Temple of the Seal(Perma-open!)

[prythian]

((Members can enter and leave when they choose, unless I say otherwise in a post here))

In a largely unoccupied part of the sea, a large building had appeared floating in the water. It was surrounded by a large bubble of air, and was shaped like a large marble ball. A doorway about halfway up the sphere had a stone walkway extending to the edge of the bubble. The edges of the bubble itself had golden sparkles, marking the edge of a magic that would turn all shape-changed people back into their original, non-water dwelling selves.

The inside of the building was filled with rooms and walkways, different levels of the Temple of the Seal accessible by stairways. The entire building seemed carved of one solid piece of marble, and the monks inside went about everyday things. Above the doorway was a symbol of a closed mouth.

[Dante]

This was.... tremendously odd. What was a huge temple doing in Atlantica? It wasn't the King's work, it couldn't have been. It wasn't here yesterday when Dante had come here to relax. He was slightly worried about what would happen to this place after the King found out about it. It looked so beautiful and it must've taken such a long time to build. Dante would hate to be the guy to come back home, only to find it in the form of a pile of rubble.

Dante swam up to the temple and looked around it, wondering if it was dangerous to go in. Dante, being the person he was, walked in out of pure curiosity. Then, the wierdest thing happened; his legs formed back and so did his clothes. This was one of his 'wtf' moments. Dante looked around and saw no one there to tell him what had just happened. Odd as this place was, it seemed nice and tranquil.

[prythian]

Inside the sphere, a monk walked. He wore a brown robe and was bald. All in all, he looked exactly like the other monks that had greeted others at the other Temples. He noticed a guest standing outside on the walkway. "You should come in and dry off before you catch a cold." He said calmly, walking through the doorway and stopping in front of Dante. He bowed deeply, hands together. "Welcome to the Temple of the Seal."

[Dante]

"Uh... yeah. When did this place.. you know... appear?" Dante scratched his head, soon bowing in respect to the monk. This was really weird. Why would a monk be inside of an underwater temple? Seriously. Dante was going to get to the bottom of this with his investigative skills. "I was actually in this exact place yesterday... or at least I thought I was... and there was no temple like this anywhere."

[prythian]

"This Temple was originally built on this world, in this very spot." The monk replied. "Due to circumstances, a great magic was worked that removed the Temple and its occupants from... well, I suppose it'll make sense more if I say that it was removed from this reality. It doesn't properly belong in this reality anymore, but we have reappeared here temporarily. You may have felt the slight distortion in reality when you entered the area the Temple now occupies, or you may not have." He shrugged. "It has reappeared very recently, as you can tell if you were here yesterday."

[nascent]

(OOC: Since nobody has King Triton, I'm just going to "borrow" him as an NPC for sake of this post, as I have a particular scene in mind. I hope that's okay...)




Hades REALLY didn't like coming here...

For one thing, the wet look just did not agree with his complexion, to say NOTHING of what it did to his hair. Plus there was the whole 'transforming into a sea denizen' thing... having his lower body and his entire robe transformed into the likeness of a manta ray wasn't exactly the most flattering look, either. So why had he come as far away as Atlantica?

Fact was, he wanted to find out what was going on before the other Olympian gods got wind of it. Just in case it could be useful.

Thus it was that the Lord of the Underworld swam into King Triton's throne room unannounced, disrupting official business and sending schools of fish scattering. "Hey, outta the way! I've got important business with the Sea King! Move it, bubble-breath! Can't you see there's a god coming through?!"

"What is the meaning of this?!" Triton bellowed, reaching for his trident. "Guards!"

Two armed mermen swam in front of Hades, pointing spears at him. The god of death paused briefly, glaring angrily at the palace's protectors before conjuring something in his left hand. A scroll materialized from a spiral plume of foggy water, which Hades promptly let fall open and displayed to the guards.

"As you boys can see, I'm something of a VID: Very Important Deity. Name's Hades, and I've got business with your boss. Now if you'll kindly swim aside...?"

At this, Triton straightened up. "Hades? You... you don't mean...?"

"Yeah, that's right," The grim death-lord pushed one of the guards aside and swam forward, floating eye level with the regal mer-lord. "The god of the Underworld, brother of Neptune -- the guy who lent you that fancy little power-fork. Seems you and I need to have a talk, big guy."

Triton dismissed his guards with a wave of his hand, though his expression made it clear he was still distrustful of this dark visitor. "What about?"

"Seems there's some kind of distortion coming from somewhere in your ocean, King-y." Hades began, forming a tent with his fingers and intermittently tapping them together as he spoke. "It's causing a bit of instability in the Underworld -- souls falling apart and mixing together in the Lethe, murkiness in the Mnemosyne, bad water problems overall, not good for business on my end. So, what can you tell me?"

"This is the first I've heard," The king replied, settling back into his throne. "Although my trident's power has been fluctuating a bit lately..."

"No idea, huh?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Triton stated firmly.

Hades rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Okay, fine, whatever. Still, I've got to resolve this -- fast, before it effects operations. You just go back to whatever you were doing; I'm gonna swim around Atlantica until I get to the bottom of this."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, Hades found the temple. Well, to be more accurate, he'd found a strange-looking guy who had the airs of an other-worlder about him, then followed him discretely until he'd come across what looked like one big stone ball with a staircase coming off of it.

"Well, this is different. Maybe it's coming from here..." The grim lord mused, deciding to cast caution to the wind. He sprint-swam straight for the stairs, flipping over the monk and other-worlder as he exited the water and reverted to his previous form. "Oh yeah, perfect landing! Ten points!" A gush of blue flames momentarily enveloped Hades, drying him off and reigniting his hair (which he proceeded to slick back, without discernible result).

He looked over at the other two. "Hey, hi, how ya doin'?" He flashed his ID scroll briefly. "Hades, Lord of the Dead, here on official Underworld business. I'm gonna have to requisition all the info you two have about this place and any space-time-aether-reality-etc, etc, distortions going on that you might know about. Please understand that this comes from only the highest of authority -- namely, me -- and that any failure to comply will NOT be looked upon kindly."

"Now then," The scroll vanished in a puff of smoke. "Let's start with names, then move onto the stuff I REALLY want to know, kay?"

[prythian]

"You may call me Orias." The monk replied. "It will suffice for our purposes. Lord Hades, be aware that threads and violence are not permitted within the boundaries of the Temple. I will be pleased to help you otherwise, but you can and will be forced to leave if you break this law." He bowed to the new arrival, now that formalities were out of the way. "As for any distortions in reality, you're most likely sensing the reason the Temple of the Seal is available for you to see."

[nascent]

Forced to leave?! Oh, Hades did not like the attitude he was getting from this puny little mortal. You'd think that religious folk, even the backwater variety, would know and properly respect a god when they saw one. But nnnoooooo... instead, this meat bag had the audacity to tell him what to do! Inside Hades was utterly fuming... but he forced himself to hold down at least a modicum of calm. After all, these backwater shmucks probably just didn't know any better... that, and the longer he took to resolve things down here, the worse things were going to get back home.

He took a deep breath, cooling his edgy temper. "Yes yes, fine fine. Invisible temples, I get it -- nice touch. However, I didn't exactly come down here out of curiosity. Y'see, as god of the Underworld, when something upsets the fabric of reality there's a pretty good chance that there's fallout from it in my domain. I mean, cleaning up scrambled souls isn't exactly an easy thing to deal with, and if it gets much worse the living world back home might start needing exterminators for infestations of the undead. Not that I mind breaking up the daily grind a bit, mind you... but I'm not exactly in good standing with the higher powers as is. Last thing I need right now is a big mess, ok?"

"So... let's cut to the chase, Ori. This distortion -- can ya turn it off, please? Or is this one of those 'powerful ancient magic breaking down in the middle of the road' kinda deals -- cuz' believe me, I know what that's like. Either way, I REALLY need you to do something."

[prythian]

"That is not possible at this time." The monk replied. "Lord Hades, I realize that we have caused an inconvenience to you, and for it all of the monks in the Temples will be very sorry, but we cannot stop the distortion. The Seal is fading, and until it is restored we will be in reality. If the Seal fades completely, the distortion will be gone, but the Temples will remain. The Seal must be reestablished, and we are doing all we can to do that at this time."

[nascent]

"Hmm..." Hades hunched over slightly and began drumming on his forehead with his fingers. A fading Seal... why did he get the feeling this was similar to the whole Prometheus thing? No... probably more like Pandora. Well, one way or another, Hades knew he needed results... SOON.

"So, if I understand all this correctly, the Seal of the Temples is breaking down, and that's what's causing all this. Not good on your end, not good on my end. My problem is your problem too." He straightened up and let his hands fall loosely at his sides, seemingly much more relaxed now... almost friendly. "Well, only one thing to do then. Let's talk solution."

"So, whatd'ya need to get this Seal back up and running, eh? Power source? Sacred materials? The knowledge of some long-dead sage? Whatever it is, odds are I can get it for you. After all, I'm a god -- I have a certain sway over things. If I don't have it, odds are I know people who do. I'll pull a few strings, call in a few favors; we could be done in time for lunch. Whatd'ya say, Ori?" He extended one hand. "I help you fix the Seal, you help me avoid trouble, we both go home happy. Eh?"

[prythian]

"Lord Hades, while I would be glad to accept the offer, this is not something you can help with. And your attitude and words deny your ability to know what the Seal is, let alone why and where it is. You will not be allowed to aid or hinder us." Orias replied firmly. Honesty was a quality that the monks upheld, but this led to misunderstandings sometimes as they were brutal in their honesty. "It will be resolved by us in time."

[Dante]

Urm... Lord of the Underworld... in Atlantica. Fire + Water = 0. What was Hades doing in Atlantica, the home of the most water. Has he finally gone completely insane? Will the possibilities of things happening never end!? "Um... Do you guys need me to, like, go somewhere while you talk things out?" Dante really didn't need to be caught in flames. What would the Atlanticans think when they find someone burned in the ocean?

Dante walked away a good few steps to let the monk and Hades have their conversation, hoping that Hades wouldn't want to speak with him.

[nascent]

"GRRRRR... Listen bub, I don't exactly HAVE time, capiche? I mean, who the heck do you people think you are?!" The grim lord fumed, ignoring Dante altogether in his steadily growing fury. "You, my mortal 'friend', have got some nerve to be disrespecting me like this! Can't understand a Seal made by mortals? PUH-LEEEASE! You're talking to a guy who's been around since the Titanomachy -- I don't care how old this temple is, there's no way it goes back that far!!"

"Y'know what, I'm done talking to YOU. I wanna talk to your manager -- your head priest or bishop or whatever title you guys use. The guy in charge here. 'Cuz you've got one majorly unreasonable attitude problem, pal."

Hades folded his arms across his chest and glared impatiently at the monk, clearly refusing to leave until he got his way. Red flames flickered sporadically amongst his blue hair-fire, a sure sign that he was on the verge of completely losing his temper.

[prythian]

"He is not well, Lord Hades. You will not be able to talk to him, and he would have told you the same thing I have." The monk resolutely stood his ground. "Violence will not aid you in your quest, and learning of the Seal shall not enable you to fix it. I apologize, but it will not change the facts. Your word is not law here, Lord Hades. If you do not calm down, you have no chance of learning of the Seal at all."

[nascent]

"Why... you little...!!" Hades seemed about ready to explode with rage, huffing and puffing and burning with tall crimson flames.

Then, all at once, he stopped. It was like something had clicked. The red flames dissipated, replaced by their muted blue counterparts. The god of the dead took a long, deep breath, then turned his back to Orias and walked away a few steps before he began to speak.

"So, your boss is under the weather... hm hm hm... I think I'm beginning to understand what you've really been saying this whole time, Ori. Heh..." He shrugged. "Given the circumstances, I suppose I really can't blame you for reacting the way you have . . . after all -- correct me if I'm wrong here -- but the Temple is in something of a... 'transition'... right now, isn't it?"

He chuckled to himself dryly. "It seems my usual ability to sense these things doesn't work this far out -- still, I should have been able to guess." Hades sighed deeply, slowly turning back to face the monk. "Your boss, the man in charge . . . he's dying, isn't he Ori? And if I understand you correctly, the reason I can't do anything to help is because your boss is the Seal, isn't he? Or, at least a key part of it. Am I wrong?"

Hades' disposition now was remarkably, almost uncharacteristically calm... borderline sympathetic, even. Then again, death was his business -- the reaper was seldom a welcome guest, after all, so it wouldn't do to agitate the subject of an impending demise. Despite his callous, self-absorbed manner, experience had taught Hades a thing or two about dealing with mortal sensitivities. His quickest route to solving the distortion problem was, it now seemed, in appeasing those sensitivities.

That is, if he'd put two and two together correctly.