You tug the thread, hoping to pull Dorota to your side. Instead, the cord goes taut, pulling you through the window like a fishing line. You expect a hard impact as your face slams into the glass, but instead you harmlessly pass through. You touch the void, its inky surface gently caving under the impact like a stack of pillows. The feeling is supremely comfortable, but you rise to your feet, determined to get to the bottom of this.

“Explain yourself.” You demand into the void, no echo resounding as the sound waves travel into the infinite abyss.

“Of course,” a figure emerges from the black muck, ebony slime forming a rough facsimile of hair and facial features upon her mannequin-like body. The thread extends from a weighty shackle around her neck, wrought from crimson steel and attached to a glowing red harness around her black and white body.

“What the hell are you plotting? Are you trying to take over my soul? I order you to answer honestly.”

She cocks her head in genuine confusion “Take over your soul? I would sooner cut off my own head.”

Your eyes widen, “..what?”

“Look at me. Look at this place. What do you see?”

You look around: the world truly is empty. Other than yourself and the window, the only notable feature is Dorota, a crude replica of a human.

“Nothing.”

She nods, black slime drooping off of her head as her neck moves. “Ever since I was born, this is what the world seemed like to me. No color, no differentiation between this or that. No point.”

“I thought your purpose was to cause suffering?”

“NononononoNO. That is just playing with toys. Imagine going through your entire life with no hunger. No thirst. No impetus whatsoever. Sitting alone in an endless void. With only the music of screams to keep you company.”

“So… what, you opened a window to see the colors?”

“You do not get it.” Black and white divinity seeps out of her body: you instantly recognize it as the look of her <Arts> but with all of the rainbow colors drained out.

“I was born without a heart. I was born as… this.” She gestures to herself. “Not human. Monster. Horrifying, is it not? But then-”

The ink drains off of the bottom half of her face, revealing a true mouth beneath, its lips twisted into a euphoric smile.

“I met you! You like to delude yourself into thinking that you are something other than human: like when you killed that deer girl!”

“How do you know about that?”

She ignores your question, continuing her raving, “But nonono! You are human. Quintessentially so! Spiteful! Ambitious! Hypocritical and lonely! With so, SO many colors!” Her mouth begins to water with the same black slime that quivers beneath your feet.

“What are you saying-”

She walks up to you, pulling you into an embrace. “You are my heart, Atë. Your will is mine. Ahh, how ecstatic it is to WANT.”

This is not what you were expecting.

>Pull away
>Leave the realm
>Ask questions

>>6070165
>"So, what is that window about?"

>>6070165
>Why me? Surely Eris is just as entertaining?

Hell, if she's genuine we might get a good soul tutor.

Also
>Is a fish broken because it cannot walk?
No and yes, humans are objectively superior. Fish aren't broken because they can't walk, they and all other species are broken because they aren't humans.

>>6070165
> Is this one of those identity theft sort of things? Bleed me dry until you're me and I'm you?

>>6070165
Ahhhh she's a god damn philosophical zombie. More physical law than a person. If a clear mind is strength of the soul then we be fucked, because you don't get any more clear minded than gravity.

>>6070174
>>6070190
>>6070191


"Is this one of those identity theft sort of things? Bleed me dry until you're me and I'm you?"

She shakes her head, holding you tighter. Her arms are warm, reflecting the heat of the sun seeping in from the window behind you.

"I want to be like your arms and legs. Your will, my execution."

"Why me? Surely Eris would have sufficed."

"No, no, you are far more interesting. Eris lacks your turmoil- she has yet to internalize that any one of the consequences that befell her are her fault. One of the things I wished to experience most is this:"

The form of the divinity behind her straightens into a thin disc, reflecting the bloody ocean of your own world.

"The second suffering: Remorse."

"..you developed a new art."

"Yes! You are my muse, Atë. I developed it for you. To feel- you."

"And that's what the window is for? To peek into my life and, what, observe my will?"

"While it is there, it is as if I have a soul of my own. Not... this."

You notice that the point of contact between the two of you has changed, metamorphizing from white, plastic like rigidity to the pliable softness of flesh and blood.

>Ask more questions
>Leave
>Wake up

>>6070198
>"That's why you don't mind hanging out in someones shadow all day, doing nothing?"

>"I want to see what happens if you pick a part of a soul and graft it onto another. But only those parts that the system has added to the soul, like the divinity pool or authorities. I want you to find some incarnations to contract, do some experiments, and report back."

>>6070198
Ahhhhhhhh

> Get some distance. Any distance.

> Where does this lead Dorota? Where does this end? With you woven into my body? Living in my soul?

>>6070198
Alright, we can do this
We just need to keep her cloistered and unaware of anyone more interesting than us
>Ask more questions
Pointers on how to fuck with souls
I want Kronos on a leash

>>6070198
>>6070205
+1

>>6070198
>>6070165
Yeah I rescind my opinion from last thread. NOW Dorota is no longer entirely boring to me.

>>6070201
>>6070205
>>6070261
>>6070434
>>6070510

"So, how do I do what you did? You know, interfere with other people's souls."

"Not sure! The <System> does not allow for any substantial or potentially personality-altering changes to the soulscape: I have run some experiments on some of the people I swallowed."

"What about with non-incarnations?"

"Huh, I have not attempted that. I will give it a try, if you so desire."

"One last question- where does this end for you? What do you want?"

She smiles, "Whatever you want."

You know she's being both genuine and literal.

You clutch your forehead on instinct as your brain begins to throb with the telltale pain of a migraine. Your knees buckle slightly as the accumulated fatigue begins to finally hit you as the adrenaline of the feelings of danger and anxiety finally runs dry.

"You have been in the soulscape for a long time. Longer than you think."

"What? long have I been under?"

"Almost twenty four consecutive hours. You need rest."

You nod, deciding to return to the world of the living, falling into a deep slumber for an inordinate amount of time.

Days remaining: 5

>Train an art
>Return to the soulscape
>Hang out with someone (specify)
>Develop a fighting style
>Write-in

>>6070631
>Hang out with someone (specify)
Ciotti
See what he remembers, if anything

>>6070631
>>6070632
+1
shouldn't take too long

>>6070632
+1

>>6070632
>>6070633
>>6070639

You enter Ciotti's room, finding him punching a sandbag, bandages wrapped around his knuckles as he wails on it. He turns, sweat glistening on his forehead as he loosens himself up and turns to meet you.

"Wassup Boss?" He asks, unwrapping his hands as he waits for your reply.

"I had a task for you. Do you remember?"

"What? Oh, OH right! You were messin' around in my consciousness again, right?"

"You remember."

"Well, kinda. It's like a dream- bit hazy, kinda spotty, but you keep the gist. Kinda like.."

He cuts himself off, frowning slightly.

"Elaborate." You demand.

"It's kinda like dementia."

You give a solemn nod: it seems like Ciotti gained his 'enlightenment' through standing on the precipice of oblivion.

>Ask more questions
>Assign tasks
>Leave and do something else (specify)
>Write-in

>>6070640
>"Welp, you're the expert."
>"If in that 'dream', I hadn't asked you specifically to try and remember and retell it, would you have assumed it was just a dream?"

>Hang out with someone (Brigitta)
>Don't mention the escapade in her soul, but ask her on the song we sent her the other day

>>6070646
+1

>>6070640
>>6070646
+2

>>6070640
>Leave and do something else (specify)
Check on our other mafia goons
Can't they set up something like what Kronos has going on with his influence farms? Not as big obviously.

>>6070668
I'd like to do that next, after we're already in europe talking to Brigitta
I got some nasty ideas for new businesses too

>>6070646
>>6070650
>>6070656
>>6070668

"If in that 'dream', I hadn't asked you specifically to try and remember and retell it, would you have assumed it was just a dream?"

"Probably not- it's hazy, but ever since you barged in, I'm sorta conscious of it."

You shrug, waltzing over to your door and closing your eyes. Perdix claimed that a higher level was needed to link realms, but you feel like you can request a connection by using it in tandem with <Yours Truly>. You focus, envisioning the threads and the world of her soul and, eventually, you succeed, knocking on her door.

She answers, her eyes widening with confusion as she sees you on the other side.

"..Boss? What brings you here?"

>Talk business
>Ask about your song
>Hang out (Optional write-in: specify activity)
>Write-in

>>6070741
>Tell her we knew we could link Divine Realms, and we're curious to see if we can exit in Europe on her side
>>Ask about your song

I forgot we told Pheme we would talk to her "tomorrow", and now a day has already passed

>>6070742
+1

>>6070741
>Talk business
>Hang out (Optional write-in: specify activity)
Too much mario kart
This time we play mario party

>>6070742
>>6070743
>>6070752

"Well, a couple things. First, I recently found out about linking divine realms, and I wanted to check if I could use it as a method of traveling long distances."

"I mean, I'm posted in LA, so it's not a super long trip."

"Yeah, I know, but consider the utility! If I have multiple contracteds with realms all over the world, I can essentially teleport to anywhere I have someone posted."

"Fair enough."

"Oh, right, I wanted to ask what you thought of the song I sent you."

"Yeah... that. It was pretty heavy."

"I'm mostly just checking in becoming it might be a little, yknow, mind destabilizing. You feeling ok?"

"Yeah. It was- it was beautiful but holy shit." She laughs awkwardly, clumsily brushing a tear from her eye, streaking her mascara slightly. "Fuck dude. I can't listen to that shit again."

"That's fair. Mario party?"

"Sure."

Her realm is surprisingly simple: a quaint European cottage in a garden of flowers. More surprisingly, it seems like the flowers are real, carefully maintained by a delicate hand.

You pull her through your door- she looks around, nodding to herself as she surveys your choice in interior decor.

"What do you think?"

"Not bad. More tasteful than I was expecting, but exactly as lavish."

"I have no idea why you decided to live in a hut."

She just shakes her head.

You bring her to the living room, calling over Dorota and Iwana to avoid playing with the CPU.

>Mario Party is a game of luck. Please give me 3 rolls of 3d6 (calculated as <Reckless>)

Rolled 3, 2, 5 = 10 (3d6)

>>6070798

Rolled 1, 3, 2 = 6 (3d6)

>>6070798

Rolled 2, 3, 3 = 8 (3d6)

>>6070798
>Luck
Maybe partly, but I slughtered at those minigames

>>6070806
>>6070885
>>6070899

You would not mourn if you never played Mario Party again.

You probably landed on more red spaces than blue, missing out on two stars, and having the only one you managed to pick up nabbed by Iwana's piranha plant. You got dreadfully bad minigame luck, whereas Iwana was the one player in ARCHERIVAL AND PIRANHA PURSUIT. You had to resist the temptation to order her to lose.

Anyway, you got last place and hate life. Brigita is really close to level 10 but is about 5k away. You experiment using her for fast travel, finding that you can indeed exit on her end.

What do you do now?

>Meet with someone else (specify)
>Train an <Art>
>Develop a fighting style
>Write-in

>>6071212
>>6070668
this

I also want to have a little fun again and go after our primary directive
There's business to be made ruining some corporate execs and shorting their stock
And just for giggles, maybe have the mafia find some sleazy lustful pricks who want to star in porn. Buy their souls for promising that they get to fuck a lot of members of the opposite sex on camera, and then Judgement of Tiresias them
also gives the mafia revenue

>>6071212

> War Council regarding Hercules and ADAM
We got a little distracted with soul stuff and Dorota being incredibly creepy (seriously that girl is going to ask us to vore her at some point) but we need to sit down with everyone with strategic and tactical sense on our team and discuss what, if anything we're going to do about Herc.

>>6071212
>>6071218
Backing
Plus we should start making contracts with incarnations worldwide to set up a fast travel network now that we know it's possible
Definitely don't skip the next auction

Sex with Ate

>>6071308
I doubt it'd be possible given her backstory and severe lack of any desire for that

>>6071308
>>6071312

Regarding this topic, despite her poor history regarding the matter, Atë has been avoiding the notion of any entanglements, romantic or otherwise, but that doesn't necessarily mean she lacks interest entirely. As Pheme points out, she's obsessed with the incarnation game to the point where everything else is set aside, but set aside doesn't necessarily mean non-existent. The players are yet to rule on it so everything regarding her orientation is completely ambiguous as of now

>>6071218
>>6071264
>>6071270

You smirk, deciding that it's been a too long since you've spoken to your friends in the Czech mafia. You pull some divinity from the Auravore, dropping in on Slavíček to have a little chat. You land atop a conference table, at which also sits Povondra, backed by Sybaris and the Manticore, and a few older gentlemen in suits. You use one of your brains to copy the language centers of Povondra's brain, using it to comprehend the language.

"Boss!" Slavíček slams his head into the table in a rapid bow, with Povondra also lowering his head, though not to the same extent, with respect.

"Who is this woman?" One of the suits asks, clearly perturbed by the interruption.

"This is the true puppetmaster behind our organization: and the single most powerful incarnation criminal in the world."

The blood immediately drains from their faces.

"I-I apologize for the disrespect!"

"These are foreign ministers from Belarus. Disputed territory between the Commander and the Russians." Slavíček explains, "They're bringing us in to control the rampant incarnation chaos without having to capitulate their power to a foreign government."

"In exchange for uncontested criminal activity within the nation?"

"Precisely. ADAM has refused to take their calls until or unless they cease their association with both and fully enter the nonaligned movement."

"Aaah. Interesting. Things must be quite bad for them to resort to this."

"Though the governments holds nominal power, a group of warlords has taken significant swathes of territory near the eastern border without contention. The government's incarnations are too weak to contest."

"And you guys aren't?"

Slavíček smiles sheepishly, "We might be able to, but honestly we were gonna ask for support from your side if the terms were good enough."

>"Sure, I'm in"
>"Maybe in about a week? I have an appointment"
>"I'll need additional compensation on top of these terms."
>"I'll need to meet with the prime minister."
>Use an authority or miracle (specify)
>Write-in

>>6071318
>Assess Hamartia around
>"What's Belarus' stance on Russia and the guy who replaced Putin?"
>"At what level are the governments incarnations approximately? Or what's your heaviest hitter?"

>>6071318

>"Sure, I'm in"
Get me the details boys and let's raise some hell. Is my pride wounded after running into ADAM? Maybe a little.

>>6071332
First this
>>6071340
Then this

>>6071318
>"In exchange for uncontested criminal activity within the nation?"
Does that sound like a perfect influence farm location to anyone else?

>"Sure, I'm in"
Stomping some weak incarnations will give us authority levels, could help vs Herc

>>6071332
>>6071340
>>6071344
>>6071345

You scan the room with <Assess Hamartia>, finding that none of the ambassadors are incarnations, nor do they have particularly noteworthy traits. Greed, lust, ambition, cowardice: all par for the course.

"What's your relationship with Russia? Particularly the man who replaced Putin?"

"We've been trying to maintain an amicable relationship while not capitulating fully. We have the same situation with the Austrians."

"And incarnation power?"

"...none above 6."

<Assess Hamartia> confirms their words to be true.

"You know what? Sure. Lead the way. Of course, I and my organization will need to be able to work out of your country. As agreed."

They look at each other, nodding reluctantly and, as your authority confirms, mourning the loss of autonomy to a force that is likely not much better than the Russians or Austrians.

Regardless, you are their only option.

They tell you everything they know, which isn't a lot: the gang is made up of criminals who mostly escaped into neutral territory from the domains of Belarus's two big power neighbors. The two powers are allowing them to run rampant in a ploy to essentially collapse the situation, forcing Belarus to dissolve its neutrality and pick one of the two sides, each dangling safety and a number of other perks as a reward for capitulation.

The leader of the group is a <Monster>, a massive serpent that seems to be nigh immune to mortal weaponry: it must have some effect similar to <To Mortals, A Scourge>. He also effortlessly eliminated their most powerful incarnation at the time, a seventh level <Oread> with an emphasis on combat skills.

They give you the location of their headquarters, the capital building of Mahilyow, the center of their new pseudo-state

>Go alone
>Bring allies (Specify)
>Write-in

>>6071353
>>Bring allies (Specify)
>Dorota and Iwana

>>6071353
>Particularly the man who replaced Putin?"
We really need to start calling New Putin Nutin

>Go alone
The gigachad what could possibly go wrong move

>>6071353
>Bring allies (Specify)
>Dorota and Iwana

Stalker in our shadow and Iwana waiting nearby. Go with our usual infiltration tactics and see what the local defenses against mind games are.

>>6071355
>>6071360
>>6071376

You take off towards the region specified, flying through the air under the cover of stealth. The site of the conflict becomes obvious: wrecked buildings, ghost towns, and obvious signs of battle can be seen on the outskirts. As you approach the interior, however, you notice something surprising: the people seem relatively content and unafraid, going about life in a seemingly normal manner.

You pull Iwana out from the realm and allow Dorota to stay hidden in your shadow as you inspect the town, a smaller rural area on the outskirts of the new territory's heart. You walk up to a random person and, after conversing for a while, something becomes obvious:

Their common sense has been overwritten.

That being said, despite what seems like multiple layers of accumulated divinity, the effect is pretty subtle, and you estimate the effective level of whatever ability was used for this mind control can be no higher than 8.

You smirk- this is the work of a rank amateur.

As you look around, it seems like everyone present has a similar issue- divinity caked onto their souls, altering their mindset to think that the new "Nation" of Marozia has always existed.

>Find the source of the mind control
>Override the brainwashing with your own
>Leave for now and head straight for the target
>Write-in

>>6071394

Widespread brainwashing and criminal tendencies...a sister?

>Find the source of the mind control
Power behind the power maybe

>>6071413
+1

>>6071394
>Override the brainwashing with your own
Do it with a level 5 whispers though, and be sloppy and blatant about it
All brute force, no finesse

File: pathetic.jpg (67 KB, 1280x720)

67 KB JPG

>>6071394
>Find the source of the mind control
These worms are not even worth our time or divinity, just walk right on through under GT, joke with Iwana and Doroto on how pathetic it is that this calls itself a nation, but that the Leader is likely not without promise.

>>6071413
>>6071416
>>6071437
>>6071664

>Find the source of the mind control

You put the <Lenses> on, looking carefully at the affected parties and focusing on the light blue divinity woven through the town. You follow the trail, eventually finding.. a grocery store?

You enter and, as you observe the food inside, you realize the trick: small particles of divinity coat the food, invisible to the mortal eye but clear as day to you. It seems like they've been tainting the food.

You close your eyes, holding your hand over the produce and focusing on the frequency- the 'color' of the soul.

Souls do not occupy physical space, they merely interface. This is why divinity may exist separate from the person- distant in space, yet still a part of a single, contiguous soul. You smile- it's tenuous, but you have a grasp on the thread.

>Enter the soulscape
>Try to inject an authority or miracle (specify)
>Follow to a physical interface (Head to Mahilyow)
>Write-in

>>6071675
>Find a place to stay for a little while and overwrite the owners mind-control
>Give Iwana GT
>Enter the soulscape
>Make Arts that turn our Whispers, or better yet, Thelematoxin, into an edible

>>6071675
>Enter the soulscape

>>6071734
>>6071862

>Enter the soulscape

“Pallas.” You order, closing your eyes and picking up an apple with a determined gaze, “Copy <Guerilla Tactics>.”

She nods. Dorota having already replicated it as well. The effective level of the stealth authorities present reaches a substantial number.

You focus in on the apple, resonating with the soul of the holder. <Omen> warns you of the danger, but you’ve already resolved yourself to accept that risk. Activating <Yours Truly>, you begin to feel yourself slip into the sensations of the soulscape.

You find yourself beneath a cerulean sky, just a little too bright and too saturated to be real. You look around: you find yourself on an island inhabited by people- you recognize one of them as one of the townspeople you spoke to. The world is idyllic, filled with bright, beautiful trees and flowers, scenic ocean views, and the happy smiles of people playing in the sand or lazing about on the cool emerald grass.

Immediately, however, it becomes obvious that something is amiss- on the ground beneath you is a subtle pattern of intricate blue lines weaved across the landscape, snaking through the world of the soul and ensnaring the happy islanders. Spider webs, you guess, based on the shape. You levitate off of the ground to avoid touching them.

At the center of the island lies an impossibly large tree, aquamarine leaves crowning a massive trunk of sapphire crystal. Particles of jewel dust rain down on the island, blowing through its entirety on the back of a gentle breeze.

You activate <Divine Armor>, blocking the particles from touching you.

>Head for the tree
>Cause mayhem
>Leave for now
>Write-in

>>6071902
>>Head for the tree

>>6071902
>Head for the tree
Wonder how long they've had all this set up

>>6071902
>Cause mayhem
Get back in touch with our roots. Eh? Eh? Roots? It's a tree?

>>6071902
>Head for the tree

>>6071905
>>6071931
>>6071953
>>6071957

You soar towards the tree, enjoying the crisp ocean air against your skin as you fly to the heart of the island. You are once again impressed by the size of the crystaline plant, comparable in stature to the Obelisk in Brigita's world. You get another sense: this tree is as your sea, or Dorota's void, or the darkness flooding Pheme's cave. This is that incarnation's <Self>- however, unlike you who chose to dominate the system's additions to your soul, this incarnation allowed themselves to meld with it, forming one entity who was neither human nor <Myth>.

You hover before the trunk, appreciating the deep blue light refracting from within and emanating from the gemstone bark. The tree quivers, and a young man's face emerges from its surface. The azure visage is cherubic, almost childlike with round, puppy dog eyes and an almost circular facial structure.

"Do you enjoy the island?" he asks in a voice like jingling bells.

"It certainly is nice," You honestly reply.

"I'm happy you're here." It says, "Please, please stay."

You frown slightly- a hint of pleading, of desperation can be heard in the tone.

>Speak to the man
>Fell the tree
>Use an <Art> (specify)
>Write-in

>>6072003
>>Speak to the man
>"You're altering people's minds by lacing the food? That's a neat trick. I'm a fan."

>>6072003
>Use an <Art> (specify)
Fetters
Let's see what happens

>>6072030
>>6072048
+1 both

>>6072030
>>6072048
>>6072069

“Honestly, I admire the concept.” You say, leaning back casually in midair as you flippantly wave your arm, “Lacing the food to brainwash the population? Pretty clever.”

“No… BRAINWASH.” The face in the tree scowls, “They are happy. They will not leave.”

Your eyes widen slightly, and you lean forward to more directly meet the eyes of the man in front of you, “You genuinely don't understand that what you're doing is wrong?”

“Nothing bad. They are my friends. I am their friend. They will stay with me.”

“Nothing bad, eh?” You extend your arms forward, “Then you can't begrudge what I’m about to do next.”

Crimson fetters erupt from your fingertips, wrapping around the tree and the neck of the half-emerged man. He writhes, his soul instinctively resisting your grip as you inject divinity into his body. Flowers rain down from the canopy of the massive dendriform crystal, jagged glass lotuses thrusting towards you like arrows.

You smirk- the star of death has descended upon this hapless soul.

Your <Figure> erupts from beneath your skin, writhing multi-jointed limbs and tendrils of muscle and sinew burst from beneath your skin, bearing claws and teeth and chains, dashing the brittle crystal projectiles into dust. Red smoke seeps from your blood vessels, pooling in the sky and letting a torrential rain down onto the defenseless islanders below.

Your mouths contort into a mosaic of grins as you begin to slip a chain around the <Heart> of the soul, forcibly replicating the aftermath of a <Bargain>. However, just before you establish a link, a bolt of golden light erupts from nowhere, shattering your fetters to pieces.

A familiar glowing panel appears before your face:

>Please do not interfere with the souls of fellow incarnations through unauthorized channels
>Should you wish to possess a soul, you must do so through methods approved by the system
>Failure to comply will result in immediate punishment, up to and including a complete loss of all privileges, powers, and protections bestowed by the system

You look down. Golden flames burn away the sea of crimson water that flooded the world below, delicately restoring the soulscape back to the way it was before you began your assault.

The tree trembles in terror, seemingly lacking the understanding or knowledge necessary to comprehend the situation.

What do you do next?

>Retreat for now
>Offer the tree a bargain
>Write-in

>>6072105
Wow, the system giveth and the system taketh away huh
I guess it wouldn't complain if we did that to a mortal though?

>Offer the tree a bargain
We don't kill him and take over his spot and he lets us siphon half of the influence and divinity he gets.

>>6072105
Interesting. Good to see the system is at least the sort to warn us before smiting us.

>>6072111
Yeah, let's try this tact. Help us subvert this nation under our leash and you can keep your friends, but the power and influence flows to us.

Hell, keep your friends, but they all have to devote an hour of worship to our idol Livestream each night. A country of worshippers sounds nice.

>>6072105
I assume this will happen sooner or later
The inevitability of the system no longer being in place, but we can't swing that yet.

>Offer the tree a bargain
I still want to learn how to make food put people under mind control, and we probably want to combine that with Lethe's power to make water sources cause his baptism of amnesia.

>>6072111
>>6072269
>>6072387

The tree before you quivers, not from wind, but from within: the telltale signs of abject terror. You give a friendly smile, coughing into your hand and assuming a businesslike tone.

"I have an offer for you, tree."

"YOU TRY TO KILL ME. YOU TRY TO DESTROY ISLAND."

"Look, that really wasn't personal. See, check for yourself- everything is fine! Your friends are just as happy as they were a second ago."

"YOU ARE NOT HUMAN"

"You are literally a tree."

It pauses for a second, seeming stumped by your refutation.

"YOU ARE EVIL"

"No more than you," you say, smirking.

"I AM NOT EVIL"

"Then I'm right there with you."

It pauses again in contemplation.

"Offer?"

"Right- I have no intention of disrupting your little setup here- I was being honest in saying that I respected it."

"Offer?"

"Currently, my plans would essentially necessitate your destruction- you have chosen, though unknowingly, to place yourself in my way. I, of course, have no desire to see that come to pass."

"You THREATEN ISLAND?"

"It isn't a threat: it's simply a matter of fact. You can't even oppose me in your own soul- how do you think this fight would go in the real world."

The face scows, "Offer?" It asks again in an impatient tone.

"I'll let you continue your operation- but under me. You can keep your friends, even gain more- as many more as you like so long as you don't disrupt my business."

"In exchange?"

"You will siphon, let's say half of the influence you net by doing this. And, if you can swing it, make it <Common Sense> to offer prayers to a source of my choosing. Ah, and, this is not a mutual contract- though I promise not to interfere with your operations or incarnation status unless they become detrimental to my plans, I will technically come to possess your soul."

"And if I do this, you will not... do that again?"

"I will hurt you if an only if you interfere with me or my plans."

"..."

"Or, I could pop back into the real world and turn you into some very expensive sawdust."

"DEAL."

You shake a hand outstretched from the trunk. Chains coil around the trunk of the tree.

>Congeatulations!...

You smile- it is possible to deal directly with a soul after all.

>Leave the soulscape and head for the city
>Train (attempt to create an <Art>)
>Write-in

>>6073191

Typo. Long day. Sorry.

>You will siphon, let's say half of the influence you net by doing this over to me.

>>6073191
>>Leave the soulscape and head for the city

>>6073191
>Leave the soul scape and head for the city
I feel like train is being offered because we’re on the brink of an epiphany after that experience, but I can’t figure out what it is :(

Our own version of Faustian bargain perhaps? We should try directly chaining a mortals soul first though for maximum starting insight

>>6073191
>Train (attempt to create an <Art>)
Study how we can embed our divinity into objects like food and tools

>>6073378
+1
focus on the mission

>>6073378
+1

>>6073220
>>6073378
>>6073395
>>6073435
>>6073527

>Leave the soulscape and head for the city

You open your eyes, finding the apple in your hand crushed to a saccharine pulp. Iwana seems amused, chuckling slightly as homemade applesauce drips onto the floor, while Dorota, presumably capable of seeing your activities to some extent, looks upon you with amazement. You rise, flicking the fruit pulp off of your hand and using Iwana's shirt as a towel, much to her chagrin.

"We're going to the city now. Need a ride?"

Dorota slips into your shadow, but Iwana surprisingly shakes her head.

"I'm good- I wanted to practice flight with my new <Art>"

You shrug, taking off into the air with your cloak as Pallas follows, flame trailing from beneath her feet.

You hover above the city after arrival, and everything seems normal. However, you detect something unusual:

A large <Natural> soul resides in this city- a non-incarnation with power rivalling one, an upper level one at that. At first, you assume the signature belongs to a follower of the Uncrowned King, but no trace of his colors can be seen.

Your eyes narrow: is that the true power behind this new nation?"

>Use your authorities and miracles to incite chaos
>Fly to the soul and stage a sneak attack
>Stay hidden and gather intel
>Write-in

>>6073544
>>Stay hidden and gather intel

>>6073544
>A large <Natural> soul resides in this city- a non-incarnation with power rivalling one, an upper level one at that. At first, you assume the signature belongs to a follower of the Uncrowned King, but no trace of his colors can be seen.
What the fuck
Third faction?

>Stay hidden and gather intel

>>6073544
>Stay hidden and gather intel

Well well well. There's nothing saying common mortals can't discover Arts after all, though it would take a rare mind to be sure.

>>6073544
>Stay hidden and gather intel

>>6073591
It's not just knowing Arts, it's the size of their soul. Just like how the system has been growing ours by pasting on recycled bits and chunks gathered from victims, somehow they grew theirs.

>>6073660
There is that meditate skill the shop offers...we might want to pick it up and see about expanding our core soul/divinity pool, and sorting out our personal soul turbulence.

>>6073553
>>6073581
>>6073591
>>6073610

>Stay hidden and gather intel

Keeping your stealth abilities at maximum output, you hover down to the soul you detected, finding yourself posted over city hall. You find an open window, slipping through it and making your way to the mayor's office.

You find the person you're looking for- a man, average in height and build, but dressed in what looks like some sort of ceremonial fur outfit, clearly sewn from various pelts of animals native to the region. He sits cross-legged on the desk, his eyes closed and a mop of blonde, almost white hair messily draped over his face and shoulders. He has a beard, wild and unkempt, and what seem to be ritual tattoos on the parts of his body not obscured by his garb.

Your first thought is that he's some sort of cosplayer, but given the size of his soul, he's probably got some sort of genuine tie to whatever he's dressed up as.

You decide to check if he's meditating with or without purpose, observing the latent divinity in the world: as expected, he seems to be absorbing the energy from the leyline beneath, reinforcing his soul little by little, layer by layer, almost like making a candle.

As you continue to observe, you see his eyelids quiver- he doesn't seem to notice you specifically, but he probably senses that something is off.

>Use an authority or miracle (specify)
>Introduce yourself
>Attack
>Leave
>Write-in

>>6074393
>>Introduce yourself

>>6074393
>Try to reinforce your own soul in the same way

>>6074393
>Introduce yourself

>>6074397
>>6074480
>>6074597

>Introduce yourself

You appear seemingly out of thin air, clapping your hands to get the mysterious man's attention.

"Hi! I had a couple questions for you if that's alright."

The man's eyes widen as he leaps to his feet, drawing a shiny steel dagger with a stag antler hilt from a deerskin pouch on his waist in a single fluid motion. "Who the hell are you?" He speaks, but without opening his mouth- or making any sound for that matter. You cock your head in fascination- is he communicating directly with your soul?

"I noticed you- such a big soul, without the touch of the system or the <King>•

His eyes widen, "You can discern the King's mark? I thought your kind was incapable of that."

You smile, allowing your fetters to play at your fingertips, causing his mouth to go slack in amazement, "I'm a bit of an exception: I know lots of things," you say with a smirk.

"What! You- how can you- no, this must be some sort of trick from your false god

"No trick, and no system- these chains are all me."

"..Impossible! How do you know our ways!"

"Oh please, do you think that whatever tribe you come from was the only one to figure out souls?"

"Impossible."

"Obviously it isn't."

He scowls: "Who are you and what do you want?"

>"Actually, I've come to ask you the same thing"
>"I've come to offer you a deal" (specify)
>"I wanted to ask about your people- and how they learned <Arts>"
>Write-in

>>6074639
>"Actually, I've come to ask you the same thing"

>>6074639
>"I wanted to ask about your people- and how they learned <Arts>

>>6074639
>"I wanted to ask about your people- and how they learned <Arts>"
Are they the ones who have held the King at bay all this time until the system appeared? Could have a ton of useful information.

>>6074639
>"The king is an enemy to us all, and I don't trust the system."
>>"I wanted to ask about your people- and how they learned <Arts>"

>>6074645
>>6074649
>>6074687
>>6074925

">"I wanted to ask about your people- and how they learned <Arts>"

"They've been with my people since time began. The Spirit of Winter taught the our ancestors long ago, and thus the tradition has been carried from generations."

You scratch your chin- "The Winter Spirit" is a force you haven't heard of before. It's entirely possible that they aren't real- or that they were a human that was remembered as a deity thanks to time and reverence. Still, the <Uncrowned King> is certainly real. Who knows what else might be?

"So you're aware of the Uncrowned King. Is your tribe dedicated to stopping them or something?"

He shakes his head, "We are no friends of the King- and indeed, we interfere with the plans of his Court whenever possible, but we weren't devoted to it in particular."

"So, wait, if you've been existing for thousands of years with these powers, why only try to take over now?"

His eyes narrow: "Revenge."

"Ahhh. Against whom?"

"The Russians. They came upon our village with fire and steel. They apparently thought that we were Penitent- after all, so very few of you <Tainted> can tell the difference."

It seems like the King isn't the only one who describes incarnations in such terms. He continues:

"I wasn't at the village at the time- I was at a delegation with another to propose actions against the King's court. I was a fool- I should have stayed behind to protect them.. I knew they were safe from the King for that time, but I should have anticipated-"

He chokes slightly, his face wrought with pain.

"So, what, you're the strongest? The chieftan?"

"Shaman." He corrects, slumping down slightly, "I was the Shaman."

>Offer to help him in his revenge (genuinely)
>Offer to help in his revenge (duplicitously)
>Use an authority or miracle (specify)
>Challenge him to a duel
>Offer to exchange information about <Arts>
>Write-in

>>6075447
>Offer to help him in his revenge (genuinely)
An enemy of the King is a "friend" of ours

>>6075447
>Offer to help him in his revenge (genuinely)

Help destroying the Russians, learning more about Arts, aid against the Uncrowned King? Seems like an opportunity.

>>6075447
>>Offer to help him in his revenge (genuinely)
eh why not
>Challenge him to a duel
can prove our worth so to speak, and get extra fighting practice

>>6075447
>Offer to help in his revenge (duplicitously)
In exchange for getting access to all his Arts knowledge

I don't mind actually helping a little, but if Nutin starts taking serious offence we're pinning it all on this guy, hence the duplicitous option selection.

>>6075447
>>Offer to help him in his revenge (genuinely)
>in exchange for information about <Arts>
old fashioned handshake deal, no system

>>6075450
>>6075488
>>6075529
>>6075565
>>6075788

>Offer to help him in his revenge (genuinely)

“I’ll help you with your revenge.” You say, putting a hand on your hip and a professional smile on your lips, “But I have two terms.”

His eyes narrow, “Being?”

You hold up a finger- “First, I’m going to need you to stop this fake country stuff. I made a deal with the locals and they want you gone.”

He shakes his head, a somber, guilt ridden expression plastered across his face, “I can't do that. I.. need them.”

“What for?”

“..it's a secret.”

You sigh, “Look, the fact is that the person you're hunting is both a shapeshifter and the leader of one of the largest superpowers in the world, both in mortal and incarnation terms. You’re strong, I’ll admit that much, but right now you're talking to the world’s most powerful Rogue Incarnation: moreover, one who specializes in infiltration and reconnaissance. You need me. So spill.”

To emphasize your point, you decide to undo <Guerilla Tactics> allowing the terrifying magnitude of your soul to be shown in its full glory. His eyes widen in horror:

“You- just how many people have you killed to obtain all that power at such a young age?”

You shake your head, “Not how I did it- well, not directly. I got this by eating the king’s <Nodes>.”

“I-impossible! Those aren't simply power, they're poison! Just eating a part of them will cause your soul to be swamped by the King’s power, turning you into a mindless puppet!”

“The system protected me. I don't get the full harvest, but I can do it with no consequences.”

“Insanity.. If I- no, I musn’t! But, if it would save so many lives-” he pulls at his hair and grinds his teeth, some sort of mental agony obviously wracking him as he rambles incoherently about purity, tradition, and responsibility.

“What is your plan with this country?”

He laughs bitterly, “Since you have given me a useful hint, I shall reciprocate. Look around. Not with your eyes.”

You close your eyes, focusing on the divinity and leylines. You find the natural flow of the world to be twisted, disturbed even, forming a geometric pattern with this office at its center. You shiver- you can't quite comprehend the point of the formation, but you can't shake the feeling that something sinister is happening.

“What is this?” You ask, unable to fully mask the dread in your voice.

“An ancient ritual. An art most terrible and fully forbidden.”

Your jaw drops slightly as you realize what he's planning.

>>6075972

"You’re going to eat all of these people: men, women, children, you’re going to devour every single one of their souls. It requires permission but, ha, the brainwashing! Fuck, they don't even have to know they're agreeing to it! Damn, that's evil even for me.”

“As you said,” he replies, pain and guilt dripping from every word, “The power I wish to fight against is formidable. This is, no, was necessary. But..”

“But?”

“If I become like you, I can spare all of these lives and consume the king’s power instead! But, to do so-” his voice trails off, before he eventually gathers himself and continues, “I’d have to fully end my people's lineage. To become <Tainted>. To lose everything.”

You clench your hands into fists- on the one hand, he would undoubtedly make an incredible ally if he deified. On the other, doing so would mean that he would stop this ritual and never perform it again- meaning that you won't ever be able to learn it. What should you do?

>Encourage <Deification>
>Discourage <Deification>
>Allow him to decide on his own
>Write-in

>>6075973
>Discourage <Deification>
I like the idea of allies not in the system

>>6075973
>Discourage <Deification>
Funny how he was getting on our case about murder when he was doing this. Anyway we want that ritual. Tell him uuuuh we can eat the nodes already so it's better if he deals with things in his own way so we can fight the King from different angles rather than putting all our eggs in one basket. Sucks to be the people eaten, but they're better off than if the King wins, right?

>>6075973
>Allow him to decide on his own
Even if we would encourage deification, he'd likely not sell us his soul to do so. But if he doesn't sell us his soul, I don't think that he'd tell us either.

>>6075973
>Allow him to decide on his own

We have soul eater in storage, and Your's Truly, and I'd rather him be happy with his decision. I think we can work out soul eating on our own.

Waiting on a tiebreaker. Will resolve it randomly should one not be made

>>6076338
I can swap to allowing him to decide

Random musings, we have in storage:

> Body of Zagreus (1)
> Parts of your body which are removed are able to function as if they were still attached and can be reattached more easily for up to one hour, so long as they remain within a 10 foot radius of you

This is definitely a fun one. I can see us just shedding hand-spider mouths with eyes to scream at enemies, or assault them from multiple angles, or just swarm into a facility of penitent, mind fucking everyone they encounter. Maybe pair it up with Regenerate for something like

> Legion of Flesh
> You can freely separate and reattach pieces of your body. Additionally those pieces can regenerate into independent drones that can perform simple tasks, including using your authorities. You can freely switch your mind to a drone, regenerating it into a perfect copy of your body.

>>6076382
Other random musing...we can basically use Pandora's Pithos an unlimited number of times with the auraphage. I do have to wonder...how fast could we fill it for it's ultimate Apocalyptic effect using the auraphage?

>>6075980
>>6075982
>>6076052
>>6076365

>Allow him to decide on his own

You stand silently behind the shaman, allowing him to come to terms with his choice on his own.

Eventually, he slumps forward, a glint of resolve shimmering through the layers of guilt and grief.

"I cannot slaughter the last vestige of my people. It may be a sin but.. may the Spirit forgive me."

You give a slight nod, "How long will the formation take to complete?"

"Seven more days."

"I see. I have an engagement before then, so I suppose the timing works out. Besides, even if I don't stop you, I'm not allowed to be involved. Contracts and whatnot."

"So, shall we meet here once the time is up?"

"Pleasure doing business."

>Return home
>Offer an exchange with the shaman before you leave (specify)
>Write-in

>>6076480
confused
he's staying untainted and going through with the ritual, right?

>>6076480
>Offer an exchange with the shaman before you leave (specify)
Some of his knowledge in exchange for uuuuh the Cyclop's Eye? Not like we're using it.

>>6076547
+1

>>6076480
>>Return home

>>6076547
I don't think he's gonna need that, it's basically a weapon anyone approximately level 6 or 7 can have, but then give it to their subordinates

>>6076687
It's not about using the weapon itself, but a chance to study how the system imbues items with divinity.

Apologies for the lack of update yesterday (and the general slowdown over the last week). I have been otherwise occupied by real life concerns (medical, mostly).

I should hopefully update tomorrow at the latest, but possibly today or tonight if I start feeling a bit better

>>6077242
don't worry about it, and thanks for the heads up

>>6077242
I have some healing stones I'll use to send positive vibes your way OP.

>>6077377
>>6077430

Thanks for the kind words. It really means a lot (haven't tried crystals, here's hoping that works)

>>6076536
He's following through with the ritual and not deifying

>>6076547
>>6076549
>>6076687

>Offer an exchange with the shaman before you leave (specify)

"I have no desire for your tainted steel. And even less so to divulge my people's wisdom to someone like you."

"Someone like me? A tainted, you mean?"

"No, though that certainly doesn't help. You are.. evil. Deeply, bottomlessly evil."

"Hey pal, I wouldn't throw stones. In case you forgot, you're about to slaughter an entire mini-country of innocent civilians over, let me remind you, an unintentional misidentification of your people as members of the Penitent. You can call me whatever you want but know this-"

You lean forward, a look partway between smug knowingness and genuine disgust at the hypocrisy of it all showing through your businesslike demeanor:

"You are not a noble avenger. You are just as evil as me."

"No, no, NO. I KNOW right from wrong. You- you're a monster. A devil. I can feel it. You don't feel anything at all when you do what you do. We're NOT alike."

"If that is true," you say, pointing his chin upwards to meet his bloodshot eyes, "Then that just makes you even worse."

He wrests his face away, and you decide to appeal to his sense of logic instead.

"Look, you know how powerful Incarnations can be. You might not know that things like, just spitballing here, ruling one of the largest countries in the world can net you massive power. The system as an apparatus is not entirely dissimilar from the stunt you're pulling here- only it doesn't have to kill anyone to accomplish it."

"What is your point."

"If you know anything about arts- techniques of the soul- you should be well aware that, no matter how much power you might have, your output is limited by your level of understanding and finesse. I have a massive soul, but my output is pathetic in comparison. I need that understanding- and if you want to win against the Russian, you'll need me to have it too."

He wracks his brain, seemingly trying to find an arrangement he can accept.

"..Fine. But in exchange, I want to study one of your system's abilities. And a powerful one at that- a maximum level <Authority> or a <Miracle> will do."

>>6078164

You click your tongue, "What techniques can you offer?"

"I alone bear the weight of my people's knowledge- though I am proficient with some things more than others, I can teach you what you want to know. Except- I will never teach the <Devouring Rite>. That alone, I musn't let fall into your hands."

You want:

>Help with an existing art (specify)
>Physical enhancement (specify)
>Manifestation (eg, <Fetters of Atë>)
>Manipulation (eg, telekinesis)
>Stealth
>Mind control
>Perception
>Some combination of the above (specify)
>Write-in

In exchange, you'll demonstrate:

>Guerilla Tactics
>Touch of Madness
>A Thousand Faces, A Thousand Voices
>Whispers of Temptation
>Assess Hamartia
>Divine Servant
>Strings of the Neurospaston
>Atë's Playthings
>Thelematoxin
>Skin of the Chameleon
>Write-in

>>6078167
>>Stealth
We want to be able to hide, preferable sometimes even from the system itself

>A Thousand Faces, A Thousand Voices

>>6078167
>Perception
So far we've had to rely on items and power level for perception, it would be nice to have something inherent, and even better if the system can't nerf it against someone with a higher level

>Guerilla Tactics
Would rather show a generic authority than one of our core kit

>>6078167
>Help with an existing art (specify)
Yours Truly
This man knows his Arts, and I want to make good use of his expertise
>Assess Hamartia
It might be interesting to show it off to him

>>6078167
> Stealth
> Access Harmatia

>>6078195
>>6078204
>>6078215
>>6078282

>Stealth
>Assess Hamartia

You decide to demonstrate your premier perception authority, explaining its functionality and demonstrating its use on some passersby outside City Hall. His brows furrow in concentration as he observes, muttering to himself in a language you cannot understand.

"Now then," you say after about an hour of demonstrations and observation, "My turn, as agreed."

He nods, "So, you want to go undetected, yes? There are essentially three methods of doing so."

You nod, paying close attention as he continues to speak.

"The process of human observation essentially has three components- the observer, the object, and the medium. To go undetected- being in this case the object- you may affect one, two, or even all of these components."

You nod, and he continues, "Affecting the object is best for use against those who might be more skilled in the soul, who would be far more difficult to directly target and who would notice your manipulation of the air, light, and world around you. Affecting the medium is most difficult but, if done with enough finesse, can completely mask your presence in ways that the other two cannot. Finally, affecting observers is the easiest, but most feasible to resist."

Where should you put your focus?
>Object
>Medium
>Observer
>Write-in

>>6078835
You know, we never really experimented with Assess Hamartia despite it being core to the skillset. What if we AH somebody, tell that somebody everything we got on them from AH, then try to make them overcome their fatal flaws or whatever AH tells us? See what happens?

>>6078835
>Object
Let's be honest, Atë has an uncomfortable amount of experience wanting to personally not exist.

>>6078835
>>Object

>>6078931
+1
Will she get her wish by quest's end? Or still have that as her wish?

>>6078835
>Medium

>>6078931
>>6078932
>>6078934
>>6078969

>The object

He nods, deeply concentrating for a few moments before responding.

“Changing the physical properties of yourself- the object, the body- is as stated the most difficult means of hiding oneself. The easiest way to do this is camouflage- changing to resemble your surroundings, or perhaps an object one might expect to find in the place in question.”

You shake your head- “I already have a trick for that. I don’t want to mimic, I want to become truly undetectable.”

He sighs, “In that case, only two options are left to you.” He scrawls a few runes on a piece of paper resting on the desk, holding them up to demonstrate before remembering that you wouldn’t be able to read them.

“The first method,” he says, holding up a piece of paper, “Is the <Hunter’s Cloak>. It coats your body in essence- what your people call <Divinity>- which has the unique property of perfectly curving the light around you, as well as holding the heat and scent of your body in.”

“The downsides?”

“Firstly, anyone who can manipulate or feel the vibrations in the air itself or the ground beneath you will still be able to detect your presence, even if you maintain perfect silence and execute the art as well as one could.”

“And secondly?”

“In order to breathe, you will have to temporarily, though only partially, dissolve the cloak. Though you will remain invisible, the heat, sound, and scent of your breaths will be audible to the world.”

You furrow your brow, “And the second method?”

“Much more dangerous- the <Steps of the Specter>. A technique in which you cease to exist.”

“That, uh, doesn’t sound very helpful.”

“Your physical body essentially crumbles into atoms, an invisible particulate cloud that can freely move through the air. However, there is a reason why this technique is forbidden despite its almost perfect effectiveness as a stealth technique- it is incredibly, INCREDIBLY dangerous. Firstly, without a body, you lose all of your body’s senses. In other words, the techniques of your soul are the only way you can interface with the world. Secondly, the reconstitution, even when performed perfectly, leaves one incredibly vulnerable. You are essentially unable to defend yourself while you reconstitute yourself. Lastly, if your concentration ever breaks while using this technique, your body will fully disperse, causing your immediate death.”

“And the upsides?”

“Like I said, nigh flawless stealth. To my knowledge, unless a person has dedicated their entire life to the observation of souls, there is no way to detect someone while the <Steps> are in effect. Additionally, you can travel freely through the air, even through the tiniest gaps in objects, and, while the <Steps> are in effect, are essentially invulnerable to all forms of physical harm so long as you keep your focus.”

>>6078999

You scowl- you dislike how much physical risk might be involved in the <Steps of the Specter>, but you wouldn’t be surprised if individuals like Prometheus or that cop lady from ADAM could see right through the <Hunter’s Cloak>

>Learn the <Cloak>
>Learn the <Steps>
>Learn a different sort of stealth (Medium, Observer)
>Learn a different <Art> entirely
>Write-in

>>6079000

>Learn the <Steps>

The system will probably catch us with a hydra head....maybe

>>6079029
+1

>>6079000
>Learn a different <Art> entirely
Transformation into ultraviolet radiation
Still very stealthy and much safer

>>6079000
>>Learn the <Steps>
we can cover ourselves in a hollowed out Palladium with which we interact with the world
anyone using information gathering stuff would only see it

>>6079029
>>6079041
>>6079045
>>6079322

>Learn the <Steps>

"I'll learn the second one. Can you demonstrate it for me?"

"Demonstrate it? What do you think I am, insane?"

You frown, "I thought you said that you could teach it to me."

"Yes, I can. But I'm not suicidal enough to actually demonstrate the technique."

"You're an ass."

"Do you want to learn or not?"

You pout, but ultimately don't object. He sighs, and then begins to explain.

"The fundamental essence of this technique isn't stealth, it is <Transfiguration>. The art of changing yourself into something else."

"I'm quite familiar with that," you say, sharpening your fingers into claws.

He nods, "In that case, it will be easier to start like this: you must learn to use that power without the use of the system's gifts."

You click your tongue, "That's going to take too long. I need this in working order in four days."

He bursts out laughing, "Ha, you really are mental! That is impossible- you'd be lucky to have an even rudimentary application in two months."

"I'm a fast learner."

"Not that fast."

>Do as he says and try to transform without an authority
>Skip straight to the <Steps>
>Give up on this and focus on something else (specify)
>Write-in

>>6079427
>>Do as he says and try to transform without an authority
Time to turn Thousand Faces into an Art

>>6079427
>Do as he says and try to transform without an authority

We...might want to consider cancelling our meetup.

>>6079427
>Do as he says and try to transform without an authority

>>6079447
No? We don't actually need it, it would just be nice to have.

>>6079432
>>6079447
>>6079487

>Do as he says and try to transform without an authority

"Any tips, teach?"

"If your aim is to learn the <Steps of the Specter>, the most important skills to learn are Transformation, Petrification, Revivification, and Discontinuity."

"Elaborate."

"Transformation is simple- change one shape to another. Petrification and Revivification come hand in hand: the ability to convert your body into non-living tissue and back again. The most important aspect of this step is the ability to manipulate your body with the soul alone and think without your brain."

"And the last step?"

"The element central to the art of the <Steps of the Specter>: the ability to be in multiple pieces while petrified, to manipulate them as a single body."

You nod, "How should I start?"

"As I've said, you ought to study your own powers, ones your body and soul have become accustomed to."

You nod, "I suppose that's your way of saying that you won't be helping out with this bit."

He shrugs, "You know your powers better than I would."

You click your tongue, "I'll expect your full support when the time to actually learn the <Steps> comes."

You activate the <Skin of the Chameleon>, filtering through the open window as a gust of ash and dust.

As you fly home, you consider your options: you will undoubtedly have an easier time picking up <A Thousand Faces, A Thousand Voices> due to how much you've used it over the course of your divine existence, but <Skin of the Chameleon> is much closer to the <Steps>

>Use <Faces> for reference
>Use <Skin> for reference

>>6079527
>Skin
Skin feels more right for this

>>6079527

>Use <Skin>

Go big. We're not going to become a world player by being afraid of a challenge. Load up on brains and get to business horribly maiming ourselves turning our hand to stone.

>>6079527
>Use <Faces> for reference
Just for the first time, to gauge how it'll be
If it's easy we can swap to Skin, otherwise we'll be happy we started with this

>>6079537
>>6079538
>>6079605

>Mimic <Skin>

You decide to just enter your <Realm>, planning to exit through Brigita’s door when you feel the urge to return to the real world. Not wanting to waste time, you make a beeline for your room, taking a deep breath, sitting cross-legged on the bed, and shutting your eyes.

You start by using <Skin of the Chameleon>, feeling the sensation of your fingers changing from flesh and blood to marble and granite.

Your eyes narrow: two things become obvious. One, it’s impossible to consciously implement divinity with the same level of calculation and proficiency that the System does. At least, currently impossible for you. Despite over a dozen- effectively two dozen thanks to your augmentations- brains working in tandem, the massive, sisyphean task of taking each and every molecule and fitting it into a new structure is.. impossible.

Additionally, the system seems to bring in material, not from the world around you, but.. elsewhere entirely. Additionally, you can feel, though with limited resolution, the system sort of recycles the mass of your body. Converting it briefly into energy before resolidifying it as matter. The process seems extraordinarily complicated.

Then again, does it really have to be so precise? You think to yourself: what are <Arts>, anyway? The manifestation of impetus into reality? Not purely, obviously, otherwise everyone would be accidentally using <Arts> all the time.

Your brow furrows in deep concentration- divinity doesn't violate the rules of the world, it simply exists as a previously inaccessible source of energy, a source of energy which can be harnessed by entities called <Souls>. Normally, divinity is used for tasks so minor that their ‘pool’ of it is essentially never expended.

The system calls this energy <Divinity>. Is that just an arbitrary name? A snappy title it picked just to fit in with the aesthetic of Greek mythos? Maybe, but that idea doesn't feel right to you.

Divinity. The power of gods. The power of creation.

You forget trying to copy the <Skin> for a second. Instead, you decide to pour your entire mana pool into <Creation>. Just one electron.

You visualize the nature of the quanta that make up the fabric of reality. The smallest charge, waves of probability for position and momentum, radiating, distorting the spacetime like ripples in the sea as they travel throughout the universe.

One piece. Let there be one tiny piece of that macrocosm.

The universe bares itself to you- kaleidoscopes of not-colors pour into your brain like boiling oil, scorching a smoldering hole into your psyche as you witness totality through unbiased eyes. No, not eyes. Eyes could never witness this.

You realize how arbitrary the little slice you called reality is. Like an ant looking at a house and seeing a hill. It is horrifying.

It is beautiful.

You did it.

>>6079657

The mental fatigue overtakes you as you flicker out of consciousness. The last thing you see is the telltale golden panel of a notification from the system. However, you are much too tired to read it.

Days remaining: 3

You wake up with a throbbing headache and a divinity pool still less than half full- you're still reeling from the brief glimpse beyond the veil. What should you do today?

>Manage the system
>Go back to working towards the <Steps>
>Peek at the cosmos again
>Take a day off
>Write-in

>>6079658
>>Manage the system
let us get it

>>6079658
>Manage the system
Nascent God title?

>>6079658
>Talk to Pheme

>>6079658
Manage system
Pheme talk
In that order

>>6079695
Support.

Yeah, let the soul settle for a moment and uh...see what the system has to say. The fact that the system encourages and acknowledges Arts is very interesting to me.

>>6079672
>>6079681
>>6079693
>>6079695
>>6079747

>Manage the system, then talk to Pheme

You decide to check that notification you missed out on:

>Congratulations! You have attained the <Fable> grade title <Ex Nihilo>!
>Note: <Ex Nihilo> is a prerequisite for the title <True Deity> (1/3)

You may select a reward!
>Hint: Elegy of Gaia
>Hint: Devourer's Cookbook
><Fable> grade authority ticket
><Fable> grade item ticket (x2)
>Level increase (note, no influence gain)
>Random Directive

>>6079778
difficult decision
directives are hard to come by, but random?
devourer is if we want to double down on being evil
level increase would be good if we could postbone it until hitting 14 and getting 15 instantly
and 15 is likely the systems normal next powerspike
I think I'd go with
>fable authority

>>6079778
>Hint: Devourer's Cookbook
Definitely not the authority, we're always hitting up against the cap and we want to stop relying on the system.

>>6079778
>Hint: Devourer's Cookbook

>>6079988
It's fable grade tho. not one of the easily replaceable ones. And any authority can serve as the basis to make Arts ourselves too.

>>6079778

> Elegy of Gaia
Assuming Devourer's cookbook is a guide to slicing up souls and attaching them to other people, we already have a pair of authorities under our control to learn from there. Elegy of Gaia feels like something we'd struggle to understand and find on our own.

The fact that the system is offering us fucking hints on the path to true godhood is hilarious. Some cosmic level version of Perdix is like "I'm lonely, someone else figure this shit out."

>>6079787
>>6079988
>>6079992
>>6079995
>>6080000

>Hint: Devourer's Cookbook

You select the option, and a small notebook plops onto your bed. You decide to crack it open, and are met with yellowed pages and bright red text, scrawled on in messy scratches

So, you want to be a GOD, huh? Yeah, I get it. Being mortal kinda sucks dick. Does your species have dicks? Eh, probably. Not really important right now.

So, pretty much, a GOD is a SOUL. "B-but, Mr. Devourer!" you might be asking, "If a god is a soul, why isn't it everyone a god?"

The answer is simple. The MORTAL SOUL is TINY. TOO SMALL TO MAKE EVEN A SINGLE HYDROGEN ATOM. PATHETIC. A soul so MINISCULE is incapable of existing without an ANCHOR. A MEAT PUPPET if you understand my meaning.

There are ways to circumvent this by ANCHORING YOURSELF TO SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD, but that's just another way of calling yourself TRAPPED. You will be CONSIGNED TO SIPHONING DIVINITY FROM THE WORLD YOU INGRAINED INTO like a STUPID TREE. For not one, not ten, but HUNDREDS OF LIFETIMES. Do you want to be a tree??? NO. You want to be a DEVOURER.

You stroke your chin- it seems probable that the state of being a 'stupid tree' is that of the <Nascent God>: powerful and proficient enough in <Arts> to survive without a body but much to weak to exist without the power within the leylines of a planet.

You flip to the table of contents: the book is short, only containing the introduction you just read, as well as four 'courses', presumably the book's chapters: "Mortal", "Interwraith", "World", and "God".

>Keep reading
>Stop for now and chat with Pheme
>Write-in

>>6080018
>Keep reading
Get all the info first so we can hold a full convo with Pheme

>>6080018

Testing

To see if

I can save some time

>>6080018

>Keep reading
Set a fucking alarm though. We really do need to talk to Pheme.

>>6080026

Fuggin shitty ass 4chan formatting tools amiright?

>>6080018
>Keep reading

I should have posted my theory before, but this falls right into it

So what would anyone need to be a god?
Well, one part is seemingly creation
creating matter is a start, but I'd want to see if creating life is in the options further down, even just a single celled organism capable of looking for food, digestion and multiplication

Second, be master of our own soul, and not even need a body anymore. We're already on our way for that, able to shift our vessel into anything we want and even specks of dust/inanimate objects. I don't think there's a 'you must be this tall' for the god ride. But simply have the technique down to exist without an anchor without getting blown away like dust in the wind.

And for a third... a few things come to mind. But as far as only the system is regarded, for the <True Deity> title we also need the approval of an existing god, at least the approval of the system that hands out the titles.
And the system also steers people into getting worshipped. So maybe a follower count is necessary, a backing of other non-divine souls.

Testing the formatting again

>>6080028
Yeah it is annoying

>>6080025
>>6080027
>>6080043

>Keep Reading

FIRST COURSE: MORTALS

Mortals are one of the best sources of DIVINE NOURISHMENT for a fledgeling DEVOURER. Each one contains more divinity than [Note: Units are converted for convenience based on universal constants, similarly to the language and idioms of the original text] DAYS of SITTING and WAITING like a STUPID TREE. And you can eat a LOT of mortals!

LIVESTOCK AND LIFEFORMS

Did you know? Every <LIFE FORM> has a SOUL. That’s right, even the littlest bacteria. Of course, the SIZE of a soul is directly related to LONGEVITY and INTELLIGENCE, so sentient life or very, very old other stuff will be much more worth your time.

The biggest complication with sentient life is COMPLEX IMPETUS. Most life forms share simple goals: eat, reproduce, etc. YOU are also a STUPID MEATBAG right now, so these desires simply BLEND IN WITH THE REST.

However other sentient mortals will have WEIRD, SPECIFIC desires and an EGO. Eat carelessly and you will develop SOUL INDIGESTION, and potentially EGO DEATH. Or worse, GROSS FETISHES.

Therefore, you must CONQUER and PROCESS a sapient soul. How? There are two ways.

SLICE AND DICE

The easiest way to do this is what the system already does: REND the soul into a MILLION ITTY BITTY PIECES. There are some drawbacks though. This process is MESSY and INEFFICIENT, especially for an unskilled devourer.

You will lose 50-70 PERCENT OF YOUR MEAL. NOT IDEAL. However, this process is FAST, SAFE, and SIMPLE. However, for BIG, JUICY souls, it might be worth your time to recover the WHOLE THING.

TENDERIZE

The best way to recover the whole soul safely is to break its WILL rather than its SOUL BITS. This can be done through TORTURE. Or pleasure, or bargains, or by dunking their consciousness beyond the veil raw. But TORTURE is most fun.

HOW TO EAT?

What are you, STUPID? You just gotta EAT them. It’s easier to DRAG THEM BACK TO YOUR OWN SOULSCAPE, but you can do it in theirs too if you want to SAVE TIME (but only using method one).

Seriously, just make a BIG MOUTH or TURN BIG or something. You can also just TRAP them in your soulscape and they will SLOWLY DIGEST (it’ll take a while though- possibly forever if they can USE THEIR SOULS). Just make sure they’re tenderized first unless you want their GROSS FLESHY DESIRES.

The next chapter is about INTERWRAITHS. They are TASTY and MUCH BIGGER THAN MORTALS. However, you should not continue reading until you feel you are ready. The SYSTEM might be protecting your world and by extension you, but it is still most unwise to GAIN THEIR ATTENTION by LEARNING ABOUT THEM until you are comfortable peering beyond the VEIL.


>Keep reading
>Stop here
>Write-in

>>6080043
I don't think Follower is the word you want. More like Fuel.

On the topic of dealing with ADAM...I wonder if we can get them to back off with a deal. We'll promise not to set off the powder keg of everyone we have snared with Neuroplaston, and they'll stay out of our fight with with wonder boy.

>>6080067

> GAIN THEIR ATTENTION by LEARNING ABOUT THEM until you are comfortable peering beyond the VEIL.
Ahh is this the Uncrowned King I wonder?

>Stop here
Some experimentation and cementing of our power is probably in order. Let's talk to Pheme about our ADAM woes first before we start abducting people and grinding up their souls to add to our own.

>>6080072
+1

>>6080067
>>Stop here
Onto Pheme

>>6080068
I'm fine with "fuel"

And since we got the devourer's advice...
we're not big into torture, but we are the goddess of folly and ruin. We can certainly over-pleasure someone's mind

>>6080086
> You can also just TRAP them in your soulscape and they will SLOWLY DIGEST
This is what a Faustian Bargain is, isn't it? The slow burn digestion.

>>6080086
Giving them a glimpse of the infinite could be fun too!

>>6080067
>Stop here
>Try eating the soul of a bacteria

>>6080072
>>6080080
>>6080086
>>6080094

>Stop here

You put the book down and leave out Brigita's door into the real world. You're long due for a discussion with Pheme.

You soar through the air, speeding at supersonic velocities until you arrive back at Pheme's place.

You knock on the door, and Pheme opens it. However, her divinity signature is off. Much too small to be her. She notices your confusion and informs you,

"Feather clone. I finally got around to buying <Divine Realm>."

"You could have linked our realms and saved me a lot of time."

"Consider it my punishment for being several days late for our chat."

You shrug, entering the apartment. Instead of the normal space, however, you are met with a much different than the usual room: a large, gothic style reception hall greets you instead, with high buttresses and black stone towering over a polished quartzite floor adorned with intricate golden patterns. She leads you to a study, with a similar architectural aesthetic but filled with modern devices- computers, screens, and even a standing desk with treadmill in the corner.

She plops down on a couch at the back corner of the room, and you follow suit, sitting next to her as she pulls out a pad and paper.

"So. What have you been up to?"

(You can assume all information will be conveyed, but select all options you wish to hear Pheme's thoughts or opinions on)

>ADAM
>Heracles
>Prometheus
>The Whittlers
>The Penitent
>The Shaman
>Arts (And the System's encouragement of them)
>The Devourer's Cookbook
>Everything
>Write-in

>>6080092
I really don't want to go the torture route for our food. Our own soul is tortured enough.
Do some weight watching, count the trauma of the souls we eat.

>>6080111
>Ask how aware she is of our meeting in the soulscape
>ADAM and whether or not we should go to vidcon
>she thinks we're "working too hard", but we made a lot of enemies and we need to stay ahead of the curve
>Arts and the System's encouragement of them

>>6080121
+1

>>6080114
What, finally going back to folly and ruin of specific high-value targets instead of mass chaos?

>>6080145
the mass chaos lately was instantly levelling cities
which does give a lot of points, but there's a finite amount of cities we can do that with before everyone else decides we need to be dealt with. I kinda don't want to keep increasing our number of enemies, but gain power more quietly.
And making music and simply raking in devotion also really pays, and could pay of more if we get the getting worshipped directive. and make Baphomette public as a goddess

>>6080121
+1

Ugh, I had many things written and lost them, but yeah, Adam, Herc, Arts and the System

>>6080111
>Everything
OP must spend days writing

IN PARTICULAR THOUGH
>Arts (And the System's encouragement of them)
Is the System some kind of interdimensional defense mechanism against beings like the King (Interwraiths?)

>Prometheus
>The Whittlers
Currently I'm more inclined to trust Prometheus, but interested in her thoughts.

>>6080121
>>6080145
>>6080163
>>6080174

“First and foremost,” you say, “How much do you remember about our meeting in the Soulscape?”

She shakes her head, “Soulscape, huh..? No, I’m afraid I don’t recall.”

You give a curt nod- it makes sense, you suppose.

“Any progress on <Arts>?”

“..Some. I don’t think I have much of a knack for this, though.” She lifts her hand, and as she does so, dark purple crystals of <Divinity> begin to appear at her fingertips. They grow rapidly, forming the rough shapes of birds which unsteadily fly around her in a circle.

“My <Art> is called <Eyes of the Flock>. The intention is to sort of replicate my primary powerset, but without using the system’s power. However,” she furrows her brow, “The manipulation really is difficult. I think, for people who lack the.. superhuman-ness of you and your new shadow, we’ll need to form <Rituals>. Incantations, symbols, shortcuts to automate the process so we don’t have to do everything so directly.”

You tilt your head- if you recall correctly, the Shaman was using runes and chants to represent his abilities. Is Pheme going to try and develop something similar?

“Thank you for the progress report. Now, onto recent events…”

You explain the important details of what you’ve experienced recently, answering any questions she has along the way. After you finish, Pheme begins her response.

“First and foremost, I’ll be giving what I consider to be my ‘objective assessment’- the recommendations and opinions I’d share with someone who I don’t have any particular regard for. After, I’ll tell you my personal opinions on the whole business.”

>Arts and the System's encouragement of them

“It’s probable that the primary directives of the system are as follows.” She holds up three fingers, then puts down one, “First and foremost, accruing divinity. Farming it from the universe and the mortals in it, gaining <Permission> to do so by using mortals as proxies. I believe that extradimensional entities- Like the System or the Uncrowned King- are beholden to some sort of code of nonintervention, only being able to manifest and consume when ‘invited’ by natives of that plane.”

“That would explain why the Uncrowned King hasn’t simply manifested as of yet. Why he needs a ritual, to be summoned.”

She nods, “The second,” she puts down another finger, “Is to prevent other entities from sticking any fingers into its pie- fighting off other entities like the King- or, based on the very brief mention of them in your new cookbook, the interwraiths.”

“And the last?”

“As you’ve probably guessed, I believe it’s the creation of gods. To what end, I don’t know- maybe it’s lonely, maybe it needs them for something, maybe it’s just another schmuck on the cosmic ladder whose job it is to make more gods. It’s impossible to know.”

>>6080337

>ADAM and whether or not we should go to vidcon

“I highly doubt you’ll be able to negotiate with ADAM. In the Florida incident, for example, they engaged with you possibly knowing that you’d take the civilians hostage. Even though they tried to mitigate casualties, it seems like their ultimate priority is to eliminate you.”

“It makes sense- I did kill <Tisiphone> after all. Even if she came back, they’d probably hold a grudge.”

“More to the point, the fact is that you are a potentially world ending calamity. Gaia would probably stop you if you tried to straight up massacre the entire planet, but whether or not she’ll intervene in any given situation is nigh impossible to predict. Ultimately, to the pragmatist, there is no cost too great to see you eliminated.”

“So should I go?”

She pauses, a solemn expression on your face, “..It’s better to snip this in the bud. If you allow Heracles or ADAM to become more powerful- especially if they survive past the neutralization of the Penitent threat, the prospect of world domination will quite possibly become impossible. Even assuming that Prometheus isn’t helping them now, he undoubtedly will begin to support their cause once it becomes clear that you are now the greatest threat to the world.”

“In other words, I can’t afford to try to beat them at the same time.”

She nods.

>Prometheus and the Whittlers

“There are essentially four possibilities:”

“Being?”

“The first two are obvious- Prometheus or the Whittler you are in contact with is telling the truth.”

You nod, “And the others?”


“A- that one of the Whittlers is hoping to foster distrust between you and all parties involved. In reality, a small minority, possibly even just one person, is hoping to turn you against the entire government. B- that both the Whittlers AND Prometheus are in cahoots, pinning the blame on each other to keep you distracted, allowing them to act against you without you being able to strike either way without risking alienating a potential collaborator.”

“What do you think is most likely?”


“Prometheus seems more trustworthy than the Whittlers based on what you’ve said, but I honestly have no idea. I can look into it if you want.”

“That would be helpful, thanks.”

>>6080338

>she thinks we're "working too hard", but we made a lot of enemies and we need to stay ahead of the curve

“Objectively, you’re completely correct.”

“Are you going to give your personal take now?”

She nods, “I’m worried about you. Seriously, it’s.. disquieting.”

“You know I have to do this. We had a plan, remember?”

“I know, it’s just.. Fuck dude, it’s really dangerous.”

“You knew that. We both did.”

“Yeah, I get it. You’re totally right. It’s just, I’m starting to wonder, is there really a point to it all? Or, rather, the better question is: is it worth the gamble?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, no matter how big the pot is, we’re betting our lives on this. Worse, I’m betting your life, and I- fuck, it sounds corny, but I don’t know if the world is worth enough to risk that. I was so gung-ho before because, despite money, powers, and a pretty comfy life, I felt empty. Felt like I had nothing to lose.” She lets out a shaky breath, and her voice begins to notably speed up in a rant of rushed, stumbled over words, “Nothing made me happy and I felt miserable and I thought fuck it at least I can go out doing something COOL but I-”

She stops, trying to collect herself. “You know, I’ve been happy lately.”

Silence hangs over the room.

“So.. what do you want me to do, Marie?”

“...Honestly, I don’t know. Isn’t that pathetic? I want to do this with you, but I also want you to quit. Ultimately, I think I know that you need this. That you’ve only gotten where you are because of the Incarnation stuff. I guess it makes me sad that.. I’ll always be secondary. I dunno. Don’t worry about it. Give me some time to think.”

>Leave
>Write-in

>>6080339

Please don't disappear on me.

panic

>>6080339
>Write-in
I think we're committed now. After what we've done already they aren't going to let us just settle down or disappear.

>>6080339
>We'll not go to vidcon.
>Well increase devotion in our followers as cyber-siren and baphomette to gain more divinity and influence.
>Meanwhile strengthen our soul through developing arts and see if we can snowball eating souls.
>build our own soul farm

>>6080539
Didn’t she just say why we should go to vidcon

>>6080587
she said to snip it in the bud
if we're lucky they aren't fully prepared herc is out on enough revenge to go in alone.
if not then we're up against a multitude of powerful incarnations who cleared their schedule just to be there that day.

i much rather announce a spontaneous fan meet-up as bait that needs them to act quickly when they aren't fully prepared, in the hope they'll do something reckless.
bringing the fight to them also seems risky

but I'm fine with getting outvoted on going to vidcon, but then I want to hire dove maybe

Waiting on a tiebreaker. In the absence of one, I'll try my best to compromise between all available options

>>6080717
both say to continue striving for power
going to vidcon should probably be a separate vote

and we still have a doctors appointment, yes?

>>6080366
>>6080394
>>6080539

You exhale, standing over Pheme as she sits slumped on the couch. It’s uncanny- she’s so much taller than you, but right now she seems so small.

“The die is already cast. But… I’ll try not to be so reckless. I recognize that I might put less value on my life than I should.”

You kneel down to meet her downcast gaze. The marbles in her eye sockets are black voids, no light reflecting from the lustrous surface of the mundane sphere, and the <Relic> somehow looking even emptier than normal.

“So I want you to do it for me. I want you to tell me when I’m risking too much for too little.”

“I.. can’t.” she rasps out, hands clutched around her head and voice cracking slightly, “My judgment is clouded. I understand on a logical level that, every time anyone does anything, they incur some personal risk. Every time you walked down the street or drove into work, even in a completely normal mortal life, you gambled your life. As humans, though we are loath to admit it, we recognize that our lives have finite value, such that minor risks to it are considered acceptable. This is common sense.”

“...What’s your point?”

She lifts her head, causing her bangs to stir and shift with the movement of her head. You catch a glimpse of her expression: had she eyes, there would be madness burning within them.

“To me, your value is incalculable.”

A storm of crystal ravens begin to emerge from her shoulder blades, chirping and beating their jeweled wings in a cacophony of divinity, trashing the room around her and completely obscuring the walls, doors, and windows. A hurricane of midnight purple closes in around you as onyx tears pour from her <Omniscient Eye>.

”To me, no risk is acceptable.”

“P-pheme, calm down, you’re starting to freak me out.”

She gasps, seemingly returning to herself. She loses control over the dozens of constructs manifested by her <Art>, sending them crashing onto the floor and shattering into clouds of divine dust.
“I’m not rational. Please go.”

She waves her hand, causing the entire world of her <Realm> to disappear around you. Instead, you find yourself on the floor of your own foyer. You exhale- you know she couldn’t- nor would have harmed you in any way, but you can’t help but feel slightly rattled.

>Work on replicating <Skin>
>Make another electron
>Practice an existing <Art>
>Practice developing a fighting style
>Talk to someone (specify)
>Write-in

>>6080830
>Make another electron

Practice makes perfect.

I wonder if we could make some sort of Phylactery effect...

>>6080830
>time to round out our kit
>level up preservation instinct, omen, regeneration and Weapon Training (claws) to 8
>use the auraphage to fill up the pithos and go level up supernatural speed, divine armor, battle acuity, etc. up to X

>>6080834
I really want to continue with that too, but there's other stuff that probably gives us more immediate benefits before we may or may not go to vidcon

>>6080830
>Make another electron
THE SECRETS OF THE COSMOS
We must acquire such power that we never face risk again
For Pheme

But Pheme, that is verboten love!

>>6080859
Lover's dilemma. You want everything for them and you fear everything for them. I've got kids and yeah, that mentality is easy to slip into. Everything has a risk.

>>6080840
War Prep probably is the more sensible approach, admittedly. I'm not sure what the best approach is there though. What's our influence at right now anyway?

>>6080834
>>6080840
>>6080854
>>6080859

>Make another electron

What you need now is more information. Based on the description of INTERWRAITHS, and their separation from <Mortals> in the Devourers’s Cookbook, it’s most likely that hunting them wouldn’t piss off anyone on earth- with the possible exception of groups that worship extraplanar entities, depending on what exactly they are. Regardless, what matters is information.

You close your eyes, this time trying to recapture the spark you viewed when you created your first matter. The plethora of input, the perception beyond sight.

You inhale: matter is macro. Objects are a bias of your scale. To a human, a grain of sand is <Part of a beach>. To a microbe, a grain of sand is <Its own world>, colossal. Sand is yellowish brown. A grain of sand is often mostly clear.

You exhale: Matter is dual. Particles are waves are particles. It’s easy to consider <Mass> as categorically different from, say, color charge, charge, or spin. In actuality, such things are on equal standing at the scale of the quantum.

Particles fill your lungs. They’re certainly in them- after all, the possible ranges of <Momentum> allow for enough precision in <Position> to determine at the very least the broad strokes. On the quantum scale, the waves of probability seem so extensive: on the human scale, you can be confident that an object is where it is.

Your brains- many, many brains, enough to coat the floor of your room, still quiver and writhe under the pressure. Blood trickles from your nose, then out from the tear ducts of your eyes.

Infinite perception. Not the finite scale you have become accustomed to: You were stupid. Why would making more brains help? One, ten, fifty: no amount of computers can process an infinite task. Yet, it’s possible. How is it possible?

It’s simple, actually. The <King> does it naturally because the <King> isn’t consigned to the flesh. The world of the material- energy and mass alike- is quantized: that is to say, it is impossible to divide infinitely any given quantity. But what about the soul? The <Points> of divinity are arbitrarily selected units- in actuality, it can exist at as small a scale as you’d like.

First, you assign half your soul to one <Piece> of the task of infinite perception. Then half of the remainder to the next. Then half of that, faster and faster, into perpetuity.
Your electron is lonely. You give it a proton. Why stop there? Add a neutron to the core- make it deuterium.

>>6080877

Your atom quivers in the air. Unstable. Lonely. Drool and blood seep from your mouth as you repeat the task. Two atoms. You can feel the dance of the electrons as their probability clouds merge together, hybridizing, linking in a glorious union of being.

Atom and atom. Soul and body. You feel all of the excess structures you create wither and sink back into the <System>. You don’t need them. One brain is all you need. Fuck, you don’t need one brain.

Finite soul, infinite task. You can see everything and nothing, and soul and matter and galaxies and atoms. Unbiased resolution and scope. You exhale, a reverent, quivering breath escaping your lips as you see the atoms, moving back and forth across their bonds. You can see the heat.

You stop, returning to the material world. It looks so gray, like shadows against a monochrome wall.

>Read the next page of the <Devourer’s Cookbook>
>Work on an <Art> (Specify)
>Work on replicating <Skin>
>Write-in

>>6080878
>Read the next page of the <Devourer’s Cookbook>
WE HUNT

>>6080881

>Read the next page of the <Devourer’s Cookbook>

SECOND COURSE: INTERWRAITHS

So, what is an INTERWRAITH? Let me ask you this: Do you think every GOD is born MORTAL? No. That would be STUPID. Most of them start as BABY SOULS born from the DIVINITY FLUX EVENTS that occur in 99.99999% of YOUR DIMENSION and ALL THE REST in the absence of FLESHY ENERGY SINKS.

INTERWRAITHS have the leg up on you in the race to BECOME A GOD: they do not NEED to figure out how to exist without an ANCHOR: they already do. They do not need to learn how to siphon and use DIVINITY. They already do! They also have HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of times the potency of a mortal soul. However, you have two ADVANTAGES over an INTERWRAITH.

BIG FLOATY WIMPS

INTERWRAITHS avoid LIFE as a general rule, unless you SUMMON them by THINKING ABOUT THEM BEFORE YOU’RE READY. They FEAR adult gods and DEVOURERS on instinct, because they are juicy and tasty and, relative to their soul size, WEAK and PATHETIC.

Therefore, they have no FINESSE or KILLER INSTINCT in a fight. They can only defend themselves with BRUTE FORCE. The reason why I warned you to prepare is because they’re INVISIBLE TO THE MORTAL EYE. Even conventional DIVINITY SENSE will be too fuzzy to reliably win.

The reason INTERWRAITHS kill off unready saps who PONDER them is because they’re AFRAID. Afraid you might grow into a DEVOURER. INTERWRAITHS can travel between dimensions- that’s why they’re called that- but they are DUMB BABIES who CAN’T FULLY CONTROL THEIR POWERS. Leading well into the next thing.

INTERWRAITHS ARE STUPID

You, if you can read, probably have a FLESHY COMPUTER IN YOUR BODY. Of course, gods don’t need them, but having a brain for a bit TEACHES YOUR SOUL TO THINK. Language, critical thinking, problem solving, strategy: all of these things are INCOMPREHENSIBLE to an INTERWRAITH.

THEY ARE BARELY SENTIENT. They have BASIC SURVIVAL INSTINCTS and that’s about it. Even simple tricks, tactics, or technique will allow you to WIN and EAT THEIR JUICY SOULS.

One particularly effective strategy is the AMBUSH. They have PATHETIC SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. Especially since they naturally perceive the ENTIRETY OF THE COSMOS AS IT TRULY IS, the information overload DROWNS OUT their perception and makes your MATTER BASED BODY practically INVISIBLE. Practice SOUL ATTACKS and you should be able to CONQUER them before they even NOTICE you!

>>6081003

HOW TO FIND THEM?

Your galaxy has TONS of them (assuming you’re the first DEVOURER in your area). Float outside of your solar system, clear your mind, PETRIFY yourself and leak a bit of purified divinity as BAIT. They’ll come. MORTAL divinity is much tastier than AMBIENT SLOP, and they won’t scare so easily if you AREN’T LIFE AT THE MOMENT.

HOW TO EAT?

INTERWRAITHS don’t have a real SOULSCAPE because their body IS their soulscape. They IMPOSE onto the material plane in order to EAT- so you can take advantage.

INTERWRAITHS don’t die, but if you BEAT them hard enough they go CATATONIC. You can then PONDER the one in front of you and enter your own soulscape at the same time. If you did it right, it will be SUCKED INTO YOUR PLANE WITH YOU. Unlike mortals, INTERWRAITHS dissolve almost instantly in OTHER SOULS.


You check the next page, finding it and the rest after completely blank. You are capable of feeling divinity on the pages after, but you don't know how to activate it. Maybe you'll gain some insight by hunting an interwraith?

>Work on an <Art> (Specify)
>Work on replicating <Skin>
>Plot to hunt an <Interwraith>
>Write-in

>>6080878
>Read the next page of the <Devourer’s Cookbook>
Oh man are we transcending the flesh? Fantastic. Won't need that doctor anymore.

>>6081007
Ok, hunting these things seems like an ideal source of power, but it already takes us hours to fly across the globe. We need some serious travel upgrades to make it outside the solar system to hunt these things. So in the meantime:

>Directly eat some mortal souls.

You know, as practice.

>>6081007
>Work on replicating <Skin>
Ok, we need to be able to petrify, and we need to be able to go fast. Being able to turn into a stream of atoms is probably a good first step for both.

>>6081014
But...I wouldn't say no to a midnight snack

>>6081007
>>Work on replicating <Skin>
let us get it

Can we either prepare for vidcon and do short term benefits now?
OR not go to vidcon and do the long term benefit stuff like Getting Steps of the Specter with the first step being Arts-ifying Skin of the Chameleon

>>6081007
>Work on replicating <Skin>
Hmm... so "devourer" is a type of god, not a single god. Jumping to conclusions here, but since we had the choice between devourer hint and a gaia hint, then "gaia" is also a type of god.
And the cookbook probably called them out as "stupid trees", and Ate already connected them to <Nascent God>
And Nascent God seems very much like one of the requirements of <True Deity>.
Though as the two philosophy's seem conflicting, maybe the amount of potential requirements are larger than the ones we need to match to reach True Deity.
Either way, while devouring is probably what we want to do, we also shouldn't let ourselves be tunnel-visioned by the devourer's advice

>>6081199
The impression I have is you can either attach yourself to the planet, slowly and carefully growing in power via meditation, or you can be become a hunter. Chasing levels in the system, or devouring nodes from the king would both work as well I assume.

The big question for me...is Prometheus opting for Tree or Hunter? Because I think he has Ex Nhilo as well. I definitely remember someone else on the list with it.

>>6081239
I'd believe not having an anchor anymore is a big part of becoming a god. So I don't quite think that.

and last time we checked the record pass, these were the fable grade titles:
<Nascent God>: Gaia
<Beyond Authority>: Prometheus, Atë
<Conquer Death>: Tisiphone
<Divine Domain, Manifest>: Persephone, Hades
<First Miracle>: Kronos
<Surpass Olympus>: Athena

>>6081014
>>6081049
>>6081075
>>6081199

>Work on replicating <Skin>

You decide to dedicate the rest of the night to trying to duplicate the <Skin of the Chameleon>. In seeing beyond the veil, you’ve learned a valuable skill- using your soul to perform a supertask.

The totality of the calculations to, say, turn your skin into, say, a honeycomb configuration of lightweight metal with equivalent mass to your own arm, would be astronomical. Controlling the individual transitions from matter, annihilating it into energy, and reconstituting the energy into matter quickly enough for none to escape and incrementally enough to avoid an energy overload is a monumental task. Monumental, but not even infinite.

You smirk, who needs rituals? You’re gonna do this with brute force until it’s natural. You see crimson light explode from the tips of your fingers as it converts your flesh into metal. You suppress a scream- at first the process is merely uncomfortable, but the more of your body that the aluminum alloy supersedes, the more severe the feeling of pain, biting cold emptiness as you simultaneously <Sense> the petrified limb with your soul and are incapable of feeling it with your senses, almost like a phantom pain.

Your soul also begins to throb- you were distracted before by the euphoria of gazing upon the cosmos, as well as the sheer overload of information and perception, but right now it’s obvious that the supertask, especially after a couple dozen divisions, really does put a ton of strain on your soul. The current extent isn’t dangerous, but you feel like overexerting it would be dangerous.

Your nerves tingle against the aluminum arm. Naturally, it’s impossible to move it through your nervous system. The <System> normally corrects for this, automatically turning input from your brain into soul commands, manipulating the transfigured parts as if they were flesh and blood. You close your eyes- despite the lack of organic matter, you feel that your soul is still <Imposed> over, or perhaps <Anchored< to the metal arm. You imagine threads of divinity running through the metal, threading through the metal like nerves. In the future, it would probably be wise to add articulation points to things like limbs- as it stands, you have to manually manipulate the metal, shifting the very atoms, displacing them to bend the fingers or wrist as they normally could.

>>6081322

You feel your divinity starting to run low, so you try to restore the natural state of your arm. You focus, trying to restore your arm to its natural state. Your soul lurches: even with the shape of your body ingrained in your soul, this is orders of magnitude more complex of a task. Your eyes widen with shock as your entire body begins to change, skin melting and splitting like wax as jaws and arms and heads explode from the gaps. You feel your bones extend, joints clawing themselves into existence, erupting from the bones and draping themselves in supernaturally extended ligaments and tendons. One, three, a dozen mouths squeal in anguish as your vertebrae stretch, stiffen, and snap, extending your spine to accommodate more connections. More arms, more legs.

You suppress the urge to vomit as you collapse to the floor, pooled in your own blood. That’s right, you think to yourself, your <Figure> hasn’t been that of a human for a while. This is the first time the transformation has been so… visceral. So painful. The system must have helped the process of shapeshifting go far more seamlessly before.

Deeply exhausted, you decide to return to a more normal, human shape, collapsing into bed.

>New Art (Incomplete): Effective Level: 4

Allows you to convert the atoms of your body and the ambient environment into anything you desire, so long as the mass is equivalent or lesser than the weight of your <Figure>. Excess weight is stored by the soul through as of yet unknown means.

>Write-in: Name the Art

Days Remaining: 2

You awake, sore, still tired, but much better than last night. What do you want to do?

>Continue replicating <Skin>
>Work on another <Art> (specify)
>Try devouring a mortal soul
>Try to increase your power through the system
>Talk to an ally (Specify)
>Write-in

>>6081323
>Write-in: Name the Art
Perfect Form

>Continue replicating <Skin>
Our opponents are probably still trying to kill things that need to be alive. Soon we'll be free of that limitation.

>>6081323
>Perfect Cell
>>Work on another <Art> (specify)
>Yours truly
I think we need to get ourselves under control AND supercede the negative effect of Figure unspeakable on ourselves first, or have that aspect a core tenet of trying to replicate Skin

>>6081354
But seeing ourselves intrinsically as an unspeakable horror that ruins everything that looks at it like our family is part our charm!

>>6081354
+1

>>6081356
Many eyes are already on the world domination plan...

>>6081356
I'm not saying to get rid of Figure Unspeakable
I'm saying to get rid of the negative effect that it has on ourselves
We need to comprehend the horror that is ourselves before we can manually put ourselves back together as such again.

>>6081346
>>6081354
>>6081367

I’ll hold off locking in the name for the art for a bit since the matter isn’t time sensitive and I doubt Atë would make her power a DBZ reference

>Work on <Yours Truly>

You close your eyes, near effortlessly entering your soulscape. You look at the sunset- you recognize that the <Fact> of your soulscape is the same as it always has been, but while you inhabit the realm, you can see beyond the limits of your eyes. The world is bathed in infrared, emanating from the sand and the air around you. You are reminded that everything glows, if only often at wavelengths too large to see. A canvas of ultraviolet cascades down from the sun: one of the colors in that mosaic might be your new favorite.

You blink- normally when you inhabit your soulscape things feel off. Hazy, a bit dreamlike. Right now, you feel more control than usual- however, you still find yourself unable to manifest whatever you want like Lethe or Pallas could: you’re still missing something.

You plop down, feeling the too-smooth sensation of the weirdly solid sand beneath you. Despite it feeling like a contiguous surface to the touch, you find yourself able to sink into it as if it were normal sand.

You think about how to improve this ability.

You’re stumped.

>Shadow
>Reflection
>Fetters
>Ocean
>Visit someone (Specify)
>Write-in

>>6081401
>>Reflection
face figure unspeakable

>>6081401

> Start digging
The sand doesn't want us to dig down, and we never were very good at being told no were we?

>>6081401
Backing
>>6081417
Plumb the depths of ourselves.

>>6081417
+1
https://youtu.be/1khghXRGb6k

changing to >>6081417

>>6081410
>>6081417
>>6081420
>>6081422
>>6081439

>Start digging

Your hands take the form of broad claws, similar to those of moles, as you begin to tear into the beach. You notice that it feels like there’s some sort of film or membrane pulled over the sand that regenerates every time you start digging through- it isn’t impossible (or even particularly difficult) to tear through, but it’s slightly unpleasant to the touch.

You keep digging and, after what seemed like almost an hour, your claws hit a hard surface, which, upon contact, lets out a glass-like clink. You smile, changing to something heavier and sharper, and begin cracking the surface. A hole forms in the crystal base, and a horrid stench, somewhere between putrefaction and chocolate ice cream, spews from the puncture. You leap out of the hole, barely avoiding a spray of blackened blood-like water.

First, a crimson hand lurches out of the quagmire, leaking red pus and blood as it drags itself out of the puddle- instantly, you recognize it as your own <Figure>. The monstrous form scuttles across the sand, the fluid dripping off of it sinking into the sand and vanishing.

Next, the grimy blackness of the pool begins to coagulate in the center, an amorphous blob of ochre forming like a clot. Without warning, a tendril shoots out, burying itself in the sand and serving as a lever to vault it onto the beach.

Finally, the translucent fluid remaining, reflecting all of the colors of the world around you, crystallizes in the form of a woman: taller than you, with a full figure and perfect face. You scowl: it’s Cyber_Syren.

The three figures sit around you, silently awaiting acknowledgement.

“Who are you?” You ask.

“Atë.” The crimson “spider” growls.

“You.” The black blob gurgles.

“I dunno. Probably a metaphor or something.” The crystal maiden shrugs.

>Speak to Atë
>Speak to yourself
>Speak to a metaphor, probably
>Write-in

>>6081588
>Speak to yourself
No Baphomette, huh
Well, time to self motivate

>>6081588

>Speak to Atë
What the fuck are you anyway? A jung collective consciousness perception of Atë? My perception of her? Or something else that lost her chance under the System and has been fed to me, piece by piece?

> I dunno. Probably a metaphor or something
Fucking lol. I suppose we're one concert away from Baphomet joining the crowd too.

>>6081670
+1

>>6081588
>So what is this? Same as we saw in Brigitta's soulscape, her split into different aspects of herself?
>Do I not want to think of myself as a coherent being? Push all the fault of the horrible things we did to people on Ate, all the things we want to escape from to metaphor, and all the repressed trauma into something that literally doesn't have a shape?

>>6081668
>>6081670
>>6081772
>>6081991

>Speak to Atë

“So, what exactly are you?”’

“Fuck, what do I look like, a psychiatrist?”

“If you’re a part of me, then you understand how important this is. We need to gain dominion over our soul.”

“If that’s what you want, then there’s an easy way to do it. Just kill the fucking blob.”

Your eyes widen, “Not the glass chick?”

“Oh, her? I can just eat her. Isn’t that right, sugar tits?”

The metaphor just shrugs. <Yourself> quivers with self loathing.

“If killing them off would solve all of your problems, why haven’t you done it already?”

“I’ve been trying to.” Another of her mouths responds in a bitter tone, “But SOMEBODY has been GETTING IN MY WAY.” She pauses briefly, before her main mouth clarifies, “You’re the somebody.”

“Do you resent me?”

“Not at all. Of course, it’s frustrating that you WASTE SO MUCH OF OUR TIME. But ultimately, obviously I don’t hate you. You’re- we’re- the only person I care about.” A hand of flesh and blood breaches from the gloopy red surface, gently caressing your cheek. “I love you, Atë. I’m the only one here who does.”

“It’s true,” the glass maiden speaks, “I don’t care one way or the other, but that chick is really not a fan.” She gestures to the black goo. It trembles with rage.

“So, what exactly would I get from doing what you said?”

“Fundamentally,” Atë says, “Divine power is based in <Impetus>. That is to say, the will to do one thing or the other. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’- a soul is the same. That-” she gestures to the blob- “and I- WE- are fundamentally at odds. If we get rid of it, we’ll be of one will. We’ll be unstoppable.”

>Ask Atë more questions
>Talk to the metaphor
>Talk to yourself
>Do as she asks
>Write-in

>>6082056
>Talk to yourself
That music quest helped us, didn't it?
Thoughts on those two over there?
You got any ideas about what to do about this situation?
Is Pheme right about this whole world domination thing we want?

I guess this "Ate" is our desire for power which disregards what we become in the pursuit of it.
We don't care much for our fake online personas, so they are okay with being reabsorbed too.

>>6082056
>Talk to yourself
>"You hate me, which means I hate myself. Or at least part of me hates part of me."
>"Show me."
>"Show me the depth of our self loathing"

>>6082060
>Is Pheme right about this whole world domination thing we want?
I don't think we want world domination
We want to be free with nobody above us to tell us what to do. We don't want to rule over anyone.
At least that's what I'd play Ate as, and I always do the write in of "we like this world, coffee, internet, and the amenities it has"