Acropolis 1.0 - Forum of the Gods

[Orlando]

Diana, you'll supply your own milk I presume?

*laughing* Indeed I do. Mother's Milk, to be precise and it is extremely nourishing. Can I offer you some?

Priestesses, dearie! "Prostitute" implies a monetary payment. My priestesses give love, and love is all they ask in return!

Ah, how clumsy of me. Your Priestesses will be well-cared for as they give birth to their love-children.



<minor edit by the Autarch>

[Nyx]

My Dear!! You have been hanging out with the wrong Suns!! No, nothing like that for me! Our interplay is a wondrous thing!! Our children, the Shadows, are perfection and grace!! Fluid beauty! The very children of the world delight in them, casting them on walls, intertwining them, shaping them into whatever their imaginations can conceive!

Wondrous things indeed, the chase of light and dark. Darkness ever fleeing, Light chasing after - confining, forcing darkness to hold shape as shadow. What great dominion you hold over your opposite, Surya.

Always the pessimist, eh, Kai? No, there is no Light without Dark; no Dark without Light. The words describing each would not exist if the other did not also exist. If one were eliminated, no matter which, the loneliness and pointlessness would stagger the imagination.

But, by all means, call our endless interactions Strife, if you wish. No reason you cannot benefit from our dance!

I can see why you would enjoy them, Kai. Shadows are not our children, Surya. They are simply me. They are the pieces of me that survive your gaze, briefly. They dance and flicker to amuse children, who don't know what they're laughing at. The children's words are correct, that shadows would not exist without the sun, but the loneliness and pointlessness... I think those are simply an example of human ignorance influencing language. In this, I agree with Kai. Strife it most certainly is. Because my agony is so beautiful, do not mistake it for ectasy in what you are doing, Surya.

Come now, Nyx! Surely you can see how the sun comes at you like a playful lover. You're simply a tease, hiding away like that.

And Surya, you're never going to get any if you don't tone it down a little. Subtlety is not the Sun's strongsuit I suppose.

Know you not the other face of love, Libidinal? The face that apologizes the next morning, for the evening's drunken abuse? The face that says with all certainty that it was her fault for MAKING him hurt her? Surely your 'priestesses' encounter more than just the gentle and humble petitioners, come to worship at their alters. Surely they also must defile themselves in your name with the men who come to them simply because they are too crude and crass to bed a woman who can choose.

Do not involve yourself in things until you know the whole story. I do not tease, I just have nowhere else to flee.

[Colu]

I find your attitude very disappointing. But it is what it is. I shall endeavor to avoid you.

*bows*

[Orlando]

Nyx, I respect your position and the Mother in me feels the urge to embrace you and soothe away your pain with my Mother's voice. But, I am sure I would be wrong in doing so, as your darkness and pain are part of your essence. Am I correct?

I find your words intriguing, Nyx, and I hope to listen to more of them in the future.

I offer my hand in friendship to you, dear Nyx.

[Cryak]

Nyx, I respect your position and the Mother in me feels the urge to embrace you and soothe away your pain with my Mother's voice. But, I am sure I would be wrong in doing so, as your darkness and pain are part of your essence. Am I correct?

There is in all of us the possibility of change. Each road, after all, splits at some point.
Which is the road to take?
I choose both.

[Nyx]

Nyx, I respect your position and the Mother in me feels the urge to embrace you and soothe away your pain with my Mother's voice. But, I am sure I would be wrong in doing so, as your darkness and pain are part of your essence. Am I correct?

I find your words intriguing, Nyx, and I hope to listen to more of them in the future.

I offer my hand in friendship to you, dear Nyx.

Diana, and good Aeon, I thank you. An old woman I used to listen to spoke a story to me, once.

There was a frog and a scorpion, on the side of a large and heavy stream. The scorpion told the frog, "Friend Frog, I need to cross to the other side. Will you take me?" The frog was surprised, but agreed to take the scorpion across the stream on his back.

Halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. While his limbs froze up and he died, he gasped to the scorpion, "Why? Now we'll both die!"

"What did you expect? I'm a scorpion. It's in my nature."

Surya is what he is. My outburst before was... regretable. I certainly regret that the first any of you see from me is that... horribleness. I know that Surya's nature and mine do not mix well. And he's right... there is beauty in that meeting. But knowing that he can't prevent his presence from hurting me, and knowing that that juncture is a thing of beauty... that doesn't cause me to enjoy it any more.

I'm content to leave things alone until we may find a way for him and I to avoid each others' presence entirely. When Surya has a choice in the pain he causes me, it would be more appropriate to perhaps cast judgement on him.

I do not tease, I just have nowhere else to flee.

Come on, look how she's dressed in the avatar picture... she was totally asking for it.

Krinn, on the other hand... knew quite well what he was saying. I think it's fair to judge him for his actions, do not you all?

[Libidinal]

Aw come on now, there's no need to judge any of our fellow deities! We should wrap them in an ecstatic embrace and whisper sweet nothings to them over candlelit dinner. We should indulge ourselves in red wine and swoon into oblivion!

You should know that all are forgiven in the throes of passion! So long as one has the endurance, of course... But what is a God of Love for, hm?

[Colu]

Libidinal, I believe I like you already! And if anything can hope to generate as much heat as the Sun, it is Love!

[Cryak]

We should indulge ourselves in red wine and swoon into oblivion!
But what is a God of Love for, hm?

In wine; truth.
With all your sweet talking I'd have to keep both eyes on your sleeves, should we ever play at cards.

[Nyx]

Aw come on now, there's no need to judge any of our fellow deities! We should wrap them in an ecstatic embrace and whisper sweet nothings to them over candlelit dinner. We should indulge ourselves in red wine and swoon into oblivion!

Autarch, save me from listening to the sermons of my fellow deities.

You should know that all are forgiven in the throes of passion! So long as one has the endurance, of course... But what is a God of Love for, hm?

Even those who don't deserve forgiveness? This is how those men continue to bring the same abused women back to them... because they think the passion of the moment is the same as Good. Done right, Love can be a great and wonderful thing, Libidinal. But the way you paint it on, it seems more like a great distraction at best, or a way of manipulating and abusing people at worst.

Perhaps you are more a god of Lust?

[Orlando]

Even those who don't deserve forgiveness? This is how those men continue to bring the same abused women back to them... because they think the passion of the moment is the same as Good. Done right, Love can be a great and wonderful thing, Libidinal. But the way you paint it on, it seems more like a great distraction at best, or a way of manipulating and abusing people at worst.

Nyx, again you get right to the heart of the matter and I could not agree with you more.

But, typical of a man, he only sees the ecstacy he feels during human sex and calls it Goodness. He does not truly know Goodness because his is only fleeting passion. Therefore, he searches and searches for Goodness in a million different beds.

Goodness can be found in the innocent and enthralling love of a child whose eyes see the beauty and wonder of the world.

Gods of the Acropolis, what other Goodness can you name?

[Virelai]

I will not necessarily claim that all will see the same Goodness in a thing as another, Sister.

However...

Enlightenment has been attained via the Music of the Spheres.
Joy, as well as Sorrow, have been expressed in a chord well played and sung.
Vision has been shared through physical and emotional pieces of Art.
Raw Emotion has been depicted through dance and movement.
Playfulness and Curiosity have been developed through juggling and acrobatics, as well as other entertainment and arts.

Our domains encompass both Goodness and Sorrow.
We must achieve the Equilibrium to attempt to bestow no harm upon those we serve.

...as I am sure Chime would agree.

[Herald of Sataniel]

Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

[Virelai]

*bows*

Such a response from you was not unexpected, Sister.

[Cryak]

Good and evil, Sisters?

I see only chance. With every spin of the wheel, your odds shift; everything could change. With every bed, of the millions he takes, his chances become better and better of finding the bed.

[Nyx]

Aeon, how do you think the wagers feel about being won or lost? What of their previous owners? Luck seems to be about risking all and gaining all. You speak of the potential gain. You do not speak of all the many others who lose. Luck seems to be at odds with Wisdom.

Libidinal speaks of transcendental moments of love, where all the ills in the world are forgotten. But these moments are rare, and people seem to spend their whole lives striving for them, to their loss. Love seems also to be at odds with Wisdom.

Verelai cautions that we do no harm to those we serve, which is just silly. We none of us would do harm to our faithful. We might, on the other hand, do harm to the rest of the world in order to benefit our faithful.

Diana, there is no goodness in the world. We're all in a losing battle to strife and suffering, trying to delay the inevitable. I will attempt to ease the suffering of mine own, as will the rest of you for your own. And in the end, Kai will laugh the same laugh.

[Virelai]

Ah, Nyx.

You quote me accurately, yet it seems I misspoke.

When I said "bestow no harm upon those we serve," I meant not only each of our own faithful, but all mortals throughout the lands. For in spite of what we seem, we are intertwined as the mortals are a fickle bunch who turn from one deity to another depending on their immediate needs. To us falls the responsibility of enhancing those lives who call upon us without harming those who do not.

Equilibrium remains a tough harvest to sow.

[Colu]

Things often seem to get twisted around. Sometimes because one misunderstands the other. Sometimes because one is intending to twist things. So. I would like to make my intentions clear.

My purpose here is to give the kind of aid that only the Sun can give to those who want and need it. Although the concept applies to all, I will use Nyx in some of my examples, because things are sometimes easiest to understand when polar opposites are compared.

If one wishes to live in Darkness, I would not dream of interfering. I hope that person finds what she is striving for in Nyx. If, however, one is living in Darkness and wants Light, I will provide it.

If one is living in a home that is damp to the point of unhealthy things growing on everyone and everything, I will dry it with my warmth.

If there is hunger, I will give the crops the Sunlight they need to thrive.

I do not yet know with whom my purpose puts me in opposition, if any. Such is not my intent. I hope any who have a problem with any of my actions will discuss them with me.

And I most certainly hope others will join me!

[Nyx]

"To us falls the responsibility"? We are the Gods, dear. There's no higher power defining moraly for us. Who gave us this responsibility?

No. I reject your assertion.

You may choose to take on that responsibility, but you don't speak for the rest of us.

[Virelai]

To whom much is given, much is expected, Nyx.

How you choose to make use of your power is most definitely your own choice. Yet it is by the mortals choice through sacrifice which determines how powerful each of us will be. Are the citizens of the City only interested in power and benefit for each of them individually? Or will they turn to those who do as little harm as possible to all while they enable others?

Perhaps time will tell.