Work In Progress

The Hall of Origin had always been a quiet place. That didn't change. Though Arceus did stir in his deep slumber every now and then, no noise had ever woke him from it completely, not even the Azure Flute that had been crafted for that very purpose. But it was not a sound that roused him. It was just... a strange feeling, like he was being called somewhere. For the first time in millennia, the Alpha Pokémon opened his eyes. The feeling seemed to fade away, and he prepared to return to sleep, brushing it off as a strange dream.

Then the pulling started.

Arceus's eyes snapped open as his mind tried to assess which direction he was being pulled in, so that he could resist. The attack was not coming from a spatial dimension, or even through time, but from the vast uncharted void that contained a multitude of other worlds. It took him half a second to realize this, and by then it was already too late. He was elsewhere.

Snapped to full awareness by the rude awakening, he first checked his surroundings. Oddly, he seemed to have been brought not to another world, but to the void itself. What reason could there be for this? Then a withered tree branch floated in front of him. Even stranger. The void should contain nothing at all, or at least very little. He looked over to where it had been coming from, seeing quite a lot of plant matter floating away from a single point, all of it dead. Although that place...

He realized he could still feel the pulling, although it was very weak now. It was gently tugging him towards the epicentre of the apparent explosion. Well, that seemed to be the place to get some answers. He began gently flying in that direction.

edited 12th Jan '13 12:35:04 PM by Anura

In an urban city, an injured girl sat on the wall in the alleyway. She was hurt badly, her right arm cut from an attack. She took a Faberge egg-like gem, which was nearly pitch black. Cracks began to appear on the gem, making themselves more and more pronounced. The girl winced in pain, as if the egg was her very being twisted and contorted. That is... until a pink light appeared.

"Shhh... It's okay... I'm here..." Another girl said. The injured girl turned to see a girl dressed similarly to her. Her hair was pink, with two small tails on the end of her hair. Matching her hair were pink eyes, and a pink dress with lots of frills on the bottom of her skirt. She smiled as her hand touched the gem. In a matter of seconds, all the darkness within the gem faded out to a clear white. The injured girl smiled too, as the two faded away in a flash of pink light...

Though this was what she saw...

The pink-haired girl's version of what transpired was different.

In what could best be described as a rose garden, the same pink haired girl, now with longer hair, golden eyes, and a white dress flew around with semi-visible wings, dodging several vine attacks from a monster that looked like a walking rosebush merged with a butterfly. This was what the injured girl would have become had Madoka not came into being and made the wish that changed her entire universe. As soon as Madoka saw an opening, she aimed her wooden bow at the creature and let loose a flurry of pink energy arrows towards the Witch, rendering her into swiss cheese before blowing up into an explosion of butterflies. Madoka sighed as the world around her faded back into the void of space.

Another girl saved. Small things like that made her smile. She was about to check up on the girl, but soon, she felt like she was being pulled away. Soon, she warped to many different worlds before landing in the same spot as Arceus did. Even though it stopped, she still felt like being pulled away. She looked around, noticing the void around her. Then, she noticed Arceus. She tilted her head in confusion, but, in a second, she hovered to Arceus, squeeing. Even for a girl of infinite power and being the embodiment of hope, she was still a fourteen year old.

edited 12th Jan '13 1:01:43 PM by Psyga315

"Mmmnnn..."

Suwako's eyes slowly opened. That's weird, she was only going to nap for a little while... she'd already done so much in the day that she felt like she needed a nap. And she certainly wasn't floating when she nodded off... Suwako gently rolled over in the void. The small goddess blinked several times. This... this was weird. Why was there dead bits of plant matter floating all over? Where was Sanae and Kanako, or the shrine, or... anything, for that matter? What was with the big floating horse thing, and the girl with the big dress and pink hair? These were questions that demanded answers! Answers that Suwako wanted to get!

... And then she'd get some candy!

Suwako quickly righted herself in the void, or at least got into the position she assumed was upright. Being in a place that lacked up or down was disorienting... It was different from flying normally, since there was a clear up and down there. Hmm... this called for something a bit different then usual. Reaching to the top of her head, Suwako quickly took off her hat. It blinked, and she flipped it so the inside was facing upwards.

"Come on out, Mishaguji-san!" she called to the hat. There were a lot of mishaguji-san, and in this case she didn't care which one she got. As long as one answered her call...

And then the shape erupted from the hat. Long, thick, sinuous, and white... red eyed, the thing that emerged from Suwako's hat was an immense albino serpent. Mishaguji incarnated as snakes, in most cases. It came to rest, floating in the void, thin red tongue flickering out of its mouth.

Suwako drifted upwards and sat just behind it's head, before quickly pointing towards the epicenter of the plant explosion.

"Go, Mishaguji-san! Let's see what's going on!"

The snake hissed, and swam through the void towards their destination.

"Gr...roah...rargggg...."

As he regained consciousness, Yami, currently in his destruction form◊, found himself drifting through a dark, barren void.

As he felt a strange pull, the emperor of eternal darkness decided to follow it.
Maybe there were lifeforms to corrupt, lights to darken, hopes to shatter.

After he had followed this feeling for a while, he spotted some white being and a young girl floating next to each other.
Deciding he needed more information on his situation before corrupting anything, he approached them.

edited 12th Jan '13 1:45:27 PM by Savato

"You idiots.....why....create...."

Kefka Palazzo, former court mage of the tyrannical Emperor Ghestal, and now omnicidal god of all magic, lay wasting into nothingness from the toes upward. He'd fought his persistent enemies, heroes of the world he'd brought to ruin just a year ago, in the form of a wondrous and terrible angel. He'd come so close this time, so close to wiping them out entirely. All the magics of creation and destruction were at his disposal, right down to the very last spell. The host of his own heaven had struck down on their heads, bringing them to the brink of death.

Yet none of that enlightened them, none of them broke from their illusionary binds of camaraderie or friendship. Now, every inch of royal purple skin was now breaking away, his bones and sinew giving way like wet cotton, his six wings crumbling into ether. It was a brutally slow disintegration; it'd been half a minute in his own counting before the grace of nothingness overtook his eyes, a moment-long preview of the inevitable.

"If only he'd got to show them how wonderful it is. Why couldn't I share......" And with that mad thought, the tyrant-god of a far off world was gone towards his own precious oblivion , but not nearly into death.

"Whaaa? Oh dear."

Kefka was perfectly intact, mind, body, and soul, not for a lack of surprise on his own part. It was beautiful, the outlaying blackness, a spitting image ofhow he'd come to dream it. It was almost perfect. Just almost. His mind still strained itself to perceive; he was still here, existing, and there were others there with him. And then there was that ever so faint pull of magic, that anchor towards an intrusive explosion of light and creation. Everything was still soiled, no matter how small.

"Oh me, oh my, oh mine." And there was his looks. His skin was purple, as designed. His wings were still there, gently flapping against the current of mana that was trying to pull him towards center of this realm. He still had his clothes, if you could even called his robes that. But he was short, his size stunted to likes of the ants he'd tried so hard to teach a lesson.

"Less is more, I suppose" he broke out, a faint grin returning to his face. It'd simply been too long since he'd seen the funny side of things. Maybe this was a chance to regain perspective, if anything. It was still such a shame that his power and presence had been stunted this way. Turning his attention to the others that'd arrived in this void, he put his wings into action.

"I don't suppose any of you are responsible for this?" he called out in a sing-song voice. "Because I can still fly. Your jealous, aren't you!"

The screams.

Father hated hearing the screams.

They were the signs that the millions of souls inside his body were suffering. It's not that he felt bad for them, or that he didn't want them to suffer, it's just that constant screaming can be a really annoying distraction. Especially since he was trying to figure out what was going on and where he was. With a nod of his head, the screams stopped, and Father smirked to himself as he contemplated what he had done in the past few minutes. His plan had succeeded. He had become God. He had all the power in the universe in his hands. And he didn't get a chance to see his sacrifices getting sucked into the small sun he had just created in his hands.

A pity, really. Father had been wanting to get rid of Honenheim and his meddling companions for quite a while. And they did kill his children. Oh, that wasn't a problem anymore. With a snap of fingers and the right materials, Father could easily re-create all seven of them, and make them more powerful than there ever were. But... he first needed to figure out where the hell he was.

Following the pull, Father eventually spotted other creatures floating in the endless void. He approached them with a solemn expression, his arms crossed in front of his bare chest as he glared at them, especially the rather majestic purple creature. "That is something I would like to know too." He said, his voice a bit deeper for someone who looked so young. "Although I wouldn't be surprised if we were all brought here against our wishes."

The three dwarves worked tirelessly in the dark, the ting ting ting of steel pickaxes against rock echoed throughout the tunnel. As they break through the rock, they reveal a silvery teal metal. The fabled Adamantine of legends! Said to be the most powerful of metals that makes the strongest of weapons and armor, Adamantine would make for a fine ore to bring back to the fortress. An irresistible urge to move forward pushed the dwarves, and they started to dig into the vein of Adamantine. They cut into the vein quickly, but suddenly they broke into a strange tunnel. An eerie feeling came from the place. The dwarves cautiously continued their work cutting out the Adamantine, but as they got down into the area they saw strange demonic circles on the ground. Before the dwarves could back off, a blood curdling screech filled the cavern as demons started to materialize on the demon circles. The clowns quickly cut down the three legendary miners and started to work their way up through the tunnels to the unsuspecting fortress of dwarves at the other end..

Armok laughed as he watched his people get decimated by the onslaught of demons from the depths. He'd forgotten to tell the dwarves to ignore the Adamantine while mining and the expected happened when it did. The stuff was a product of hellish fires and was always a dangerous thing to cut into. It would be best if the dwarves had a team of Adamantine equipped soldiers to fight off the demons from below, but cutting into Adamantine brings out demons and the dwarves don't realize that without Armok's guidance. As Armok decided what to do next with this world, something suddenly grabbed his attention. More than that, it started to pull him away.

He considered the pulling, resisting its pull. It was trying to draw him away from his domain and the worlds he's created. It was normally difficult for Armok to push himself in that direction and even when he did he had no power beyond his own domain. But what was pulling him, wanted to take more than just a powerless divinity. Armok stopped resisting the pull, and allowed his self to be drawn out into the unknown. Armok was uncertain how exactly he got here even though he'd observed the process. But he was now here outside his domain and others were here as well. They seemed to be divinities. Armok's formless being began to colasce, and a giant letter A made of bright red blood formed.

"Ow.... My head...." Palutena groaned as she came to and opened her eyes. She looked around at her surrounding and found herself in a black void, with something pulling her to the center. Whatever was pulling her, and more importantly, how did she end up here, she had no clue. One minute she was overlooking Pit from her palace, the next she pops up in this strange void of nothingness.

She blinks at the surrounding space and propped herself up using her staff. "....Hello? Anybody here?" she exclaimed.

Within an obscure corner of the realms of Oblivion lurked the Prince of Knowledge, omnipresent within It's shadowy domain. Vast tentacled forms stirred beneath the toxic oceans of Apocrypha, ready to snare any foolish enough to stray too close to the edge. Above the deadly waters was the great library, an endless realm of black-bound books sporting no titles. Shapes moved silently among the dark twisting pathways, both the Prince's foul servants and the spirits of those who had tried to seek the library's secrets.

All things considered, a fairly standard day at the office for Hermaeus Mora, insofar as "days" existed in this place...

The Daedra's eternal ruminations were interrupted by a strange sensation, a feeling that It was being pulled as though from a great distance. Quite unlike the infinitesimal summonings and invocations directed at It by mortal wizards, It was not familiar with this feeling. That alone made it worth inspecting. A place it seemed, that it had never observed... fresh knowledge would certainly be found in such a place. The Prince willingly followed the pull, eager to discover any knowledge It could.

In the void, an apparition of shadowy eyes and tentacles manifested itself, shifting and oscillating constantly◊.

edited 12th Jan '13 7:08:39 PM by Vox

"Well..." Speaking in a neutral tone and with a deadpanned face, a figure slowly revolved around the air in lazy pirouettes. What struck the scene as odd was the fact that the woman defying gravity was wrapped up with strong rope, and that her manner of dress looked to be either what clowns or people with no sense of fashion wore. The blonde character was even missing a shoe, one of her feet completely bare.

"That was an overreaction..." Muttering under her breath, the god regarded the scenery and the others with a lazy glance. "How far did Ichiko throw me... All I did was play a trick on her and stole some of her undergarments..." Heaving the characteristic sigh of someone who didn't think they were at fault, Momiji Binboda repositioned herself so she floated near the group like an astronaut reclining in zero gravity. "Who are you yahoos?"

"I could ask the same." Father replied, raising one eyebrow as Binboda approached them. His eyes, however, were focused on the others around him: the Daedra, Palutena and Kefka, for example. "Some of you are very... unique, unlike anything I have seen back in my home... I suppose introductions are necessary. They will help us identify something in common between us, and in that way, we'll find out why we are here. I shall begin," He said, taking a step forward, and pointing at himself. "I am Father..." He took a moment to think what else to say, and with a smirk, he continued. "The God of my world."

The huge serpent lazily twisted in the void as Suwako approached the assortment of people before her. If everything wasn't so confusing right now, she'd think it would be kind of fun! There were some weird things, like the big tentacle monster or the giant floating shape or the winged purple person, or the girl with a bandaged hand. She approached, looking curiously at the individuals surrounding her, until the blonde man asked about their identities. He was a god...?

Without hesitation, Suwako jumped to her feet, standing atop her massive mishaguji stead.

"I'm Moriya Suwako!" she cheerfully announced, "Um... if we're saying what we are, I'm a mountain goddess!"

Not wanting to get on the bad side of what appeared to be half a pantheon just yet, Yami answered:

"I am Yami, God of technology and the moon. I don't suppose, anyone of you has any idea on what is going on?"

He then turned towards the purple, winged human, the glowing lines on his body pulsating as he tried to resist the urge to hammer it into oblivion.

"No...I am not responsible for this and no, I am not jealous. I can float after all..."

"Good to know," Kefka said, grinning wickedly, "Now lets get these introductions on a roll,hmmmm?" He could feel the darkness pulsating within the dark god Yami, and appreciated it. Blotting things out with darkness had just never been his style though, better to obliterate it in a spectacular array of light.

"I.....am Kefka! Kefka Palazzo, resident god of Magic, Light, Destruction, and best of all Oblivion!" He swung his purple frame in a vertical, 360 degree arc. "Performing in the place of the magic gods of my world while they're.......disposeded........and ferrymen of my world to it's eventual nothingness."

Madoka was just about to glomp the Arceus when someone asked for her name.

"Oh! Uhm... My name is Madoka... And... well..." She then noticed how everyone was saying they were gods. "I... I think I might be a God... Though some people just refer to me as the embodiment of hope for all Magical Girls..." Madoka said.

eeeeeeeeee

Arceus turned towards the unfamiliar sound and saw what appeared to be a human girl rushing towards him. Despite this, he didn't sense any hostile intent in the act, and made no countermeasure. He noticed that some others had shown up very shortly after him; the girl did too, and turned to address them. Arceus responded in kind to the round of introductions.

"I am Arceus, the Alpha Pokémon, creator of my world." A voice echoed from his body with no hint of pride, or any emotion, just a simple statement of fact. His mouth apparently hadn't moved to let the words out.

STRONGJUMP!

With an earth-shaking thud, a pirate ship impacted the ground near the gathering, the stern on the ground, and on top of the bowsprit stood... well, an orc with bull's horns, his bulging muscles making him nearly as wide as he was tall. Wings like a monarch butterfly unfolded behind him with a release of glowing powder.

"Krezznorg is Krezznorg Moonfist, most physically powerful being on any plane! ...Also he is the god of strength, the moon, and hitting things with other things!"

The orc thought for a moment.

"Krezznorg would also like to know where he is."

edited 13th Jan '13 9:03:39 AM by Krautman

The Prince spoke in a deep and rich voice with a calm and soothing, almost grandfatherly quality to it.

I am Hermaeus Mora, Daedra of fate, memory, and knowledge. However, what has happened here falls outside my considerable purview.

Armok observed as the other divinities introduced themselves. It would seem that whatever this force wanted with Armok, it wanted others with him. To what end, Armok did not yet see but so far things were interesting. Were they his equals from outside his own domain? A deep voice formed from the giant floating red A. "I am Armok, God of Blood." Armok has never dealt with other divinities outside his domain. All who entered his were brought under his control, or were born from his choice. He did not have that kind of control here, a new and intriguing situation he's never faced before. He turned to Mora, "The same applies to myself, something tried to bring me here and I chose to let it do so."

edited 13th Jan '13 9:30:49 AM by StephanReiken

"And I am Shinki, the wonderful goddess of Makai and mother of the demon race~ It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Had she been there all the time? Or had she just appeared whilst everyone was too preoccupied with introductions to notice? Smiling pleasantly at the group of deities was a silver haired woman clothed in a red dress, someone whose appearance didn't exactly give off the impression of "demon god" in the slightest.

edited 13th Jan '13 9:40:55 AM by Moerin

"Wow, some gods really do seem full of themselves." Binboda remarked as she slipped out of her bonds like a stage magician. Stretching herself to ease her poor body, the young god halfheartedly introduced herself while starting up a handheld game. "I am a God of Poverty and normal everyday high school student, Momiji Binboda. My job is to spread Misfortune in select places so as to preserve the equilibrium of the world. My hobby is cosplaying, and my favorite word is BDSM. My special skill is deadpan humor." It was pretty clear that the girl wasn't taking anything seriously at all.

"Well, one does not need to be a genius to figure out why are we all here." Father said, shrugging. "It seems we are all powerful gods from the universes we come from. And yes, I do say universes, because it's clear that we are all from different worlds, with different origins and different laws. Which brings us to the number one question..." He lowered his eyebrows, floating closer to the branch. "What creature possesses enough power to bring forth the ultimate deities of various universes? And most importantly... what does he want with us?"

"Maybe it just thinks we're pretty!" Keka said clapping his hand (and wings) together. "And wouldn't have any other gods snuff out the last bit of creation in their world." It was a fairly exotic collection this mystery deity had brought. The monstrous angel looked forward to the time where they might get to fight. He'd some experience, putting gods under his boot, but more experience is always a plus. But he wasn't completely foolish, not at the moment. He'd have to face a pantheon of some nastier looking gods, as well.

"I have to say, I'm more than honored if that's the case" he continued. His wings shot out towards their very ends, three on each side of him. "I'm fairly new to this god business, you see, and it's great that someone appreciates my work. Other people just throw themselves off cliffs to end their suffering, but what can one do? If everyone had taste, then no-one would!"

"Did you hear that, Mishaguji-san? She's a God of Misfortune, kind of like you! Well, you're a curse god, so that's a bit different..."

The mishaguji hissed in response to Suwako. At the moment, Suwako was... still confused, but things seemed somewhat fun here. And... that Shinki seemed familiar, somehow. Like she'd heard of her before... but Suwako wasn't really sure where she'd heard of her. The small goddess gently swayed as she thought about all these strange ans possibly very fun things, when something occurred to her.

"You know... she's a lot prettier then you are, Mishaguji-san," she added, looking back to her serpentine stead. The hissing response seemed somewhat less enthusiastic, if it was at all possible to discern such things. "Anyway, I do stuff with earth and danmaku and frogs and fun things!"

Suwako smiled cheerfully.

"... Speaking of which, there's not enough earth here... or water. Or frogs..."

The air around the gathering of gods, twisted, bubbled, stretched- and shattered into a thousand crystal fragments, each one rippling like a stream of broken glas as a figure- or figures coalesced into existence.

The being was difficult to make out. His slit-shaped eyes changed color, shifting from red to blue to yellow to green- yet even a cursory glance into them would reveal them as being wise, kind, the eyes of an old being who had seen much and travelled far in his lifetime. The rest of his body, though, was difficult to distinguish. He had scales and feathers, and a long leathery tail, but little else could be made out. Was it him that was constantly changing, shifitng essences into two, three, four, beings then suddenly merging into one? Or was it the rest of the world around him that warped and crackled and seethed with pent-up magical energy?

We have been diverted, it said, finally, looking from one individual to the next. Where am I?