TSW 29: Arina and Lily talk Part 2

<IcePickLobotomy> "Lilith, a Progenitor. From what me and Mary worked out she rebelled against the First Ones and was imprisoned here on Earth, but she was still somewhat active, hence the visions you saw in that shrine under the base."
* Arina swallows. "/That's/ who that was? And no one ever bothered to tell me any of this?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "I didn't have full confirmation that there was a fully bodied Lilith here until a few days ago, before then I wasn't sure if she was dead, gone, fragmented."
* Arina rubs her temples. "Ugh."
<IcePickLobotomy> She pats your shoulder
<Arina> "So, what, we have the Angels, Lucifer, /and/ an imprisoned alien super-criminal, and whatever exactly their relationship is with each other?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "The Angels were the. . . prison guards so to speak. I assume that they activated when she reached a certain threshold of activity. Their hostility to human life is due to the fact that you are all her children of a sort."
<Arina> "What."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Lilith's blood was the primordial ooze that life emerged from in my world. Here it's likely the same, or at least close enough to it. She did fight a war on the Earth before life formed."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Hence you register as being "Lilith" based life forms, even if you lack any of the mainstays of Angelic life forms."
<Arina> "I'm going to stick with 'what'."
<IcePickLobotomy> She shrugs "You did ask."
* Arina sighs. "Great, so the world was created by all-powerful aliens and we're the toe fungus caught in the middle."
<IcePickLobotomy> "I'd more liken you to a particularly aggressive black mold myself."
<Arina> "Gee, thanks."
<IcePickLobotomy> 'Fah, I'm just teasing, I really am a fan of you guys. There /is/ a reason I've stuck around as long as I have."
<Arina> "I thought you were waiting for the alien god-bus," she notes, voice dry.
<IcePickLobotomy> "Oh, but I left my ticket at home and my mother would be quite cross if I were to darken her door-step."
<Arina> "In this extended metaphor is that the First Ones, a Progenitor of some sort, or some horrible dark conspiracy?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "A combination of the 2nd and 3rd options."
<Arina> "Option three is far too damned common."
<Arina> "I mean, I know people conspire and all but /what/."
<IcePickLobotomy> "The long story of it is that wanted to use a outrider as a vessel for all of humanities souls in order to stop all death, pain, and isolation. In order to gather up all of those souls they had to hijack the Progenitor, hence they made a human-lilith hybrid, my mother, who alter fused with Lilith to provide a driving force and sapience to her. Through a rather convulted chain of events, this...
<IcePickLobotomy> ...Lilith ended up under the control of a 13 year olf boy in the middle of a mental breakdown who ultimately rejected Instrumentality. When this happen the souls returned to the earth, along with my mother, but a part of her was ejected, which became me."
* Arina blinks.
* Arina blinks again.
<Arina> "... what."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Look just roll with it."
<Arina> "I have been rolling with it far, far too long."
<Arina> "Seriously where do these people come /up/ with this twaddle?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "I have no idea where they even got the idea. It did work, in their defense. Well it would have worked."
<Arina> "That's /even/ /worse/."
<IcePickLobotomy> She shrugs
<Arina> "Seriously all people need to do is /stop/ /being/ /dicks/ /all/ /the/ /time/."
<IcePickLobotomy> Lily giggles, then laughs.
<IcePickLobotomy> "People have been saying that for as long as humanity has been able to speak Arina. I don't think it's going to work out that way."
<Arina> "People trying to not be dicks all the time failed to fix everything. People trying to stop all death, pain, and isolation destroyed the world and caused far more of it than they ever averted."
<IcePickLobotomy> "People with good intetions, coupled with that sort of arrogance that only humans seem to have. Though, my sample size is hardly that large either."
<Arina> "It's not scientific accuracy but when each sample is the end of the human race I think one and three quarters is enough to work with."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Would it be the end, or simple a new epoch?"
* Arina shrugs. "Who knows?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "Not I, though speculation is always a option."
* Arina pauses, and then sighs. "I am getting a lot more violent than I used to be the longer I do this, because my first thought was of the many better options than speculation available."
<IcePickLobotomy> "In all fairness overwhelming violence does tend to make most problems go away if you have a big enough stick."
<Arina> "... I'm going to need a bigger stick," she decides, despite the fact that her stick is taller than most skyscrapers.
<IcePickLobotomy> ". . . Look for the Lance. If you do end up fighting Lilith, it will probably be your best chance of killing or driving her off. There should be one in her prison, either embedded in her or in the area."
* Arina blinkblinks. "The... Lance?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "The Lance of Longinus, it's a weapon and emergency shut-down system the First One's created. Capable of penetrating even the strongest of AT Field with a single strike, as well as forcing a Progenitor to shut down. It would look like a red bident.""
<Arina> "So many random religious codenames, were you raised by a mystery cult or something?"
<IcePickLobotomy> ". . . . . ." She  pouts and scuffs her feet "Maybe~"
<Arina> "That explains so much."
<Arina> "... About the end of the world plots, that is."
<IcePickLobotomy> "My mother was sort of the central frame work for one."
<Arina> "Yeah, you, uh, mentioned that."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Hence why I know these things, in addition to the bits I picked up since then."
* Arina nods.
* Arina 's eyes widen slightly, and she takes a short gasp, before swallowing and rubbing her throat. "... Lily. What does Lilith's blood look like? What does it do?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "Her blood? It's red. It's rather interesting really, you can breathe it, it's also got some very strong medicinal properties. In theory one could heal almost all maladies if they were immersed long enough in it. Though given that your Lilith seems to have rebelled, it may do other things."
* Arina frowns, tapping her finger against her cheek.
<Arina> "... I may know where she is."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Oh?"
* Arina frowns, swallowing again to wet her throat. "You're familiar with the Red Plague, right?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "I am, I was in Brazil when it broke quarantine."
* Arina cocks her head. "Ah...?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "I was attending to business at the time.:"
<Arina> "What sort of business?"
<IcePickLobotomy> Arina: Her mannerisms are. . . off slightly, a subtle inhuman. But she is a very good actor. And that's why it's taken you this long to figure them out.
<IcePickLobotomy> She was feigning surprise when you brought the Node. She already knew about it, though she didn't know that METI had. And there's a interest there. A need, a hunger. A consuming desire to get it.
* Arina frowns, backing away slightly.
<IcePickLobotomy> She smiles. "My my, it's been a long time since someone has caught on to me. But really, I'm not your enemy."
<Arina> "... I shouldn't be so quick to trust people, should I?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "In your defense, I *did* make a fair effort to earn your trust. And really, I would be a powerful ally, even if I do have my own interests."
<Arina> "You broke the quarantine, didn't you?"
<IcePickLobotomy> "It was failing already, but yes, I did help speed it up. Not that it mattered, I was too late to get the Guide stone before the Americans did. And then they firebombed Salvador to ashes to cover their tracks."
<IcePickLobotomy> "Cost me most of my men too."
* Arina sighs heavily, looking down. "... If anything you've said was true, like mother, like daughter. One murdered the entire human race, the other, half of it."
<IcePickLobotomy> "I'm not the one who set off the plague. And unlike my mother, I'm not a doll for some old man or a little boy to order around."
<Arina> "I suppose not. You're just one of history's worst monsters of your own will."
<Arina> "Congratulations."
<IcePickLobotomy> "And if I had gotten the Guidestone this entire mess would have been sidestepped."
<Arina> "I've already helped you too much for my own conscience's sake."
<Arina> "At least Kasra never had to see what you are."
<IcePickLobotomy> "I see. Then I suggest you do not get in my way then. What's another child on top of a few billion afterall."
* Arina smiles brightly. "The tip of a spear."
<Arina> Then she smashes Lily upside the head with the lamp, preparing to jump her.
<IcePickLobotomy> Arina: As you swing she catches your wrist in a iron grip, and then picks you up by the throat with the other hand. She squeezes, closing off your throat "That, was a mistake."
* Arina bites her mouth shut to save the air and kicks wildly at her stomach, reaching out with her hand as best she can to turn up the lantern.
<IcePickLobotomy> Arina: It's like kicking steel. Your heart hammers as your lungs burn. SLowly your vision dims around the edges as a pair of inhuman red eyes stare into you.
<IcePickLobotomy> And. . . a light. A warm red light.
* Arina looks into the light through bleary eyes.
<IcePickLobotomy> You see a shape, something, moving to you. Emerging out of the Lantern. It's the shadow of a man, a round shield on one arm and a spear in the other, with a plumed helmet. Lily's eyes widen in surprise and she drops you, as the man lunges, tearing a long gash across her arm. She swipes at him, only for her fist to pass through him like smoke. He stabs at her again, this time a brilliant blue...
<IcePickLobotomy> ...hexagonal plane blocks the blow. She glances at you and the specter.
<IcePickLobotomy> "I know when I am outplayed." The hexagon shifts, seemingly rotating in on itself and forming a black and white stripped orb in the air. She steps into it, and then both disappear.
* Arina rubs her throat, looking up. "... I-Ilya...?"
<IcePickLobotomy> The Specter shakes it's head, you can see whips of its form starting to peel away like smoke in the breeze.
* Arina blinks. "A-ah? Then...?"
<IcePickLobotomy> [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNwvIEQsg0 ]
<IcePickLobotomy> |You are not the first to walk this path, nor shall you be the last.| He holds out his hand |But this is not without a cost. The coin. Return it to me.|
<IcePickLobotomy> There's a accent in his voice. German, or at least it sounds like the sterotype of one.
* Arina reaches into her pocket, holding it up. "You're the one who left it behind...? That's... why I picked it up..."
<Arina> "Who... are you...? What... I'm sorry but I have a lot of questions right now and I don't know which ones are important..."
<IcePickLobotomy> |No and yes, I am not him, but I am of him.| He gentle takes the offered coin, and you can see the speed of his disintegration slow greatly |And this was his, a connection, a reservoirof strength..
<Arina> "I... thank you. Who... was he...? Someone who... walked this path before...?"
<IcePickLobotomy> |He was, born to battle and raised to destroy the enemies of Humanity. Like you, his people were assailed by Angels who sought their destruction. In the end him and his comrades claimed victory, and created a newer gentler world for those deserving of it. And when they departed for their new lives, they left behind aides to those who would walk the same path.|
<IcePickLobotomy> |And so I was created, a protector and a light.|
<Arina> "... a lot of... parallel worlds, then...?"
<IcePickLobotomy> |I do not know. Perhaps.|
* Arina roughly straightens up, and salutes him. "I... still barely even know where to begin asking but... thank you for your service."
<IcePickLobotomy> He salutes you in return, one fist clenched against his heart. |Your foes are mighty. Your task is great. You fight because you are needed. And that is why you shall win. Defeat is not a option.|
<Arina> "I'm too Russian to say I have a certainty of victory."
<Arina> "But you sent a light into the night. I'll hold it high until my arm falls off."
<IcePickLobotomy> |Yes. I see why the Lantern was called to you.| He holds out his spear |My time grows shorter, but you shall not go unarmed into the night.|
* Arina reaches out to take it. "Thank you. And... what was your name?"
<IcePickLobotomy> |I am the Spartan, created to defend those who would walk the path next. I have no name, nor need of one.| The shadows fall away, and you find yourself holding a long spear, a dark wooden haft with a tip of bronze. |And when you claim victory, you must ready the light for those who will follow you.|
<Arina> "... Is there a particular trick to that? Or will I know how when the time comes?"
<IcePickLobotomy> |Intention is everything in this realm. Place into the Lantern your desire and need to protect, give it a form. Your soul shall do the rest.|
* Arina nods, and curtsies to him. "... Thank you."
<IcePickLobotomy> |Fare thee well.| He inspects the coin |And with this I shall pay Charon his due. Thank you.|
<Arina> "Is your role over, then? Enjoy the trip."
<IcePickLobotomy> |I have seen my duty, but my time grows short. Thank you.| And like pulling a string loose from a piece of cloth, the Spartan unfurls, tendrils of shadow with traces of gold fluttering up into the sky,
* Arina holds up the lamp to light his way. "... this is going to be complicated. But..."
<IcePickLobotomy> The wind stirs, black sand stirs at your feet, your hair catches in the wind.
<IcePickLobotomy> And. . . .
<IcePickLobotomy> You dream.
<IcePickLobotomy> You dream of Strange Vistas, and Starless Skies.
<IcePickLobotomy> And Red Eyes glowing in the dark. . . .