uccellodifuoco | 13th Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action (Fourth Wall Event)

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13th Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action (Fourth Wall Event)

[Apparently, either the Malnosso have decided that around three hundred of people aren't enough for their experiments... Or someone has left open the front door and people thought that the enclosure was a commercial center with a sale going on. Ikki has never been a people person, he has problems already when half of the village gathers for parties, this sudden influx of not-New Feathers isn't something that pleases him.

Specially when his pet, an arctic wolf cub, little over one year old and named Hyoga, decides to start running around to play catch with his owner. Of course, like always, Ikki is the "it" that has to catch the animal. And of course, today the village is so full of people that running around isn't easy, or keep sight of the animal, good thing Hyoga knows how to get back home... Or he should, Ikki had been teaching him that recently. Still he tries to catch the animal, not because he's worried but because it would be troublesome to just let it go and bother people.]

Let me go through, dammit! Hyoga!! Stop right there this instant!! Come back, stupid wolf! I'm not going to chase you forever so come already!

[Of course, Hyoga will at most stop, turn to look at its owner and then keep running away happily. Or bother whoever is next to him if he thinks they smell nice or something. He's not afraid of the angry phoenix chasing him, not at all.]

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I choose to be comforted by that thought, then.

[ Headtilt -- a seemingly coy expression to hide sadness and regret. ] Not Hades himself, alas. His Specters, yes.

[ Then blink. ] You do not think Hades can be reasoned with?

[Ikki snorts with clear disdain.]

He was still babbling his own ideas even as he was vanishing from existence and acting as if it was a great loss that he would die. So no, I don't think he can be reasoned with. Athena certainly couldn't and I don't believe that's the first time she tried that in all the Holy Wars that there have been.

[ Shion is silent for a moment, pausing in his stroking the white pup. ]

... if-- there was one thing that Athena had taught us, that is to hold onto hope, and never let go for that is the only thing that keeps us burning even when she is gone.

[ So many questions. Shion crouches onto one knee as gently he sets Hyoga down on the ground. He is still amenable to playing with him though! ]

Phoenix-- do you know why Hades is lord of the Underworld?

[Hyoga whines a bit on being put on the ground but doesn't do much else, quickly setting himself besides Shion, nuzzling him. Ikki makes a questioning face, the answer obvious though he still voices it.]

Because Poseidon and Zeus got the other areas and that's all he had left? Or because he's a crazy, sadist that thinks people don't endure enough suffering and pain in life and have to suffer eternally in Hell because once they stepped on an ant.

[He shrugs.]

Does it really matter why he was the lord of the Underworld?

Correct -- on just one point.

[ WELL THEN. Shion wrestles the puppy to his back so he can give him tummy scratches. ]

Three gods, three domains, each needing a ruler. The Underworld in itself is not a bad place -- there is the Elysian Fields after all, where the virtuous can rest.

[ Side-ward glance towards Ikki. ]

And it does matter. A direct descendant of a Titan can only be one to hold so much power to keep an entire realm together, and keep the human world at balance. Tell me: who is keeping the Underworld working, now that you have told me that Hades is dead?

[He's almost tempted to tune out when Shion starts with the lesson but he listens anyway, while watching Hyoga playfully wrestle back a bit before being pulled down on his back, making delighted noises at the scratches. Ikki arches an eyebrow, see, he didn't know the animal liked that, or that it could be done.

He frowns lightly at Shion's last question, is he supposed to worry?]

The Underworld, both Hell and Elysian were destroyed after Hades died. And people still die, I don't know what happens with their souls now but whatever it is I'm sure it's better than an eternity of punishment for no other reason than the whim of a God. If it's not... It's not as if we really were trying to change that, we just wanted to end the cycle of wars. Or do you pretend to tell me we should have just defeated Hades and seal him for some time until the next century?

Athena was willing to kill Hades definitively, yet when we fought Poseidon she preferred to seal him again instead. I don't pretend to give her decisions much credit but I suppose they are based on something else besides a whim on her part.

[With the way he words it he seems to imply he wouldn't be surprised if in part it was because of a whim though.]

Who knows? Perhaps there are other powers beyond our collective ken that can keep the Underworld stable -- having it completely obliterated can be troublesome for the cycle of life, after all.

[ Apparently, the notion of punishment does not bother him one bit. ]

That choice, as to whether to put an end to something or to just put it off, brings another question: how did these so-called "Holy Wars" begin? [ Playing his hands by the pup's paws! One would think Shion were playing with a cat. ] Why seal -- or allow to be sealed -- for so many thousands of years than perhaps sparing several generations of Saints from having to fight in the first place?

[ Senility? Traces of it, perhaps. More like traces of a weary, centuries old mind. ]

I'm pretty sure Elysium was destroyed though, we barely made it out of it alive ourselves. That doesn't mean that the afterlife was been destroyed, though, does it? Or that death no longer exists. It just means souls now go to some other place, or stay on Earth, or vanish into nothingness.

[He shrugs, he really doesn't care at all about that. Ikki frowns at the next questions though, clearly annoyed and irritated. He doesn't know and he doesn't care, why should he?]

Maybe the previous vessels of Athena were less whimsical and selfish and actually thought Hades could be reasoned with next time? For that matter, why bother with protecting a world that all the other deities are sentencing to death? But I have an easier question for you. Why send children to trainings that will kill the vast majority of them to protect a girl that claims to be a Goddess? That's one which answer I would actually want to know.

I did not say the concept of Afterlife is dead -- just where would the souls of the departed go, is what I want to know.

It is not something I would expect you to answer. You are not a god, after all.

[ He has the option to ignore them if he wants. Shion then decides to give the pup a break, and watches it for a bit, wondering if it would ask for more tummy rubs or if it would run away again. ]

It all boils down to just simpler questions: why the Holy Wars? Why the desire to intervene in human affairs? [ Do not even get him started on that need to intervene during WWII ~~according to the Hypermyth~~. Sigh. ] Two hundred years and even I do not have the answers to that.

We are told that the ways of the gods are things the simple human mind can never comprehend. I ask, 'why the mystery?', 'why the need to communicate through stars?'

But if you were not a Saint, what you be, Phoenix?

Does it matter that much where one goes when they die? One should worry about where they are going in life instead.

[He will deal with death once it claims him... Permanently, that is.

Hyoga whines a bit when Shion stops playing with him, laying there panting and catching his breath again. This man is fun and plays with him, he likes it.]

Do you really need an answer to those questions? Isn't it enough to know that they are deities and that humanity is nothing but a set of toys for them? Until they get bored and then leave, abandoning us only to return when they want to play again. They just can't stand the idea that humans don't depend on them for breathing and living, or to cause problems and wars among ourselves.

And I say that gods think the same way a baby does. When they get what they want they are happy, when they don't they make a fuss and have to make it be a tragedy and when you don't pay attention to them Hell breaks loose.

[He narrows his eyes at Shion's last question.]

Don't try to pull that with me, Shion. If it hadn't been to become a Saint I wouldn't have been born, or at least my brother and many others wouldn't have. We were fabricated with just one destiny for us. Your question would be better for someone who actually had a choice at some point that wasn't either become a Saint or die.

Oh it certainly matters for Athena where her humanly vessel goes, does it not?

[ Oh Hyoga, can Shion keep you? At least you can listen to him ramble without complaining and be content with patpattings -- like the one the old man is giving you right now.

Then simply: ]

No. I have my own answers, and I have asked those same questions to other Saints and many other people. It is good conversation fodder, no?

[ Sets himself back up. He wants to keep the wolf. Gently -- ]

Have you ever thought of a life without the burden of the Cloth?

[It could be arranged, but Ikki won't allow it, Hyoga is his pet, even if he fails at showing how much he cares and all. He fails at it with his own brother, so it's not really a surprise. Ikki tenses and basically bits his tongue from answering to the comment about Athena's vessels. It's pointless to say what he really thinks of that.]

Conversation fodder, is conversing that important? Actions often speak louder than words. They usually have more meaning than words as well.

["A life without the burden of the Cloth". The answer is immediate and defensive, barely letting Shion finish his question.]

I am the Phoenix Saint.

[And that's final. There's no other life for him, there couldn't be and he doesn't want it, even if he didn't want the Cloth either, it's the life he got and he won't turn back from it. Despite how many times he wishes he could just stop and die.]

There is a time for words, and a time for action. Neither is better nor worse than the other.

[ And with Shion's smile, it is quite evident he is content. Idle looking around. ]

This is a strange but pretty place. I shall be looking around while I am here.

[ Psychokinetic fur-stroking is what Hyoga will be getting. ]

Thank you for entertaining me and my curiosities, Phoenix.

[Leaving already? Of course, it's always this way. They come, ask their annoying questions,snoop over others' problems and then leave without having answered any questions. Just get what they want and then leave, see why Ikki refuses to care? It would be useless either way if he cared.

And he's thanked for entertaining the man even. Ikki never wondered about it but now he gets why Saga killed this guy.]

Yeah, I'm sure you enjoyed the entertainment. [So much sarcasm must be poisonous, boy.] Enjoy your visit then. Hyoga, let's go already.

[Hyoga ignores Ikki instead he stands on his two back legs, looking at Shion and whinning, pleading look of "don't go" painted on his face.]

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13th Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action (Fourth Wall Event)

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