he didn't like knowing there was anything he couldn't understand, had always strove to remove every obstacle to knowledge, and yet in a brief instant he had been reminded how far he had yet to go. That flow had been beyond the most vivacious of individuals, a maelstrom of hopes, of dreams, of -

People. Those had been... people. Their thoughts, their emotions, their loves and dreams and fears all rolled into one unimaginable mass, in numbers so vast he could not even begin to approximate it. Perhaps all of Empyrean. Perhaps it had not been Empyrean at all, but a glimpse into somehere - something - else

It was actually quite humbling.

A gentle breeze roused the elderly man from his reverie, the barest kiss of air on his skin, his robes. Fragrant beyond words, a kaleidoscope of scents, each sweeter than the last as they flitted away into oblivion. It was intoxicating, a show that threatened to rob him of his senses and consciousness, but too many centuries of alert paranoia kept his senses alive. He was indoors, and there were no windows open. Or, well, windows at all.

The faint breeze grew into a silent wind, a curious localized cyclone that barely disturbed the papers and glasses lining the walls and surfaces of the room. The fragrance grew as it became sound and light, concepts given form coalescing into - something in the center of the room, a patchwork amalgamation of glimmering facets that came together in arcane poetry.

As the unreal became tangible, the tangled skein of a vast presence overwriting reality, the tidbits of existence gave rise to form, and form to body. From the Wyld came order forged in madness, glimmering ebon hair and purest alabaster robes entwined as they unfurled.

"Vesvia."

Still ethereal though she might be, almost translucent, clad in garb he did not recognize, in a form he knew not - he knew Vesvia. There was nothing in her essence, her eyes, her poise, that could allow for any other conclusion.

"...Welcome back."

-Dealing with her always did have a tendency to be humbling, didn't it?

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Astaroth Dec 23 2012, 06:43 AM Post #3
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She blinked a few times, looking around the room in listless confusion, before finally realizing that she was not alone in her new abode, transfixing Astaroth with a empty eyes as her body finished taking form - then regaling him with a smile that seemed to light up the room. ...Literally, with the whole soft glow thing. He met her reaction with a tenuous smile of his own, keenly aware that he was as ready for her this time as he had been the very first time they had met.

Which was to say - not at all.

"Astaroth."

The single word was tinged with a rush of emotion and meaning that he could barely begin to comprehend; she had always been impressively imposing despite her slight stature, but where there had once been a divide between her graceful beauty and unbelievable power, they seemed one and the same now, as though she were making only the the most token effort possibe to reign in her nature. Almost - he swallowed, his throat dry, trying to understand the situation; she felt almost divine, holy and untouchable in a way he had nearly forgotten in the centuries intervening since their original meeting.

"Uh. Hi." The aged kage swore to himself, frustrated at his momentary inability to come up with anything better to say. He had really seen this whole thing going a lot differently; summon the lady, invite her out for a bit of walking around the festival and catching up, and try to put off worrying what to do with the rest of the dragons, youkai, demons, ninja, Celestials, and assorted riff-raff that plagued his every waking moment with one demand slash problem or another, all while continuing to avoid Fatima and her god damned mistletoe weapon. Seriously, who carried half a goddamn tree around just to screw with someone?

Fortunately, his new guest seemed more than willing to pick up the slack in their conversation, launching into further speech when he failed to follow up with his own. "I apologize," she began, her words still dancing with that odd energy - even after she had deigned to learn the native tongue of this plane, something about her nature had always infused her words with a curious power, a gentle force that coursed through her careful diction and swept everything in its path away. "-But it has been so long since the Working was last invoked that it took some time to convince my fellows in the meeting that the Primordials had not returned to annihilate all of Creation, and that I was not being kidnapped against my will." She grinned impishly, the radiant smile replaced by a mischievous smirk as she continued. "You certainly do keep things interesting. You nearly sparked an interplanar war!"

Oh.

Well, shit.

"...Sorry."

"Don't be!" She rejoined instantly, giggling quietly at a joke that only she seemed to get. "It was a boring meeting anyways." "Only you would view the prospect of an apocalyptic war as an excuse to get out of a meeting, Vesvia," he responded offhandedly, outwardly amused but quietly worried - the Working? He could nigh-literally taste how naturally the word rolled off his tongue despite his never having heard it before, as though it were imprinted into the very fabric of reality itself. And what the hell was so bad about using a summoning ritual... built to summon elemental dragons... to summon an elemental dragon?

"Please." Smiling again, she moved to place a hand on his shoulder in one fluid motion, closing a distance far greater than a single step should rightfully have allowed in, well, a single step. Then again, he had stopped trying to understand how dragons worked a long time ago, deciding that they were fueled entirely by a unique combination of dramatic effect and an absolute lack of comprehension of the very concept of common sense or the laws of physics. "No harm was done, and fortunately Arima and I were in the meeting to explain that the world was not about to end, and that it was just - and I quote the fair Arima herself - 'that summoning guy doing his thing again.'"

"...That summoning... guy," he intoned, an eyebrow raised. "I have a name-" "Yes, but I believe she was showcasing a rare quality for herself, the use of tact in not immediately giving out your name to a group of powerful, ancient elemental dragons who might be interested in learning more about you after you used supposedly-dead knowledge to resurrect a sealing process left by the enemies of the Infinite War."

"Oh. That's... unusually thoughtful of her."

She at least had the kindness to look vaguely regretful before continuing with that same bloody mischievous tone. "-Of course, she then proceeded to thoughtlessly drop your name in her next sentence, so you will likely have visitors sometime in the next few weeks curious about your activities."

oh mother fuc-"But!" Vesvia clapped, jolting him from the downwards spiral of negativity. "For tonight, I am yours."

Well, that certainly served to jolt him from his initial reaction. Not entirely sure whether to swear more or glare at her for very poor word choice, Astaroth settled for an artificial smile, trying to ignore the implications of her innocent words were they to be taken in ways she had doubtless not intended. It would be easier if she still looked like the pink haired girl he was used to, not this new, more mature form; where she had been pretty before in spite of her physical appearance, she was beautiful now, elfin features accentuated by her intricate new fashion. An enchanting vision of unfathomable beauty in the sea of color and emotion that always seemed to surround her.

Okay, Asta. Try not to act like a gawking teenager when the not human dragon lady says something that... could be taken completely wrongly. Clearing his throat in an attempt to regain his balance, and acutely aware of how uncomfortably close she still was, he made a valiant attempt to regain some measure of control of the situation. "W-well, uh, that is - good." Yup, the whole not acting like a hormonal teenager thing was working really well for him. "I mean, uh, I was going to ask if you wanted to, that is, if you were free, we could visit Empyrean's New Year's festival. You've been busy for decades now, I've barely seen you, and-" "Yes," and her renewed brilliant smile threatened to set the room on fire if it grew any brighter, "I'd love to."

It dawned on him then that he hadn't actually planned this whole thing out at all.

Gooooood dammit.
 
Astaroth Mar 5 2013, 11:47 PM Post #4
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The world about them was a chaotic melee of light and shadow, color and sound infusing the atmosphere with an incessant barrage of sensory assault. All about them, the Realm itself pulsed with life; the constant sound of voices, young and old alike, mixed with the dull reverberations of probably-horrendously-illegal explosions and the sharp crackling of the colossal silver coils, rising high over the village, that powered much of the spectacle. The sky itself was a shifting, muted greyish-black that spoke of the impossibly complex fuuinjutsu array that held back the wrath of the Empyrean itself, obscuring the endless rage of the aether storms overhead by dampening and drawing upon the infinite energy unleashed by the eternal storm.

It was Empyrean to its core - a sense of barely-repressed energy infused everything, from the decorations hanging from everything that could possibly support their weight to the costumed children running screeching through the streets, miniature SWATBU masks or grotesque representations of the faces of mythical creatures obscuring their faces.

He snorted at the display, mildly jealous of the youthful energy that everyone seemed to have so much of; he enjoyed these events as much as anyone else, but it took very little thought of all those who had spent - or given - their lives to ensure that the current populace could live so carefree to excommunicate any degree of wanton excitement from his demeanor. No one liked a fun-hating monster, though, so he generally kept those thoughts, and his person, to himself on nights like these. Better to sit alone in the spire and enjoy these events for what they truly represented than to ruin the night of the revelers who benefited from those sacrifices.

"Astaroth?" The dulcet tone cut through his thoughts like a knife, Vesvia's warm body suddenly remembered pressed against his side. Not wanting to dampen the moment, the elderly kage settled for gracing his companion with a thin smile, as genuine as he could manage. She had decided to sabotage her evening by spending it with him; it would be ungrateful, at best, to reward her company by being himself. And besides, maybe it wouldn't be the end of the world to pretend to be happy for one night of the year. He had much to be grateful for, after all; in a world of chaos and strife he finally had a home, people who cared for him - for some godforsaken reason - and... something akin to the family he had searched for so many centuries ago, back when he had been something closer to human.

It was a transient happiness at best, a pleasant lie that could never last, but - something worth clinging to nonetheless.

"Nothing." If only it truly was. "...They certainly outdid themselves in decorations this year." Astaroth snorted, his face contorting as he attempted to hide a fond smile from his face, though it shone in his eyes regardless of his best attempts. "Hoshiko worked herself halfway into a coma last year and ended up falling asleep the night before. I suspect that she took this festival as an excuse to make up for that. Or work herself all the way into a coma. Possibly both." A lilting giggle met his attempt at humor, Vesvia gracefully covering her lips with one hand as she dutifully pretended to be amused by the forced humor. Or maybe she actually thought it was funny. He decided not to think too hard about that. "I ended up kidnapping her, though in my defense I didn't plan on her falling asleep on the park bench. So really the blame should be spread around if one wanted to b-and what is so funny?"

"Nothing!" Vesvia's shoulders shook with repressed laughter as she parroted his words of mere moments ago, managing to partially control herself before she caught the wounded look on Astaroth's face, which led to an immediate breakdown of quiet giggling into her hand. He wasn't sure whether to be insulted or join in her oddly infectious amusement, but seeing her in genuine laughter was a rare sight indeed, one that he could lose himself in with very little effort. For how controlled she had to be, despite the warmth she emanated, she rarely showed obvious outward emotion - or allowed herself to partake in what she embodied, he thought, though those were thoughts best left unsaid.

"Well, perhaps I did find the concept of that adorable, naive young girl curled up on your lap somewhat sweet, but the idea of you trying to play it off while innocent festival-goers walk past with knowing smiles, the two of you just sitting there together-" "That was not at all how it went! I had the absolute best of intentions-" "Polluting her innocent mind" "BEST OF INTENTIONS" "With dourness and perhaps something so much wors-""SO HOW ABOUT THEM FIREWORKS."

As if slaved to his will, a world-shaking detonation overhead reminded Astaroth that he had forgotten to confiscate the military-grade explosives from the festival planners like he had intended to. It was pretty impressive that they had managed to somehow penetrate the 'unbreakable' Aethyrium casing and remodel a tactical antimatter warhead, capable of swallowing most of the Realm, into... a particularly large spray of gold and green shuriken-shaped representations in the sky, though. He made a mental note to recommend the culprits to the Academy as guest speakers, or maybe substitute teachers, at the same time as he cut festival funding for next year.

"At least they're enthusiastic," he grumbled, earning a titter from the elemental dragon at his side. She had looked more worried than he had anticipated at the moment of the detonation, a shadow in her eyes that told of a story buried in the long-distant past, but had recovered quickly enough that if he hadn't seen it himself he wouldn't have believed that she had even reacted. "Was that-" "Not planned. Though that does give me an idea for a mass weapon delivery device..."

Vesvia snorted in a remarkably ladylike manner - he didn't care to try to reconcile the two entirely different concepts somehow meshing - looking into the glimmering sky as another set of mercifully-less-explosive munitions lit up the sky in a veritable rainbow of colors, from incoherent detonations of light and sound to carefully crafted shapes, animals and figures alike, some of them even cleverly approaching 'animation' as they disintegrated into embers. "Stop that. Enjoy the evening! You have the night to yourself," He really didn't, eventually he was going to have to track down Ariadne and hopefully Arima. "No work to do," He did, but telling Miss Dutiful that he was putting off that many zoning permits would probably give her a heart attack. "-And a pretty girl at your side!" She stepped in closer, and he was suddenly reminded that she was indeed very warm and delectably soft.

Astaroth settled for an awkward cough, hiding as much as he could of his reaction, though out of the corner of his eye he could see her looking obnoxiously smug - he suspected that it was a losing battle at best to try to convince her he hadn't reacted at all. Surrendering the fight, his free arm outstretched in the universal signal for peace, he settled for a chuckle of his own; her good mood really was infectious. He sighed. "...Yeah." The timbre of his voice surprised him, not nearly as bereft of emotion as he had planned. "You're right." Not like she wasn't generally. "At least you didn't have to dig any crazy spider lady poison out of me this time, right?"

The elbow to his midsection suggested that she remembered that particular episode all too well.
 
Astaroth Jul 15 2013, 05:44 PM Post #5
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It took a few moments to realize that he had misjudged the situation entirely; what Astaroth had assumed was a momentary pause in conversation as Vesvia came up with a witty retort turned out to instead be an interminable silence that stretched on until he broke it half a minute later. "Look-" The words died in his throat as he actually looked down at her in response to a tightening of her grip on his arm, realizing that she was biting her lip as if to consign herself to silence.

"You still don't like Ariadne, huh?" Her eyes flashed and she opened her mouth to retort instantly, but closed it a moment later as she reigned in her emotions, returning to a more measured tone as she chose her next words with exceptional care. "She is - dangerous." The variance in pitch in her voice was unusual, almost strained; it was quite clear that Vesvia had much more to say than that, but was holding herself back as best she could. The elderly daemon sighed to himself, remembering how well the two got along as he sincerely wished that he had chosen his own words more carefully. "I realize that you don't exactly like her, but she-""-Is a monster bereft of humanity and sanity alike."

He raised an eyebrow, not sure whether to be more surprised by the venomous vehemence of her tone or that she had actually interrupted him for possibly the first time ever. Not that she was... entirely... wrong. "It was certainly an interesting start to a relationship, yes." That was not something he liked to think of often. No matter how many lifetimes he survived, no matter what atrocities he experienced - never had he felt so helpless and abused as he had then. The wound had scarred over, but still it festered in the darkest corners of his mind, occasionally brought to mind even despite the current Ariadne's less nightmarish demeanor.

Vesvia snorted almost derisively at his tame language, but refrained from commenting reflexively. He took that as a minor victory, pressing on. "She's changed, Vesvia, surely you can see-""-That the only difference betwixt now and then is that you are trapped in her web where once you strove for freedom from her control, yes."

They both recoiled slightly at her words; Vesvia's left hand fairly lept to her mouth as though she had imbibed poison, while he struggled to reconcile the sheer venom in her words with the sweet girl he had known. It was official: he had never seen her so worked up about anything, not even when entirely overcome by her intellectual side or in the aftermath of a particularly aggravating meeting with the other dragons. It was nothing new that she didn't like Ariadne, no one really seemed to, but she had never been so bluntly open about her feelings on the matter before. It was slightly disconcerting, but what bothered him most was that he didn't entirely understand her vehemence - or why it had only grown over the years rather than subsiding. Even Ariadne had become more docile over the years, learning to tolerate some of his closer friends.

He sighed again, vaguely aware that he had done so very recently and that it could come across as aggravated or disrespectful. Or maybe he'd had to spend too much time engaging in friendly diplomancy (read: veiled threats and subtle barbs) with other kages in the last few months. "Look, why don't you tell me why you don't like her, and maybe we can work something out?" The dragon stared at the ground, at a nearby banner, anywhere but his eyes as she prepared to - he suspected - lie to him.

"Because I hold something dear to her."
 
Astaroth Sep 22 2013, 04:43 AM Post #6
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Vesvia recoiled as if shot, spinning in place in the same practiced explosion of motion in which her dominant arm shot to the hilt of her sword and she stepped away from the source of the voice. Astaroth, slightly less wound up, settled for allowing his shoulders to sink in despair as he silently considered swallowing a kunai - it would be a much more pleasant experience than what he expected would come next.

"Ariadne."

Again with the venom; she spat out the words with disgust so intense it threatened to set the air alight. Forcing himself not to outwardly react, Astaroth completed a measured turn just in time to see a cruel smile light up Ariadne's face in creases he had not seen in some time, amusement and malignant sadism alike in her eyes. It was vaguely remniscent of a shark that had just spotted fresh meat, a metaphor he regretted the instant it came to mind. "What venom," Ariadne continued, stalking silently towards the enraged dragon. Circling towards and around her, not at her, he mentally amended. "Such vitriol from the pleasant-natured... Greater Elemental Dragon of Wood, was it not?"

He raised an eyebrow, glancing at Vesvia for confirmation. She opted to remain silent, gripping her blade so tightly her knuckles were whitening, though she had yet to draw it. "Congratulations are in order, I believe!"

Uh. What.

Vesvia's reaction was about as planned as his, the rictus of anger on her face cracking in favor of a mix of anger and befuddlement. Her inability to comprehend the solution made Astaroth feel a little better about being completely lost as well. "How-" "-Though were your ascension not over the broken corpse of your predecessor, I am sure this event would be more pleasant."

The detonation of Essence cracked and shattered the world around them in an instant, the street cratered into an unrecognizable mass as the wall she had been standing against simply crumbled into dust in the flensing wind that had already picked up. Where she had been tense before, something in Vesvia had snapped, her ancient blade drawn and pointed at her tormentor even as the Empyrean around them faded into shadow, distorted and twisted for an instant as its dim lights were replaced by seething shadow and unnatural movement at the edges of his peripheral vision. Even Vesvia's brilliant light was surrounded and dimmed by the shrouding shadows. Along with the crushing pressure came an unnerving sense of vibration, a sort of unnatural sense of frenzied skittering that was not so much noise as motion given voice.

The realm of a mad god.

Undeterred by Ariadne's response to her own show, Vesvia jerked her blade towards the eerily calm youkai, obviously struggling to keep herself in check. "Was that - your handiwork, then?"

Almost as if she had been waiting for that exact question, Ariadne's smile slipped into a mocking amusement, a stark contrast to the unrelenting malevolence burning bright in her eyes. "Of course not," her lips read, but the sound did not emanate from her so much as it sprang from all around them, once more from just outside of his perception. A thousand mouths, but one voice, the silky venom of someone - something - not quite human.

Vesvia's resolve visibly crumbled, her shaking shoulders and wavering blade alike revealing her weakness. Astaroth had the distinct impression that she would rather the answer had been yes, and a less pleasant but equally distinct feeling that she was looking for a fight by this point, but Ariadne's response had taken the wind from her sails. Why the elemental dragon had taken her words at face value was a question of its own - but then Ariadne did not often lie, did she?

"But my eyes... my ears..." Again her voice came from all around them, though this time it seemed to emanate more from Ariadne's direction even as something moved behind her, coalescing from the murky shadows into a single massive arachnid leg that waved lazily behind her. "...Are everywhere." Another leg unfolded, and as he watched, Astaroth was forced to realize that their movement was odd, their shape slightly foreign, as compared to Ariadne's usual additional appendages.

He wasn't really sure if having a giant spider crawling up her back was really better or worse than the usual giant spider legs growing out of her, nor was the sense of something much, much larger looming behind her really helping matters as the maelstrom of shadow behind her seemed to react to something even more unnatural than what they could see. Even Vesvia was obviously nonplussed, torn between anger and fear, desperation and rage - striving to remain strong as she fell apart from within.

And then, where once there had only been shadow, the lights and sounds of Empyrean burst out around them in the blink of an eye, jolting Vesvia from her reverie. She hesitantly sheathed her sword in shame, glancing guiltily at him as she belatedly realized what she had brought on, but jerked back towards Ariadne as the muted sound of a single quiet step signaled the monstrous woman's movement.

"You lack the strength to face me. Whatever meaningless titles you accrue, whether you think yourself Lesser or Greater, your kind were created to serve." Vesvia flinched at the important attached to Ariadne's last word, her rampant emotions spiraling out of control as her remaining poise evaporated. "-But strength is not the only measure of success, nor your proof of existence. That, you must take with your own two hands."

Vesvia dissolved into the wind almost instantly, moments away from breaking down entirely, leaving a bemused Ariadne alone with a daemon who was very much feeling like a back seat passenger. "...She has changed more than I had thought possible." Crazy spider lady smiled, as much at her thoughts as at him, continuing in an air of quiet amusement utterly different than her demeanor of only seconds ago. "You are a good influence for her."

Astaroth arched an eyebrow, still preoccupied. "If you try to convince me that all of this was your way of giving a rousing pep talk-" He left the rest unsaid, but the twinkle in his companion's eyes was as out of place as her reply. "Of course not. I showed up mostly to mess with her." Mess with. He had never heard Ariadne use that term, nor had he even considered she would use a colloquialism so thoroughly... not her. Mess with her? That was like Ariadne showing up in a schoolgirl outfit, singing some kind of j-pop song with a jaunty tune about hugging... foxgirls or something. Completely out of character. Impossible and unreasonable.

"Aren't you going to follow her?" As he seemed to be doing a lot today, the elderly kage raised an eyebrow for the umpteenth time that night, still not entirely sure how to respond to any of this. Ariadne's smile was almost - mischievous, which spoke poorly of how things were likely to go. "What?" Yeah, when Ariadne was acting innocent, either Hell had frozen over, or everyone was about to die horribly. "I thought she could use a small... push, and I'm sure she would appreciate the company."

Astaroth had the distinct impression that either they were conspiring against him - not likely, with how obviously Vesvia hated Ariadne - or Ariadne knew something he didn't - very likely, that seemed to happen a lot. He could still sense Vesvia in Empyrean, which lent some credence to Ariadne's suggestion, but her false innocence and playful demeanor was all the more in contrast to what he had glimpsed forming from the shadows as they exited her realm, something so terrible that even a momentary glimpse still dominated his thoughts.

"Then I shall leave you to your task," Ariadne continued with the same silky tone as she stepped backwards, fading out of realm and reality alike as the air seemed to close in around where she had been an instant before. A jarring experience at best, and an interesting look into the slightly shaky relationship between Ariadne and Vesvia, but it wasn't like having attractive-but-crazy youkai and demons and dragons having arguments around Empyrean was exactly an unexpected sight. Finally alone, Astaroth allowed himself a long-suffering sigh as he formed seals in the air, preparing to teleport to Vesvia's side.

Her jumping him instantly on arrival was somewhat more of an unexpected sight.

The end?
 
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