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Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-27-2017
Quote:This is a direct continuation of A New Avatar Arrives.
The voyage took some time. Thanks to Aang's goofing about, it took a bit more time than necessary. About half an hour in, he had tired himself out. The fire rings stopped and instead he looked over Appa's head to the world below. There were a number of smaller villages here and there that looked almost like those found in the Earth Kingdom. In fact, this whole place felt rather like home.
"Should we stop at a small village, or go straight for a big city?"
Lysandra was quick to respond. "Big city! I wanna see a castle! Ooh, maybe I can even buy a pretty dress! ... if I had money, I mean... I don't think they'll take my credit card..." Her what card?
Chakravartin even agreed. "Let us head for the capital. It should be the center of trade, so it will have everything we need." Leave it to Chakra to think about it logically.
"Big city it is then! Common Appa, not much farther!" Not that Aang really knew where he was going. He was more or less following the broader road below. Big roads meant big trade routes, which lead to big cities, right? He could think logically too!
Momo had come to rest upon one of Appa's horns and was peering out with golden eyes towards the world. Every now and then the lemur would chatter, and sometimes Appa would seem to respond with a deep groan-like bellow. The sound of their back and forth lifted Aang's spirits. He had missed Momo.
A thought came to mind... a tidbit of information Chakravartin might like to hear. "Hey Momo... why don't you show Lysandra your loopdy-loops?" Aang made little circles with his fingers, tracing the trick out in the air. Momo chattered back at him before taking off. He waited till the Lemur was distracted and Lysandra was clapping happily at Momo's fanciful flight.
"You might find this interesting... but when we summon people, they aren't ... they aren't the real thing. They are copies... Momo died in my world. Old age... but when I thought about him, I thought about the younger Momo from when I was just thirteen." He let that sit. He hated the thought, but he had brought Momo back from the dead by focusing on his memories of the lemur's youth.
"I don't know how that is even possible... Maybe I created a younger body and pulled his spirit form the Spirit World to fill it... or I just plucked him from some time in the past..." This was a topic Aang had to think about. It was as complex as it was difficult to think about. He had literally brought his pet back to life. It was creepy...
Momo eventually returned, landing on Lysandra's shoulder for a bit of human therapy... also known as a bit of pampering. Lysandra offered a soft peach from one of the bags and Momo happily accepts. It would seem a combination of the wind in her ears and Momo's antics had helped Lysandra tune it out. Or she might have ignored it because of Aang's tone. It did not take a psychologist to know this more than troubled the Avatar.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-27-2017
"What does it matter?" Chakravartin said, "For all we know, the same thing happened to us. Another me might still be on his vessel, traveling to reach a distant star where I can create a new home for my people. Another you might be on your Earth, with a different Appa, where a different Momo already died." he shrugged, "They're as real as we are. Well, perhaps not *as* real, being that we're Primes and they're secondaries. But real enough. Why worry about it?"
Aang considered the thought, looking down at the green woods below.
"Lysandra." Chakravartin said, and the girl looked over to him, "What's the capital's name?"
"Minas Tirith, it's ruled by King Aragorn." she made a small face, the Coruscant native in her coming through. She wasn't especially loyal to her native Verse, her desire and willingness to visit Camelot as a tourist made that clear, but it took a long time to consider the leader of your nation's enemy something... not an enemy. "But he's not a real king." she said, "There's countless nobles and leaders who just live wherever, and they pay him taxes, and send him soldiers, but he doesn't really rule them. It's practically anarchy. It's why we- why Coruscant is the most powerful of the verses."
Chakravartin and Aang both perked up at the news. Chakravartin had sculpted a similar system on his home planet, carefully grooming various chieftains with their own territories over thousands and thousands of years, as well as creating a True King who they all paid respect to. His own Avatar, of course, because anyone else wouldn't have been a "True" anything.
For Aang however, it was just another point of familiarity. Camelot was seeming more and more like the Earth Kingdom with every moment they spent in it.
"This King Aragorn, what kind of person is he?"
"I don't really know much. He was one of the first Primes, like the Emperor."
"Emperor?" Aang asked, suspicious.
"Of Coruscant, Emperor Sheev Palpatine. He basically built the city single-handedly." Lysandra explained, "He and Aragorn traveled together at first, but they eventually started fighting. Nobody really talks about it though, or even knows since there were so few people then."
"And both Palpatine and Aragorn are still around after all this time? That's amazing." Aang said, impressed, "Does being a Prime mean we don't age?"
"I keep forgetting humans only live a few centuries." Chakravartin said, "Time must fly by for you."
"CENTURIES?" both humans said, turning on him.
"Why? Am I wrong? The oldest human I met personally was barely four hundred-"
"Humans live that long on your Earth?" Aang asked, shocked.
"How long do they live on your Earth?"
Lysandra frowned, "People are lucky if they even push one hundred and fifty!"
Aang looked at her, "That's... a bit more reasonable. On my Earth there were a few really powerful Benders who lived to be two hundred, but most people died before they were ninety."
"Huh." all three said at once.
Lysandra and Aang then shared a look, before glancing at Chakravartin.
"Chakra? How... old are you?" Aang asked.
"Well, you know how I'm an Avatar as well? I've existed for close to... thirty-six million years?"
"I knew you were a sage!" Aang said.
"That's impossible." Lysandra said, amazed.
"However, my host body is only about a week old."
"That's... huh. You look... older. I thought you were thirteen. Maybe younger? Or maybe a really short fifteen?"
"I don't think I would look much different if I were fifteen million rather than thirty-six million."
"No, I mean. Just fifteen. Fifteen years."
"Hm." Chakravartin looked to Lysandra, "How old is Palpatine and Aragorn?"
"Palpatine might be in his seventies?"
"Thousands? Hundreds?"
"No, just his seventies. But no one would really know, I guess. The Omniverse has only existed for ten years after all."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
Aang could hardly believe it. This boy was millions of years old... He was only a hundred and twenty five, but that was because he was stuck in an iceberg for a hundred of those years. "I'm old in spirit... if that counts. As the Avatar, I'm connected to my past lives... there are so many, I haven't even met them all." This brought up the thought of the first Avatar again, reminding Aang of Chakravartin's question; "avatar of what?"
Ignoring that for now, he looked over his shoulder towards Lysandra and Chakravartin. Lysandra was trying to tie up her hair again, a feat she has tried multiple times, but never succeeding at, thanks to the wind. Chakravartin was tossing the core of an apple over his shoulder. They both seemed almost at home on Appa now. That was good, considering Aang hardly went anywhere without the sky bison.
"You know... from the perspective of humans, living for eternity sounds like an impossible thing to imagine." The Avatar let that prospect sit for a moment. He then posed a question for Chakravartin. "Could you imagine living for only a hundred years, then dying? You would lose all the memories of that life. Forever. Even if you are reincarnated."
Chakravartin seemed ready to respond, but Aang held up a hand. "Don't answer yet, just think about it. It's a deeper question than you might realize. You live one life, then blink out of existence... Your spirit forgets the memories of that life and you start over, a blank slate." As far as he knew, only the Avatar could connect with his past life. Or her past life, as it were.
Lysandra's eyes were wide. "Woah... You mean we get to come back?" Aang blew her mind already. The idea of reincarnation was apparently new and fantastic to the woman. "Ooh, I wanna come back as... uh... a uh... OOH! A bird! So I can fly!"
"We are already flying..."
"... Wish granted!" Lysandra's grin was infectious. Aang could not help but smile in return. At least her spirits were high.
Meanwhile, Momo was doing circles around Appa. Over, then under, then right up in front of the massive bison. Appa snorted at Momo, sending the lemur spiraling for a few meters before catching himself. Chattering insued, with a few groaned responses.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
"My people have reincarnation as well, though they have access to the memories of our predecessors. Though, a powerful Saru might make it four or five thousand years before they are forced to reincarnate again. Only new children are born without memories of their past lives, because they are new. I have watched the same person for thirty-two million years, coming and going, as different genders, different races, but the same Saru. The oldest memories fade and become background noise to them, but at their core they haven't changed." he said fondly.
Aang followed a major road below them, heading deeper and deeper into Camelot as time passed. Soon, the sky shifted from blue, to violet, and Lysandra, Momo, and even Appa began to yawn over and over.
"It might be a good idea to set down for the night." Chakravartin suggested.
Aang caught sight of Lysandra yawning, and found himself catching it, yawning as well. Chakravartin, notably, did not. If anything, the boy didn't seem tired in the slightest. "That might be a good idea." Aang said with a smile, "Down, Appa." he looked below them, before taking in the sight of a small meadow mixed in with the forest.
The Bison landed carefully, and let out a satisfied groan that was loud enough to wake Lysandra back to full awareness. "What's going on?" she asked, looking around. "Are we in Minas Tirith already?"
"No, we're stopping for the night." Aang said, watching with a smile as Appa turned toward the tall grasses of the meadow and began to chomp down, refilling his massive belly in preparation for the next day's flight.
Chakravartin leaped off of Appa's back, going toward the edge of the forest, and took out the beam sword he had stolen from the mercenary. A quick slash got him a sizable branch, which he set down in a spot that Appa had already cleared of plantlife. With some chopping with the super-heated blade, they soon had a pile of dry, nearly baked, logs for a fire. A quick bit of bending from Aang, and they had the fire itself.
As the group wound down around the fire for the night, Aang said "So, should we sleep in shifts? Have someone to keep watch?"
"Don't bother. I'm not going to be able to sleep for maybe a decade anyway. My body is still new. It's bursting with energy."
"...You know the more I hear about you, the weirder you get." Lysandra said to Chakravartin.
"Your own species is plenty weird." Chakravartin threw back good-naturedly.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
The previous conversation was still lingering. It was strange how much alike he and Chakravartin's kind were. He had never thought to reach so far back, what was possibly thousands of lifetimes. A temple that held statues of all his past lives had at least that many, but some were so old the faces were gone.
After lobbing a quick fireball at Chakravartin's pile of expertly cut sticks, Aang started a little routine of stomping. The tremors underfoot softened the packed earth to loose, almost comfortable soil. The grass was left undisturbed, making it almost perfect to sleep on. He did not feel he had the level of control to create even a small shelter with Earthbending, so instead he decided they would lay down under the stars.
"Anyone thirsty?" Aang was the all in one Swiss Army Knife with legs. With sweeping movements, he pulled water right from the air, gathering ever present moisture into small orbs. They then freeze into snowballs, which Aang holds out in offering. Except for one, which he is already enjoying.
Lysandra eyed the snowball before carefully accepting it. "This is so cool! Hehe... puns..."
"Sokka would be proud." The pun received an Avatar Approved Thumbs Up. "Chakra, would you like one? Even if you don't drink, it'll help you keep cool." It was not exactly hot, but this trick might be useful tomorrow, in between flights. It was a bit toasty in the saddle, with no shade.
Before Chakravartin could respond, Momo obliterates the snowball by flying into it, mouth open and everything. The winged lemur snatched the rest of it with tiny paws and rubbed the snow into his fur, chattering happily. "Momo..." Aang was not quite annoyed, but it was a bit bothering that the lemur continued the passive aggression towards Chakravartin. Aang quickly formed another, making sure Momo could not get to it.
"So, uh... I've been meaning to ask... about those hands. The floating ones. The Dai Li used a similar technique, I think I remember Avatar Kyoshi taught it to them. It was called the Stone Glove..." There was not a real question there, leaving it very open ended. "I mean, since we're all being super open here and all..."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
Chakravartin concentrated, and a few seconds later, a Palace Hand had peeled itself away from his skin, the liquid body passing through his clothes to start floating freely above him. It reached out and took the offered snowball, which Chakravartin swallowed whole. "Well, to answer your first question- I eat and drink like you do. As well as... the other stuff. Digestion." he said, feeling a little distaste for the less pleasant needs of a mortal body. "As for the second, the Palace Hand is part of my body. Saru are protean. Our bodies are extremely malleable, and I have the particular skill of the Fist of God- it's similar to bending, I think. But instead of fire or air or water, I bend the Chi in my own biomass."
With a little concentration, he grinned wide, wider, even wide, until his smile had spread all the way around his face. He then reached up, and pulled the top half of his head off. Leaving his jaw and neck where they were, he lightly tossed the top of his head up and down. It was a little disconcerting, hell on the eyes, but Aang's and Lysandra's horrified expressions were worth it.
Deciding enough was enough, he lifted his head back into position, and let it go, plopping it back onto the neck. A little concentration- and his head was back to how it had been before.
"I do the same thing with the Palace Hands. I just make a hand out of some biomass I can spare- nothing in particular, just shaving off a little mass here and there from all over my body, and let it float freely." Chakravartin frowned, "My true power- the Fist of God, was the power to create life." he smirked, "Although as we can see by Lysandra and Momo here, it seems many people have that power now. I mainly used mine to create more biomass limitlessly. I would create hands the size of mansions, and send them flying to crush or capture my foes. Hands are easiest, of course, but I could shape them into anything I wanted- creating fortresses and dwellings. But... I've lost that power since then. As is, it takes a stunningly long time to shape my body now."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
Aang was suddenly relieved that he had not eaten much today, otherwise it would be on the ground... Lysandra, on the other hand, looked pale as a ghost. She had nothing to say on the topic, but chose to depart the warmth of the fire to sit beside the sky bison, almost burying herself in the thick fur.
"I know the feeling," said the Avatar. "I used to be arguably the greatest bender in the world. Namely because I could bend all four. My wife Katara was one of the best Waterbenders, and my teacher Toph was one of the best Earthbenders." It was a short moment of rambling, namely because he was really starting to miss them now.
Distancing himself from individuals, he focused more on the act of bending. "In my world, we had four elements. You are born a Bender, and what type is inherited from your parent. If you have two bender parents of different elements, you could very well be either type." But not both, he implied.
"But Bending isn't really that outrageous. My friend Sokka was a normal human, but he grew up to be a Grand Swordsman. We even have this one ally... she could stop a Bender, and paralyze the body just by touching you. She might have even stopped you." He chuckled at the thought of a god-like being being stopped by this woman. "She was a Chi-Blocker... and you and I both rely on Chi."
When he thought about the different ways they bend, he could not help but think how similar they were. Watching the way the golden hand floated, Aang punched the soil beside him. His hand sank into it, but retracted with a stone glove. It encased his hand, yet he wiggled his fingers as easily as if it were cloth. Thrusting his hand forward, the glove broke apart, left his hand, reassembled and flew in a straight path till its fingers dig into the bark of a tree. "I have to focus a lot more on it, and I can't bring it back... In fact, it feels like I can't control anything beyond just a few feet..."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
"The same goes for me." Chakravartin willed the Palace Hand forward, to the edge of his ability to control it, only about five feet away from him. "Take it."
Aang, understandably squeamish from seeing a child pull the top half of his head off, hesitated, but still took hold of the floating metal hand. With a sharp kick against the ground, Chakravartin shot backwards. For a moment, the golden hand spasmed in Aang's grip, and the bender dropped it when the shape began to twist and distort. When it hit the ground, is splashed, like a dropped handful of wet sand.
Chakravartin let out a sigh, "Lost cohesion." he said simply, neither of his traveling companions understanding the words, and he didn't bother to explain. He walked closer, and felt satisfied as the liquid gold was pulled to him, quickly shooting through his sock, to rejoin with his feet.
"Nope." Lysandra said, turning over and closing her eyes, burying herself in the safety of Appa's fur. "I'm not watching any more, or I'm just plain not going to sleep." she muttered.
"Fine, fine." Chakravartin said, sitting by the fire. "Feel free to go to sleep." he told them both. Three Palace Hands- the fourth not yet properly reintegrated, emerged, and began to lazily orbit him, "I'll keep watch."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
"You know," Aang mused aloud. "Maybe before we get to Camelot, we should train a bit. I haven't focused on my Earthbending much since I arrived. Maybe I could do something with the Stone Glove, and we could try to work on distant manipulation together?"
It made sense. They both used Chi, and the move was... essentially the same thing. "Maybe I could learn to wield it as effectively at close range as your, uh... I don't remember what you called them..." He watched the "biomass" rejoin its previous owner. It was... kind of gross, to be honest.
Chakravartin considered it. "I suppose if we gain Omnilium naturally... it might be wise to try and focus it into something."
The Avatar nodded. "We just have to start from the bottom and work our way back up. I don't know about you, but I prefer to stay at a range... the Stone Glove could do just that." Aang reaches out towards the glove in the tree. He focused on it, trying his damndest to pull it back. "Maybe... all we need to do... is... think... really...hard..." The glove did not budge.
Momo decided to hop up onto the outstretched hand of his master and sit. The lemur chattered whimsically, oblivious to the concentration he had just interrupted. "Sometimes thinking isn't my strong suit..." To be frank, at times he hated thinking. There was no telling when a bad memory would rise to the surface.
"Tomorrow morning, bright and early. Once you and I can bend at a distance, we should be able to take anything this world can throw at us, right?"
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
Chakravartin watched as the young man's eyes finally closed. Lysandra had fallen asleep even earlier, Chakravartin's somewhat disturbing display of his malleability ended up not giving the girl nightmares as she feared, and she seemed content.
For the first half-hour or so, the lemur watched Chakravartin suspiciously, before it too fell asleep. Taking careful steps forward, he had a Palace Hand lower itself, the gold lightly touched Momo, and the lemur stirred slightly, but did not awaken. The hand moved over Aang, and the fingers stretched slightly, and wrapped around the throat.
Chakravartin watched Aang's face, the Avatar twitched, and moved slightly as he slept. Chakravartin put a little pressure on the hand- just slightly more.
Aang didn't awaken. Chakravartin smiled, and began to quietly walk away. The Palace Hand easily freed itself from Aang's throat, leaving peacefully. The bald Avatar was breathing just as calmly and deeply as before. He had not noticed the hand on his throat.
There had been no malice- Chakravartin was not malicious. And he had absolutely no intent to harm Aang or any of the Secondaries there. There was no evil intent for either the lemur or its creator to sense.
Chakravartin smiled evilly, and left the grassy clearing. He didn't go too far- if any of the group made a noise, he would return with haste. With a lie of needing to use the bathroom on his lips. He entered the forest, and moved a little deeper, only stopping when he feared the sound of Appa's deep breathing might not reach this far. He followed his nose, and found what he was looking for. The den of a small group of foxes. He set the three Palace Hands to work, furiously digging and clawing at the dirt in front of him. The animals were dispatched before they could begin to bark, and were set aside, under a bush nearby. Some other predator would find a free meal, he supposed. He widened the opening of the den, and then began to work in earnest.
He closed his eyes, and breathed deeply. From his chest, an orb of Omnilium, shining with the light of the rainbow, emerged. He pushed it forward, into the den, so that some of the light might be hidden. If Aang or Lysandra had awoken for some reason, and looked into the forest in his direction, they would have noticed the light from his initial summoning. But hopefully the den would keep that risk to a minimum.
It was difficult work- far more difficult than he was used to. In truth, Chakravartin was not especially creative, or artistically inclined. On Earth, when he created five children, he had simply made them Saru doppelgangers of the human cultists who had done the most to bring his host into the world. Copies of humans, in personality and appearance, but made from the biomass he summoned from the Fist of God.
Here it was different. Here, he was forced to think- to give shape. It wasn't instinctive, and it was. He knew what he had to do, and was doing it, but it wasn't easy.
His mind turned back, thousands of years, before the Saru were wiped from existence.
His previous host. His previous Incarnation. The host's name was Han Man Wu Kong. He had three lovers, his War Queens. And four devoted disciples, two male, two female. The eight of them, together, poured their blood into the stone that would eventually give birth to Chakravartin's current Host.
What he wanted was loyalty and competence out of the minion he would be creating.
The image that formed in his mind was one of the War Queens.
The Saru woman took shape from the orb, and for a grueling fifteen minutes, she became more and more real, until the rainbow of light faded. She had the same pale yellow eyes as his current host, as most Saru, but the molten metal of her hands was deep and dark red color, almost like human blood. Her hair was a dark woody brown, and her skin a paler shade of the same. Her hair was tied into twin ponytails, and her armor was made of black steel, wearing a white silken body suit beneath. She was just as Chakravartin's previous host had known her, up to the moment the planet was destroyed. Her boots were red, and at her side was a long knife, which he knew she knew how to use. A prehensile tail, the sign of a fully-grown adult, swayed idly from side to side.
"My Lord?" she asked, surprised, looking at the hole she had been summoned into, and then up at Chakravartin. "It... is you, isn't it, Han? You look... younger. Different."
"Ozo Mat." Chakravartin greeted warmly, "One of my mothers." he reached down and gripped her arm, pulling her up into the forest, now that they were safe from the glow.
"Mothers?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, "I shared my blood not... when did I..."
"I have much to explain." Chakravartin said simply, "But first, I need you to remain quiet." he handed her the gun he still wore at his side, and she took it, taking a similar attitude to his own on it. She could tell where the trigger was, and what end the beam would come out of, and nothing else needed to be known about it.
Turning back to the former fox den, he closed his eyes and summoned once more. Ozo watched with curiosity as a mount formed. A floating minimalist chair made of golden steel, ten spider-like legs folded around it, five on each side. At the arm of each chair was an interface that Ozo was familiar with, used on Saru to pilot their own vehicles. It had been created in about a third of the time it had taken to create her.
"Now, I will explain." Chakravartin said, turning to her, "Ozo, Saru has been destroyed."
"I... gathered. It was Claymore?"
"Yes."
Ozo grinned, something that confused Chakravartin, "I knew she was a fighter, and Nik wanted to throw her out of the castle for not being 'pure Saru'. Hah! She was stronger than all of us."
"The hybrid notwithstanding... the rock you poured your blood into, the rock that Han poured his blood into, survived the planet's destruction. From it was born this body- a User of the Fist of God."
"My Lord!" Ozo said, bowing with more sureness this time, "Are... you the Persona of the Fist of God? The child achieved the True Fist... and was unworthy?" she asked, looking a little regretful.
"Yes, unfortunately. The shard of planet Saru that landed on the planet he was born on had infected the native lifeforms- countless hybrids, like Claymore, were waiting for him. Some allied, some rebelled. In the end, he called on me, but was unworthy. I consumed him, battled the hybrids... and lost."
"You lost?!"
"Shush!" Chakravartin hissed, moving closer to the tree line, to see if that had woken up Aang or Lysandra. It didn't, thankfully, "Quiet!" he whispered, "I fled into space... and from there I was taken to this place. Called the Omniverse. It is ruled over by a God that is greater than I ever was, and who has given me true immortality- in exchange for much of my, likely all Saru's, power."
"That's... a lot to take in, Lord."
"Yes. We're in the Omniverse now, in a place called Camelot. I'm traveling with a man who has similar powers to mine. One I find interesting."
"Your body is a little young for that, don't you think-" she began taking a maternal tone.
"Not like that!" Chakravartin sighed, blushing, "He's a member of a species called humans. He can use Chi, like a Saru. He's also the Avatar of a greater entity than himself. I wish to learn more about him."
"Then... why summon me?" Ozo asked.
"It's simple. He's a pacifist." both Saru sneered, "I can't trust him, not fully. But I need an agent to act on my behalf, without him knowing. I want you to follow us, discreetly as possible. Only when he sleeps, do you report in. I want you to find out all you can about Camelot, the surrounding areas, and the Omniverse as a whole. If you need anything, come to me while Aang sleeps, and I will provide. We are in a new world. A new Dawn for our civilization, a second chance to bring about the True War." Chakravartin said sagely.
"I will do as you ask, my Lord, my son." Ozo promised, smiling.
"Good."
He set about making supplies- food, water, changes of clothes. Less than a half hour had passed since her creation, and she set out into Camelot, to find out everything she could about this new world on behalf of her creator.
Chakravartin returned to the clearing, watching as Lysandra and Aang both snored quietly. He smiled to himself, and climbed a tree at the edge of the meadow, intent on spending the rest of the night on watch, just as he promised.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
Aang appeared to sleep deeply throughout the night, and physically this was true. Chakravartin's activities went unnoticed, not because Aang was a deep sleeper, but because he was not even there. Upon Chakravartin's return, he would notice that the slumbering man's tattoos were glowing. They were not as bright as when he willingly tapped into his deeper power, but they were still glowing.
This glow persisted through the night.
As the meadow slowly brightened with the rising sun filtering light through the boughs of dozens of trees, the arrows dim. A few more minutes and Aang's eyes open. They were not quite ready for the light and shut immediately after. "Ugh..." Like a teenager, the Avatar rolled over on the soft grass and with a jerk of his hand, pulled a layer of earth over him, like a thick blanket.
Chakravartin noticed the rather obvious shifting of earth. "Are you planning on waking up? You said --"
The layer of earth slid back. "I know what I said, it was a metaphor!" The earth slid back - covering him again.
"I think you mean --"
"I know what I said!" is barely heard through the layer of earth. The low muffled voice is followed by inaudible grumbles. It would seem that this avatar was not quite as full of energy as Chakravartin. His "host" was far too human.
Lysandra awoke after Aang, but before he reawoke. She stretches, yawns, then notices that she has been covered in long white fur. "Appa! Oh jeeze, there's so much hair! Oh man, it's everywhere! How do you even shed this much?!" Lysandra's rant stirred Momo from his slumber. He chattered at her, annoyed for a moment, but eventually leaps up onto Appa's back to continue his slumber.
Appa was still dead asleep. After balding most of the meadow for dinner and the long flight, the big beast was dead tired and deserved the extra sleep.
Sadly, Aang did not have a reason to sleep in besides general laziness. Chakravartin made his way down from his tree and summoned forth two Palace Hands during his approach. He came to stand next to the abnormal little hill covered in grass. The Palace Hands set to work, lifting the earth chunk by chunk to uncover Aang. "For such a finite lifespan, you humans seem to waste a lot of it. Wake up. If we are to train, we should do so before breakfast."
"Or..." the disturbed Aang mumbles. "We should train to GET breakfast!" And he was up. With a burst of wind he is up on his feet, robes from the waist down spotless and not a smudge on his fair tanned upper frame. "We could totally use the hands to grab fruit! We can't fly or use Momo either." Detirmination was written across his features.
Before Chakravartin could formulate a response to this sudden change, Aang was grabbing two fistfuls of earth and storming off, eyes aimed upwards to look for fruit. Surely if they were hungry enough, they would figure it out. "Ohh! And the hands have to bring it back! Not just knock it out of the tree, that defeats the purpose!"
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
Chakravartin shook his head, following along. When Aang really tried, he was a dynamo. Shooting through the forest at high speed, a harsh wind both following in his wake and pushing him along. Chakravartin was fast as well, however, he had to resort to darting up the trees and leaping from branch to branch to even keep Aang in sight. It felt good to be in the trees- the humans had called his host a monkey, when he first began his attack on Earth, and the moniker wasn't ill-fitting.
The trees around the meadow weren't very fruitful, producing more hard nuts than anything sweet. The twin Palace Hands collected them anyway, darting back and forth between him and the branches. He was somewhat confused by the purpose of the excercise. His Palace Hands stubbornly refused to push the limits of his range. If even a finger tip extended more than a few inches from the comfortable range, he could feel the tingle of cohesion threatening to break.
All the same, he continued his acrobatic swinging through the trees, gathering nuts and what fruit he could find, before making his way back to the meadow, arms full of potentially-edible rations.
If Aang had him beat, he wouldn't mind. They could always make their own food if the stuff they found in the wild wasn't palatable.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
Aang did not have him beat. In fact, Aang returned almost an hour later, empty handed. He opened his mouth to complain when he noticed that Chakravartin had an armful of fresh food. "What?! You already figured it out?" He was almost distraught. This was supposed to be a group effort. Training together, like he and Katara did. That, and as the Avatar he picked up on most htings fairly quickly - at least in his own world.
"How far can you reach now? Those nuts had to be almost twenty feet up!" He sighed. He had the Stone Gauntlets on, but they were not the same pair he left with. "I still can't bring them back, or control them at a distance... I mean, after I throw them, it's like I can't FEEL the stone anymore." To show what he means, the glove opened up to release his hand. It closed and Aang held it in the air, manipulating the fingers with movements of his own hand. He then tried to push it outwards, but before it went far at all, it drops to the ground, useless.
Lysandra, who had been so bold as to pluck a fruit from Chakravartin's bounty, chimed in at this point. "Primes are supposed to grow super powerful... maybe you should try to, I donno, think like Primes? It's not all about Chi anymore... think about adding in a bit of... you know... that glowy stuff..." She nommed into her fruit with a following sound of gratitude towards Chakra. Interrupting a new wave of thoughts, she added one more thing. "Chaky also cheated, he went up into the trees..."
"... I did not cheat. I simply... misunderstood the purpose of this exercise..." The wave of realization had hit the moment Aang explained his defeat. They were supposed to grab it with their Palace Hands and Stone Gloves respectably, at a distance. "Should we try again?"
"No." Aang shook his head, considering this new information brought to light by Lysandra. "She's right... Doing things like we would in our old world might not be the best way. We have to adapt... Maybe we should think of this like summoning something? Perhaps we should meditate on it for a while?" That was usually Aang's response to everything. Think on it. Sure, thinking could do wrong, but sometimes it was just what was needed.
"Meditation... Summoning did take a great deal of thought." He considered the immense mental effort alone it took to summon Ozo. "Think it through... act it out." It sounded simple enough. Though, Chakravartin did not know how effective it would be in the end.
Looking at the young man, Aang could almost sense the hint of doubt. To be fair, he had more than a hint himself.... but after his dream last night, it seemed that not everything was different. "But first... running around worked up an appetite!" Woosh! With a mighty leap, Aang has cleared the meadow to land on the slumbering Appa's back. The Avatar rambles through the bags that contained the fruit he had summoned. "Hey... where's all our food? Hey Chakra, were we robbed last night?"
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
"I... didn't see anything. I've been eating some, of course, but not all of it." Chakravartin asked, feeling nervous. He had created several weeks worth of rations for Ozo out of Omnilium, just as he created her vehicle, clothes, and other supplies. Could something have snuck onto Appa in the half hour he wasn't paying attention? "I only left the watch for a few minutes, to relieve myself." Chakravartin said, "I apologize. but I swear, except for a half-hour at most, I was on guard the whole night."
It was... truthfully careless of him. If something could make off with the rest of his- err, Aang's fruit while he wasn't paying attention, it could have just as easily stolen away Aang or Lysandra.
"Well..." Aang frowned, "I guess it's not too big of a loss. Are you sure you didn't eat it?"
"I ate some, but not all of it."
"You were very hungry yesterday." Lysandra muttered, remembering him nearly taking her hand off trying to get to the peach she had been meaning to give to Momo in the Nexus.
"Well, either way, maybe we make sure everyone's properly... taken care of everything before we rest for the night from now on."
Chakravartin sighed, annoyed. Perhaps he should have waited before enacting his plan to create Ozo.
"Should we get back on the trail to Minas Tirith?" Chakravartin asked, gesturing to Appa.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
Chakravartin's deception seems to have gone without a hitch. In the back of his mind he thought Aang would see through the deception, as he did before with the roaming gang. However, perhaps the distance between them was enough that he could not perceive it? Or perhaps it did not work on other primes?
"Hmm... We do need to head on... Alright, everyone on board. We'll meditate while we fly! Miss Lysa, would you like to learn how to fly a Sky Bison?" Aang hops over to Appa's head to pick up the long rope between the beast's horns. Lysandra's eyes went wide, somewhere between terror and fangirl. Aang had to admire the level of balance between all these emotions... "Don't worry, Appa does most of the work, you just sort of... guide him, direction wise."
Lysandra was cautious... she slowly crept onto the bison's head, as if climbing the beast's side by taking huge handfuls of fur could be stealthy. This finally woke Appa. His massive yawn would have been terrifying if all his teeth weren't flattened, meant for vegetation, rather than meat. With his front leg, he nudges Lysandra up. Appa was more intelligent than people gave him credit for.
She sat on Appa's head before looking around her. "W-what do I hold on to?"
"This!" The Avatar's divine advice was to give her the lead. "When you're ready to go, just say what I did last time, alright? Not yet though!"
The recollection of Omni's tell of immortality was what had Chakravartin embarking so willingly. He plopped back in his favored spot, leaning against the back rail. The leftovers of breakfast he stored in the bags, something of an apology to his mode of transport. As a show of no hard feelings, he tossed Aang a handful of nuts. Aang surprisingly caught most of them by hand, with one or two snagged by Momo mid-flight.
Cupping one hand over the other, enclosing the nuts between, the Avatar nodded to Lysandra. "We're all set back here. Just remember, Appa flies, you steer. I've trained a lot of my Acolytes on Appa, so he's used to it by now." The ditsy woman had a look of pure determination now. She had not planned for this, but it was happening. She uttered the two syllables and just like that, she was flying! "So," Aang said, his focus returning to Chakravartin. "From what I can tell, a lot of the work is just a combination of imagination and memories... When you were making the crutch, what did it feel like to you?
Uncovering the nuts, they looked different. Cracking the shell of one between his fingers, he tossed what appeared to be a roasted treat down the hatch. Firebending was definitely handy for more things than just combat.
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
"I just imagined what it was, and what it was for." Chakravartin answered, "I focused... less on how it looks, but more of the idea of her hobbling away from us."
He summoned a simple orb of Omnilium, like he had seen Omni himself doing. Omnilium in its purest form. Then he quickly grabbed hold of the railing as Appa began to tip, Lysandra muttering an apology and trying to aim Appa back onto the trail. The sphere of Omnilium re-entered his body without trouble. "Well, it's mostly instinctual, I think. The process of summoning seems to almost let you know what is supposed to be done, and all you yourself have to do is provide the fuel and the focus. I think... almost anything with a brain could have made that crutch, if they were a Prime." Chakravartin looked to Aang, "Tell me, what does it feel like to summon life?"
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
"Tiring," Aang stated. That was the biggest ordeal with summoning something so large. "I can't say I outright like it... It feels like any rogue thought and I could create something... horribly wrong. Physically, it feels like... like when I took the Fire Lord's Firebending..." A cold creeping sensation ran down his spine. "Like I was reaching into their souls."
For a moment he just stared off into space. "I suppose... maybe its because we don't have quite enough Omnilium yet? I mean... I can mimic your uh... hands..." he offered an apologetic expression, having once again forgotten the name. "But like you, I can't expand my reach... We both focused on manifesting them first, but... not about controlling at a reach. Even when I airbend, I just throw them... like a curve ball, sort of." Meaning they arced on a natural path, without his influence.
"Maybe all we need to do is think about just controlling things at a distance?" Aang lifts the stone glove he had brought along. It drifts towards Chakravartin. Sadly, it would not reach him before it fell flat onto the padded saddle. "Instead of trying to push it out... we should start with... pulling it back?" It was not much different in concept, but the way he thought about it made it leagues different. "Try it. Let your hand fall out of range, then... try to pick it back up."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
"I don't think we're working on the same principles here either, Aang." Chakravartin said, but he humored the bender. A Palace Hand emerged, and he had it begin orbiting him, before he sent it flying forwards. It very quickly lost cohesion, twisting and spasming, before simply falling to the ground like a handful of mud.
He didn't take a step forward, but simply focused on the sensation of it. Trying to reconnect with the biomass lying on the ground. He tried to pull on it, urging the command to return. He tried to grab hold of the Chi in his flesh, to feel that connection, but it almost felt like it just... winked out if it got far enough away.
It didn't move.
Aang and Lysandra watched, waiting, but after several minutes Aang said "Are you trying?"
Chakravartin raised a single bushy eyebrow.
"Sorry." Aang said, sighing. Chakravartin took a few steps closer, and let the biomass rejoin his body.
"I think the Omniverse just works in a certain way." Chakravartin said, "Chi is different, matter is different, our bodies and powers are different." he shrugs, "We'll have to simply adapt."
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Alex Mercer - 05-28-2017
He did not think they were too far off. Aang focused on the stone in front of him. With slow breaths, he centered his chi. Each exhale came with a small billow of fire. The air flowed across his bare upper form. The humidity thickened on his skin. Three of the four elements were within his reach, but one was just beyond it.
Aang stretches out his hand, as if fitting it into the glove from afar. The glove was an extension of his body. It was him. He was the stone. The Stone Glove... twitched. "HAH! It moved!"
Chakravartin's bushy brow rose. "I missed it..." He had been looking at the trees far below, deep in contemplation. "Do it again."
Again? Aang had broken his trance in surprise, so it came down to another ten seconds of centering himself. The elements nearby were no issue. Water streamed along his skin, pushed and pulled by the air. His lips let loose the smallest plume of brilliant flame. His hand curled, reaching for the glove. Slowly, ever so slowly, the glove... moved.
The Avatar was not ready to celebrate yet - at least not again. He lifted his hand, trembling slightly. Slowly, he wiggled his fingers. The digits grind as they move, not the most fluid, but definitely under his control. Aang laughed breathlessly as he reached with the Stone Glove, stretching all the way over to the bag of previsions. The stone returns wiht a single nut... "I think I got it!"
RE: Gold and Stone, in Questing for Camelot - Larfleeze - 05-28-2017
"Congratulations." Chakravartin said, surprised. If one could just... force past their limitations, that would exceedingly convenient. Or perhaps Aang was special in that regard. Either way, it was progress.
The two Primes practiced for another hour that morning, Aang becoming more proficient with the stone glove, while Chakravartin's maximum range stubbornly refused to expand. "You just need to work past your mental block. Once you feel it- the connection that still exists even at a distance, you'll gain control of it."
"I'm still convinced-"
"Maybe that's your problem. You're convinced it won't work, so you won't put your all into it!" Aang said, "Come on, just one more time."
"Just trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results isn't training, it's insanity." the Saru grumbled.
"Look, maybe you're just not in the right mental space. When I was first learning Earthbending, my mindset just wasn't in the right place. No matter what I tried, I couldn't do it, because I wasn't thinking like earth. I was too used to thinking like air." Aang explained, "It took a crazed saber-toothed mooselion trying to eat Sokka before I could push through." Aang grinned, in realization, "Maybe you need a push! Look, just try it again."
"Fine, fine." Chakravartin said, narrowing his eyes. He redirected the last Palace Hand- the others were still reintegrating from falling out of range earlier, and took a step back, so that the Hand, when it fell, would land at the front of Appa's saddle.
He urged the Hand forward, as close to the edge of his range he could force it, and prepared to take a step back, when Aang swiped at it with his wind. "Catch it!" The airbender ordered, smiling and in full-sifu mode.
Chakravartin's eyes shot wide open, and he jumped for the edge of the saddle, reaching with his mind, trying to get a hold before it-
It fell.
Aang sighed, and sent out another gust of wind-
Only to blink in surprise as the glob of metal barely changed direction.
Both Primes watched as it disappeared into the foliage. They both were at the edge of the railing of Appa's saddle, staring down at the trees. They sat in silence for a few moments.
Aang slowly turned and looked at Chakravartin, a nervous smile spreading over his face, "That, uh, hand. It's a lot heavier than it looks, huh?"
"Well it was made of pretty heavy stuff." Chakravartin said, his voice emotionless.
"Yeah- yeah it was- is! Is. Do you want to-?"
"Just... leave it." Chakravartin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Maybe in a few hundred years he would find his true form in the Mental Realm connecting to the body of a new Saru child, born of the earth of Camelot, the next User of the Fist of God. Or maybe the Reincarnation Cycle of blood was as changed and weakened as everything else in the Omniverse. "Why, exactly, did you do that?"
"I thought if you felt it was a do-or-die situation you would push through your limit and be able to pull it back." he explained, which Chakravartin supposed he understood, "I was going to catch the hand with airbending before it fell too far, but it was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. Sorry."
"It's... fine. Fine. It'll grow back. Just give me two days or so."