| PRAISE THE SUN! | ||
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| Summary: Sun-loving warrior Kotal Kahn, having found himself in the city of Twisted, finds a friend dropping in. Literally.   |
TWISTED STREET The passage of time is all but a mystery here, to even the divine likes of Kotal Kahn. All that the Aztec God of War truly knows from this -no pun intended- Twisted Realm, is that he can see the sun cast its rays down upon the streets. This is all that he really needs for now. After a rather intensive session of alcohol drinking to get over the fact that he is yet again stranded in another dimension he knows nothing of, the Aztec Cuachic staggers out of the Usual Restaurant with a throbbing head ache. It's a good thing they charge nothing there or they would have most likely made a fortune on all the stranded, confused, hapless travelers this realm pulls into itself. But no matter, Kotal is no helpless, lost soul. He is the Emperor of Outworld! And he aims to make himself useful around here, just as his people did in ages past. By selling his services as a mercenary. Thanks to Serenity's information, he already has a intriguing job offer in the form of applying within the Devil May Cry agency. He only needs to find it now.. which is done quickly enough by making a double take around the corner to see that the building is right across the Usual Restaurant. Well that was simple enough, now he just has to get rid of this throbbing hang over. "Up the stair path, to the fire's edge!" Kotal raises his muscled arms upwards and a ray of concentrated sunlight shines upon him which he uses to start sun bathing and recover.
Kotal, if he's looking up, will see something odd at the end of his sunbeam. Fire traces a circle around the end of the beam in the sky, then it fills in with a dark red color. The fire disappears and then the circle brightens, becoming a vivid crimson. And as the circle emits bright red waves, warm and soothing, in all directions, a character appears over the orb, a single character of a written language. It looks Japanese. The character's meaning? 'Terasu'-- 'to shine'. And then? It drops out of the sky-- a white wolf with red markings and a fiery disk on its back. Though Kotal may want to look out, for a couple of reasons. Firstly because it can't fly. And secondly, as if summoned by Kotal's beam of light, the wolf appeared DIRECTLY ABOVE HIM, and is falling right towards the Emperor's head.
Okay, gonna have to stop using that pun. It's probably been done to death by now. Kotal Kahn is indeed looking up, he has no qualms about staring directly at the sun unlike most everyone. The glowing orbs that are his eyes narrow when he catches sight of the sign appearing over his head. The Kanji for 'To shine'. Odd, Kotal has never been able to summon Kanji over his head when praising the Sun, although he guesses that might just be how things work in this strange realm. As it turns out, it's something entirely different. "What in the world!!?" There are many ways that two deities can meet. A flying headbutt is probably one of the most undignified ones out there. *BONK!* "Aggh!!" Kotal Kahn is suddenly on the receiving end of a wolf slamming headfirst on his head and the blow staggers him considerably despite his Eagle Knight helmet. He hold his head and stumbles backwards before regaining his composure, looking far more angry now that actually injured. "What is the meaning of this!?" Asks the War God as he reaches for the handle of his macuahuitl. At least it doesn't look like he has a hangover anymore.
The impact with the ground dislodged something. Not the disk on the wolf's back. A small, shiny green thing falls loose from the wolf's fur. It looks like a bug. More specifically a green aphid. But the 'aphid' is perfectly round, and there's a tiny humanoid shape under it. As if the tiny humanoid's wearing it like a hat? The wolf and bug are both still for a long moment, until the 'bug' seems to collect itself, rolling to its feet. "Owwwwww!" Then it suddenly begins to bounce! Like a flea! A squeaky male voice emits from the glowing, bouncing thing. "Nice going, furball! You can't space out like that! We're on a MISSION!" Neither one seems to have noticed Kotal Kahn just yet. But the wolf is still down, it looks like, balanced on the fiery sun-disk there on its back. And what's a glowing flea going to do to a War God? They're clearly not going to hurt him. And now he has a better chance to look at them both.
Back at home, certainly in Outworld, a flying-or falling- headbutt would have meant the start of a random bout of Kombat. Here it seems that its quite a normal way to encounter other denizens of this world. If the wolf and its flea like passenger hadn't passed out on the ground after colliding with him, the Aztec Cauchic would have very well believed they did that on purpose. Normally, Kotal Kahn would simply scoff at the sight and leave, maybe whack the dog with the flat of his macuahuitl if he was having a really bad day.. which he is. But this is anything but a normal situation, he can feel some strange kinship with this white furred creature and its talking diminutive companion. A sight that calls for further investigation. "Ahem!" Kotal Kahn clears his throat and SMASHES the top side of his macuahuitl down on the ground, with enough impact to cause the ground to shake, chi energy traveling across the pavement to mimic a small quake. This is so he can get the flea and the wolf's attention. "Do you mind? I'm walking here!" He calls out after delivering his mini quake as he leans on his macuahuitl. He's not leaving them alone now until he gets an explanation, an apology.. or both! And while the possibility of Kombat is still entirely possible -it always is when Kotal Kahn is involved- he has the look of the kind of honorable warrior that wouldn't attack a foe that is down on the ground. Mind you, it still looks like he's ready to attack, just not yet.
The flea, on the other hand, leaps up to the wolf's head, where it again begins to bounce. "Hey, it's not like we had any control over it. I mean, one minute we were coming out of Konohana, and the next? Boom! Face, meet pain. Pain, face. Besides, what're you so worked up about? You're hardheaded enough. I'm surprised you even felt it!"
They landed much like how he did when he arrived. "A sorry would have sufficed." Says Kotal with an indignant scowl to the jumping flea. He places his giant serrated sword in front of him, pointing down, hands resting on the handle in a relaxed position. Guarded but not so threatening as before. "You said you came from Konohana? I suspect that is not located anywhere within Twisted City." Great, its Kotal's first day here and he's already doing the welcoming committee for other people. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
And then suddenly the wolf is moving. Just a little. The wolf growls slightly and then tilts its head the snap the flea into its mouth. It's not eating the talking flea, though. Instead it spits him out immediately onto the ground, and places a paw on him as if to weigh him down. "UGH, GROSS! I'm all covered in wolf slobber now!" Paying him no mind, the wolf looks to Kotal, sits-- still keeping that paw on the glowing flea, and lowers its head in a bow. At least the wolf is showing some respect. The ears lower a little too, perhaps in apology.
There is a very real limit to the Aztec's patience and he starting to look more and more aggravated the longer the flea continues talking. For a moment, there's a flash on his glowing eyes where he's considering start attacking the flea and the wolf just for the sake of shutting him up. Then, thankfully, it looks like the wolf is going to take care of that for Kotal's sake. Although the Cuachic is mildly disappointed that the wolf merely neutralized its companion rather than bitting its head off (which is a perfectly acceptable custom in Outworld) at least the flea stopped talking. "Finally some manners." Says the turquoise warrior in relief. He even straps his giant serrated blade on his back and returns Ammy's respectful bow. Now everything looks like its forgiven. "Now let us start over." Says he as he straightens back up. "I sense that you are no normal white wolf. Who... or what... may you be?"
Amaterasu
It was clear that this obnoxious flea was the wolf's defacto speaker, which would simply not do as it seemed that everything that came out of its mouth was aggravating the Aztec warrior to no end. Had the wolf let its speaker continue on making a fool out of themselves, there is a very real possibility that they would have an angry Aztec God of War to deal with in a moment or two. Kotal is reasonable enough when not angered, and he patiently waits for the wolf to find another means to communicate. He watches as it brings its stained black tail to the ground while the flea is silent, and begins to write something on the ground. "Hmm.." He muses as he recognizes more kanji, and his eyes begin widen more and more in realization. "Amaterasu!!" He cries out! No wonder this wolf looked familiar, its the Sun Goddess!! The giant turquoise skinned man falls to his knees, palms on the ground and head bowed. "Please forgive my impudence, my lady. I did not recognize you in your wolf form." Kotal has had a long history with the Eldergods, a bad history, namely with Raiden and Fujin.. but Amateratsu had always been a friend of the Aztlan Pantheon and its apparent that he seems to think of her as an ally.
Since he does seems to be her speaker, the flea-aphid notes, "Ammy's not quite got all her memories from way back, since she just woke up. So she might not remember you yet." At least now the glowing bug seems like he's a little more respectful. Seems Ammy's not-quite bite and stepping on put him in line!
Kotal Kahn stands back to his full impressive height. "Do you truly not remember me? It is I, Huitzilopotchli, the God of War. Your ever stalwart supporter and friend." Says he with his arms outstretched, perhaps in an attempt kick-start her memories with his very presence alone.
"Huh." This from Amaterasu's speaker. "I don't think I've ever heard of you either. And that takes some doing! Um... let's see, god of war? I know Hachiman-jin and Oyamazumi... you known by either of those names anywhere else?"
He watches the kanji that represents Japan and begins to understand, which is then followed by the speaker flea posing his own questions. "I have been known by many names across the millennia." Answers the turquoise giant. "Buluc, Inti, Ares, Tyr, Horus.. It is entirely possible that some group of people must have dubbed me without my knowing. For instance.. it has been long since anyone has called me Huitzilopotchli. I go by the name of Kotal Kahn now." "I know this much, however." Kotal once again takes a knee to be on eye level with the white wolf. "I recognize you as my friend, my lady. I am thus now bound to help you in any way I can to restore your memories."
The flea, however, has an idea! "Oh! I know! If you want to help Ammy, there's a way! See, when Ammy died, her power got split up into 13 Brush Gods, each one representing a different Brush Technique. We met Yomigami and Tachigami. If you see any odd constellations, point us to 'em! It might be one of the Celestial Brush Gods!" Yes, the flea did just say Amaterasu died. Which probably explains how she got like this, without much of her powers or many of her memories intact.
Again!? Lame quotes aside, Kotal at the very least looks pleased to see that Amaterasu is her ever perseverant self. Even in this de-powered wolf form, the God of War can still tell it still will not prevent her from recovering her past strength. This is merely a momentary set back than a permanent state of being. Kotal Kahn even offers a gentle smile and places his own gruff hand over Amaterasu's paw. Even now he can still feel the strength of the sun within her. He is certain that everything will turn out alright in the end. The turquoise Cuachic doesn't seem all that surprised when the flea says that Amaterasu died at one point. It is not uncommon for Gods to die just to be reborn, stronger than before. "A simple enough remedy to this dilemma." Kotal responds without missing a beat, confident that with his abilities combined with those of Amaterasu, they will be more than capable of obtaining these 13 brushes with no problem. "Except.." His confidence falters momentarily when he remembers an awful truth. "There might be a problem with that.." "Are these constellations you speak of in Twisted City at all?" He fears that Amaterasu and her companion don't yet realize they are stranded out of their realm.
At any rate, Kotal does bring up a good point. Amaterasu and her diminutive companion exchange a look. It's the smaller of the two who speaks up. "...Twisted City?" He pauses, and Amaterasu looks around, now that she has the chance. "Is that where this is?" the flea inquires. For herself, Amaterasu still looks like a very confused, lost canine. And the sound she makes is indicative of that. She doesn't recognize the place either. "I dunno. I think... they were part of Ammy at one time. So she'd probably die if cut off from them completely like that. Or they would. either way I bet she'd feel it! Feeling okay, Ammy?" Amaterasu stands in response to the question, and tilts her head up. Her tail raises, and and the tip of the tail moves in a circle. In response the same orb appears in the sky, with the kanji 'terasu' in it. The area around them seems pleasantly warm all of a sudden. The energy form the sun-orb might be energizing Kotal a little too! The orb quickly disappears though, and things return to normal. From the looks of it, that's normla-- Amaterasu does not seem worried about anything.
Or something like that. Kotal Kahn stands again after the brief exchange of solidarity to address the current issue of displacement. His eyebrows furrow, seen despite his Eagle Knight helmet that conceals most of his skull. He nods to the flea as he asks where they are and continues to watch the exchange between the speaker and the Goddess of the Sun. The sun orb summoned by Amaterasu does strengthen Kotal momentarily, and just as his strength returns, so does his hope. "Then not all may be lost." Says he. "I have been equally cut off from my own realm. I found myself in this strange suddenly after a fierce battle, and I have been told by one of the locals that there is no clear way of returning. However, that you still posses this connection with the rest of your world means that there are indeed loopholes to our predicament that can be exploited." "Alas, I am not the one to be speaking of this, knowing little of the nature of this realm still. But there may be someone here that can help us." "I was just on my way to seek the assistance of a renowned agency before we ran into each other. Perhaps you'd like to accompany me."
Amaterasu seems to agree, and falls into step with Kotal as he seems to be ready to depart for this agency. Oh, the flea has something else to say though! "Oh! That's right, I forgot, in all the confusion! I'm Issun the Wandering Artist!" Yes, Kotal can probably hear the capital letters.
He was about overcoming obstacles through great feats of strength and skill! "Then let us make haste!" Declares the macuahuitl wielder. "The sooner we meet with the locals, the faster we can engage in trials of Kombat!" And yes, he's enunciating the K rather clearly there, as if Kombat and combat were two completely different things. Once they fall in with him to follow his lead, Kotal Kahn gives a good nature scoff in return to Issun's introduction. "Well met then o' Wandering Artist and take heed!" "For you will have the honor of immortalizing our valiant deeds into painting!" | |
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