Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, Barry.
Speaker 1 00:00:02 Hey Al.
Speaker 0 00:00:05 What's the most popular delivery service among the undead. I
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Do not know
Speaker 0 00:00:12 Ghost to mates. It's time for compelled door.
Speaker 0 00:00:30 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compel duel. I'm Al
Speaker 1 00:00:34 And I'm Barry.
Speaker 0 00:00:36 And normally we are a single-player co DMD D and D five, the actual play podcasts. But this week we're doing something a little different
Speaker 1 00:00:47 Previously on compelled duel. There is not much left of the Australian embassy instinctively. You know that nobody that was inside that building could have survived, that
Speaker 0 00:01:00 She killed my parents,
Speaker 1 00:01:03 Leo and Kimra lonely knows how many of us you just killed.
Speaker 0 00:01:09 If you're looking for me to tell you that you made the right call by torturing and murdering a woman that was tied to a chair, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 They're all going to burn every single one of them.
Speaker 3 00:01:25 You are so close to the truth, but what you have to realize now is that that truth comes with a cost. Are you willing to pay it?
Speaker 0 00:01:42 No. Not if it's any of them,
Speaker 1 00:01:46 Look to bite me, just do to fix it.
Speaker 0 00:01:53 Layer of Val sign, you are under arrest by orders of the emperor.
Speaker 1 00:01:58 My advice is that if either of you have something up your sleeve now is the time to pull it out.
Speaker 0 00:02:05 I would like to give Leo one of my roles.
Speaker 1 00:02:09 Roll me a religion. Check
Speaker 0 00:02:12 Naturals. Funny 27. What do I go with? A 27 Barre
Speaker 3 00:02:23 Ferrara.
Speaker 1 00:02:27 Okay. Kimra in the flesh. I'm guessing.
Speaker 3 00:02:36 Sorry, not really. It's a lost story.
Speaker 0 00:02:46 And your vision goes blinding white. It is a beautiful day on the celestial plane and you are a horrible little death. God Barry. Please describe your character.
Speaker 1 00:03:24 I'm Kimra well, the Lord of bones, uh, I look like an eight and a half foot tall bargain Ben Gerard way with horns, you know, like kind of shaggy shoulder length, black hair purple all IRS eyes with slip pupils, big fangs with like silver jewelry on the end of them. Also, I can turn into a big black dragon, but that doesn't happen unless I'm coming to reap your soul. So,
Speaker 0 00:03:51 And what are you doing right now?
Speaker 1 00:03:54 Um, right now Kimra the Lord of bones is headed down a hallway in the big office, like structure of his pantheons little corner of the celestial plane, leading a large group of whaling souls of the damned and wearing a company polo shirt that is absolutely soaked through with various types of gore. He's got like a spleen hanging off of one horn and we're walking, we're walking
Speaker 0 00:04:25 The souls of the damned also coated in various types of gore from the battlefield where they just died. Look at you quizzically. And one of them who is missing like half of his face just raises the hand.
Speaker 1 00:04:40 Kimmerle closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. And for the fifth time in the last hour, yes, Brandon, what
Speaker 0 00:04:50 Brandon clears the space where his throat used to be spiffed, a little bit of blood onto the floor and says, where exactly are we walking to?
Speaker 1 00:05:01 Okay, I have to work so hard to be professional about this shit. And that is why I am still stuck in middle management. After 50,000 years, if you keep walking, you'll figure it out. He's going to grab dead Brandon by the back of his neck and just kind of steer him down a hallway and herd everybody into this big waiting slash conference room, looking chamber
Speaker 0 00:05:25 All of these souls that you have recently retrieved file into this conference room and sit down on a little metal folding chairs.
Speaker 1 00:05:34 There's like one of those portable retractable projector screens up near the front and Kim roll hustles up. And he yanks it down with one hand and then snaps a finger and a very corny, stereotypical corporate orientation video entitled your dead colon. What now starts playing. And he turns back around to the souls of the dam with a big fake company. Smile. I love my job. I love my job. Okay. Everybody just watched the orientation video. I have to go have a word with my department head. I'll be right back. Nobody move. Yes.
Speaker 0 00:06:15 They all moan back at you. It's very unsettling,
Speaker 1 00:06:20 Perfect team spirit. That's what we like to see. And he books it out of this room up a hallway. He's going to go for the nearest corner office on this floor.
Speaker 0 00:06:34 You walk down the halls of the department of afterlife, integration and soul recycling to this big corner office that has a little prissy nameplate on the door that just has Kiva written in your twins handwriting.
Speaker 1 00:06:49 He's just busting in. He's not bothering to knock afternoon Kiki. We've got a problem.
Speaker 0 00:06:57 Your twin sister, the goddess Kiva is sitting at their desk. They are about your height, very slender and dainty. They have a shock of white hair that is side parted over a severe professional undercut. They're wearing a very nice blazer and pencil skirt set all in black and they have a black half veil over the bottom half of their face. She looks up at you, light reflecting off of the semi-circles of scales around the outer edges of her eyes and onto her cheek bones taps one acrylic fingernail on the desk and says, 0.1, uh, what do you mean? We have a problem. Point two, you've got a little something on your, and she starts to like gesture at your horns.
Speaker 1 00:07:55 Kimra reaches up and feels around and then finds the spleen. That's hanging off of its horn and kind of throws it in the trash with a disgusted sound. He looks extremely nervous and kind of starts rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. So, uh, you remember that war we had on the agenda for Thursday?
Speaker 0 00:08:16 Yes. I recall.
Speaker 1 00:08:19 Uh, well, uh, due to some clerical oversight, things popped off a little bit early and now we've got an influx in the waiting room and I'm going to need some help with the paperwork.
Speaker 0 00:08:34 Kiva brings one hand up to pinch at the bridge of their nose. How many is it? Camera three. Oh, I can help you with three that's. No problem. Thousand
Speaker 1 00:08:48 3000
Speaker 0 00:08:50 Kevin nods slowly, and then pulls out a tablet. The drawer in her, very minimalist Chrome desk. You watch a display of the world, pop up on the big windows in her office. And she says, okay, I'm going to have to rearrange my schedule. Then remind me. What night was your date night? This week
Speaker 1 00:09:14 Kimra narrows his eyes at her. Don't be a bitch
Speaker 0 00:09:19 Per electric, blue eyes cut sideways at you. And you can tell she's smiling behind the veil. No idea what you mean, baby brother, do you want my help or not?
Speaker 1 00:09:31 I am younger than you by a measure of time. So short that the mortals haven't even figured out how to quantify it. And my date night is fucking Tuesday.
Speaker 0 00:09:44 Okay. Moving that wildfire to Tuesday then, and you watch her tap at the tablet and rearrange something with the charms that she keeps on. The three nails that she keeps long jingling.
Speaker 1 00:09:58 Oh Jesus Christ.
Speaker 0 00:10:02 And she says, thank you for your cooperation. Get out of my office.
Speaker 1 00:10:08 Oh yeah. It must be so nice to have an office to kick people out of. Meanwhile, every day I come to work, I do my silly little job. I read my silly little souls. Anyway, the shambling hoards of the dead are out in the conference room when you're ready for them. Their leader is named Brandon. He's a real smart ass. Have fun. If you need me, I'll be in my repurposed broom closet, working my way through my part of this paperwork.
Speaker 0 00:10:33 Make sure you have your intern help you. I know how you struggle with organization. And then she looks up from the tablet again at you raises her eyebrows and says, and maybe find a change of clothes. We have dinner at mom's tonight.
Speaker 1 00:10:48 I love today. I love today for me. I love today. I love my life. And Kimber will just put both hands up over his head and turns around and walks out. He's going to go back to his office, which actually is a repurposed broom closet. Take off his gore soaked outfit and kind of dig around behind his filing cabinets until he finds like a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt from last year's company picnic change into that, put the dirty clothes in a little plastic bag, and then head off towards the kind of bullpen area of the department of afterlife, integration and soul recycling. It's just this big open space with amaze full of cubicles in it. He's going to pause next to one of these cubicles shuffle nervously and go, uh, knock.
Speaker 0 00:11:40 There is a heavy sigh and then a voice says, what the hell do you want?
Speaker 1 00:11:51 Okay, he's going to go in the cubicle
Speaker 0 00:11:54 In this cubicle sits legendary war hero turned intern slash demigod do millennial sourness. Mia is a five, four ish slender figure wearing the plate mail that they died in with curly copper hair, about shoulder length, big copper eyes with slit pupils, patches of scales over their copper skin. They whip around from the computer that they're tapping at to look at you. Incredulous
Speaker 1 00:12:33 Kimra plants, both hands on his hips and gives them a big unhinged smile. So, um, things downstairs got a little nasty. And now I am bogged down with paperwork and have blood all over this and he holds up the bag and I need you to take it to the dry cleaners for me. I've got the paperwork. I just need you to handle the clothes.
Speaker 0 00:12:58 I would say that dry cleaning is not in my job description, but you never actually gave me a job description, self shower, I guess. Why not? This is my afterlife.
Speaker 1 00:13:09 Hey, I could have left you on that battlefield to die.
Speaker 0 00:13:12 I wish you had every day. I wish you had. And they shove back from their desk, grabbed this bag from you, just muttering. They used to build statues a may.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 Yeah, they're still building statues of me. And yet I still have to go over to my mom's place tonight and act like our family's not a fucking disaster. And that I actually enjoy her cooking. It's almost like consciousness as a curse and existence is just a sick game that we're all bound to lose. I need that back by five.
Speaker 0 00:13:45 If I thought it would work out, he put an arsenic in your coffee ever goddamn morning.
Speaker 1 00:13:50 Oh, so that's what that new sweetener is. If you need me, I'll be downstairs and accounting throwing myself on the mercy of the department head and hoping I can get this paperwork to pan out.
Speaker 0 00:14:00 They storm off grumbling.
Speaker 1 00:14:03 Okay? So in his sweat pants at all, Kim is going to head down to the elevator and go down to accounting.
Speaker 0 00:14:12 You had down to the accounting department of this building. It is a sea of beige, mostly staffed by people whose afterlives are either full of punishment or who were real big fucking nerds. When they were alive. You go to the main office. The nameplate says, if in God of secrets and knowledge, it's been personalized with like one of those nerd rune stickers. You know, the ones, uh, you know, not because you can read the script, but because he has told you that it is his name in a video game,
Speaker 1 00:14:53 Camera looks down at the sticker and smirks kind of fondly and then walks inside without knocking.
Speaker 0 00:15:00 If RN, the God of secrets and knowledge is sitting at his desk, he's playing with an Abacus that you got him for a holiday several hundred years ago, much like the floor that he is in command of. He's very beige unremarkable. Dude. He's wearing a polo shirt with a pocket protector. He's got big horn-rimmed glasses with the bridge taped because he has broken them at least four times. Brassy, wavy hair, big brass eyes. All Iris slept pupils. Key looks up as you come in, smiles and says, Hey, babe, what's going on? And then he squints and tilts his head to the side. Why are you wearing sweat pants at work?
Speaker 1 00:15:49 See, that's a actually tangentially connected to the whole reason that I came down here, which is because, and Kim roll slams a big pile of file folders on top of his desk. I fucked up and I need your help.
Speaker 0 00:16:05 He kind of leans back in the share and lifts. His glasses depends on the bridge of his nose, baby. I'm already swamped with the library thing I lost about 10,000 years of collected knowledge that I have to gather up again now. And several prices, artifacts, uh, tell Kiva has had thanks by the way. I really don't have time to
Speaker 1 00:16:24 Darling, sweetie love of my life, apple of my eye. Here's the thing my schedule got messed up and a war popped off about three days before it was supposed to. And I have to get all of these files in the system by the end of the night, because I'm having dinner with boss lady this evening. You know what that's like?
Speaker 0 00:16:48 He Grema says distastefully. Yeah. That's not going to be great.
Speaker 1 00:16:54 No, and you love me, right? You love me intact and not smote. Paperwork is not really my division. I can reap souls and kill people, but you could do that whole fun thing where you just snap your fingers and things automatically get filed. You can get through this a lot faster than I can. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Speaker 0 00:17:18 He slowly puts his head in his hands. I love you too. Do you want a pair of khakis? Because the sweatpants are not a good look. I mean, they're a good look, but not for the office.
Speaker 1 00:17:35 Kim role raises an eyebrow, Adam. No, I'm good. My intern will be back with my dry cleaning before I have to go be seen by people or that that's not the thing that's concerning me here. You keep extra khakis at the office.
Speaker 0 00:17:47 My boyfriend walked around, covered in blood and guts all day. Yes I do.
Speaker 1 00:17:52 You keep extra khakis in my size at the office.
Speaker 0 00:17:56 I've been waiting 5,000 years for a getting you into my pants. Joke.
Speaker 1 00:18:03 You make those numbers sing for me and you won't have to worry about it being a joke. All right, I've got to go handle the rest of this shit show. And he's going to lean over the desk and give him a little kiss and then turn around and leave
Speaker 1 00:18:18 Kiva a bit later, we find you sitting in your office as your work day winds down. It took quite a while to get that influx of souls processed. And your brother wasn't shitting Brandon was a real pain in the ass. As you finish up your last couple of files, you hear a creak as your office store opens and Kimberly is standing there. Much cleaner, no more blood, no more guts in apparently a freshly laundered work outfit. Just sort of perching one hip against the doorframe. All right. Crisis averted. Uh, I think if we hurry, we could still catch happy hour down at SciFest. Before we have to go into the Dragon's den and we could both use a little liquid courage. I'm buying.
Speaker 0 00:19:03 Are you actually buying this time? Or is it another one of those things where you say you're buying and then you forget your wallet. And then I buy,
Speaker 1 00:19:12 I have a tab and I'm offering you liquor. Don't be a jackass
Speaker 0 00:19:17 Fair point. And Kiva gets up, adjust their power suit, straightens up their hair and goes, all right, let's go.
Speaker 1 00:19:27 The two of you head out through the winding halls of your department. You see most of the staff packing up their stuff to go home for the day. Kim pauses to lean over the top of one of these cubicles and goes, Mia got hustle out there today. Thanks for all the help. And from the other side of this cubicle, you hear a snide voice reply asked Amman Yana, you incompetent, fuck Kimra will just blinks, nods, and then goes striding off, down the hallway towards the elevator.
Speaker 0 00:19:58 Kiva is going to give me a high five.
Speaker 1 00:20:02 They're still doing some filing. They're still sitting at their computer so they don't get up. Their hand just comes up over the top of the cubicle for you to slap it. Kimbrell saw that and you see his finger hovering over the close door button on the elevator. Like he's really thinking about it, but he lets you pile in behind him. This elevator is up against one side of the building you're in and has a round glass front on it that allows you to look out over this sprawling metropolis of the celestial plane, the golden hour of the afternoon, reflecting off the skyscrapers of various other pantheons scattered around this area. You get carried down the side of the building, let out a rich, gold and marble lobby and your brother discharges out of the elevator and through the revolving door of this skyscraper headed down the street. He doesn't care if you're following him at this point.
Speaker 0 00:20:59 Yeah, but Kiva is, she slips very gracefully through the revolving door with them.
Speaker 1 00:21:06 He's just grimacing as he stocks up the sidewalk. I'm a good boss. I command the respect of my employees.
Speaker 0 00:21:14 Kiva again, walking very lightly, very gracefully next to him says, oh, I get to use a new expression that are seen a taught me last week. L O L
Speaker 1 00:21:27 Oh yeah. I'm hit with the kids. I know what that stands for. Look out lady. And he jabs you in the ticklish spot on your side.
Speaker 0 00:21:35 Kiva jumps away like a cartoon character.
Speaker 1 00:21:43 I don't want to do this. All right. How shit face do you think we can get without being noticeable?
Speaker 0 00:21:50 Um, you stop me. If I start dancing on the tables, then I'll stop you. If you start getting into a fistfight, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1 00:22:00 Fine by me.
Speaker 1 00:22:04 You to approach a pretty nice upscale bar. There's a big fancy neon sign out front that just reads Cephas. It's pretty busy inside. You're in a high traffic neighborhood and there are lots of other young professional gods like yourself here to take the edge off after work. But the proprietor of the place, the goddess of debauchery sticks a hand up from behind the bar and waves that the two of you as you come in, she's this very short plump, buxom little lady with curly black hair, solid Scarlet, all Iris eyes with slit pupils and cute little almost bumpy horns coming up from her forehead. She's got a cocktail shaker going in the free hand that is not waving at you and just fixes you both with a big, bright pointy canine smile. Oh, here comes trouble. Have a seat.
Speaker 0 00:23:05 Hi, good to see you. And then Kiva. It's not at the bar.
Speaker 1 00:23:11 She snapped the fingers of the hand. She was waving at you and three cocktail glasses, zoom out in front of her from down the bar. And she just dumps the contents of the shaker into them snaps again, and they go zooming off to other patrons. And then she turns her full attention to you and just kind of purchased both elbows on the table and sits her chin down in one hand. Okay. Kimra I'm guessing you want the usual Kiva. Do you want to go back to your old order or are we still on the breakups special
Speaker 0 00:23:44 I'm to be real with you SIFA sweetheart. I have to talk to my mother tonight. So the breakup special rides and other week,
Speaker 1 00:23:52 She gives you this very endearing, sympathetic little pout and reaches out to pat at one of your cheeks across the bar. Keep your head high queen. Your crown is slipping. And then she reaches down under the bar and pulls out a full bottle of tequila and just plunks it down in front of you.
Speaker 0 00:24:13 Kiva pulls a metal crazy straw out of her purse, sticks it in and just slipped it underneath the veil.
Speaker 1 00:24:25 A few more seconds pass and some more magical cocktail shaker shenanigans happen. And then she puts a fruity, a little drink full of gold luster dust in a cosmos glass, down on a coaster in front of camera. He grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles before she pulls it back and goes, you're a fucking angel site. They put it on my tab and she reaches out and just flicks him in the forehead. Your taps maxed out motherfucker. Remember the last time you and Avara and came in here. You left me your cat as collateral. Kimra grits his teeth on the bar stool next to you and reaches down to slap at the front of his khakis in a way that you can tow to Lee, tell his bad acting nuts. Would you look at that? I think I must have dropped my wallet on the battlefield this morning.
Speaker 0 00:25:19 I'm going to shave your head while you sleep. Kiva pulls her black leather clutch out of her purse and just opens it up, pulls out her fucking credit card. Just pay off the tab. I know mittens is very particular about her bed.
Speaker 1 00:25:37 The site that grabs your credit card and opens her mouth to say something. But then the door of the bar swings open and a bunch of fucking finance bros from the Pantheon down the street, come in raising hell and she just closes her eyes size through her nose and goes to open you up a tab. Kimmerle takes a slow judgy sip of his Ambrosia, Cosmo and cuts his eyes sideways over at you up special. Huh? Still going through it.
Speaker 0 00:26:11 If you must know it's been rough. The last couple of weeks, she's dating a photographer.
Speaker 1 00:26:19 Yeah. A photographer with her own studio space. At least that's what I've heard around the office.
Speaker 0 00:26:26 He was going to set them on fire
Speaker 1 00:26:31 Your brother on the bar stool next to you, erupts into flames and Shuri weeks. You guys are regulars here. Nobody else really looks at you
Speaker 0 00:26:43 And studio space. I'm the goddess of the dead. And I have my own condo.
Speaker 1 00:26:50 Kimberly's still burning. He's just screaming.
Speaker 0 00:26:54 Don't be a baby. We all know you can put yourself out anytime you like.
Speaker 1 00:26:59 This is true. After a minute, he gets fed up with milking it and just reaches up to snap his fingers and uses his own inherent divine ability to put out the flames. The end of one, eyebrow is still smoking as he looks over at you. You know, not that my opinion matters, but I would say that these are risks that come with the territory of dating. The goddess of love. Love is fickle, right? Did you guys ever decide who got the dogs?
Speaker 0 00:27:28 I got the dogs. They're my dogs.
Speaker 1 00:27:32 Oh, well good for you. And if you're asking for my advice here,
Speaker 0 00:27:37 I'm not,
Speaker 1 00:27:39 This is why you should try for a little something called compartmentalization. I've been with Avara and for how many millennia now. And he has not so much as been over to my apartment once.
Speaker 0 00:27:52 That's because your apartment is so full of biohazardous materials. That it's dangerous. Even for us,
Speaker 1 00:27:58 I'm a hazard to life. It's my whole thing. It comes with the territory. I do have a slice of the original pizza still under my bed, though. It has developed its own system of government. Do you think mom will be proud of me?
Speaker 0 00:28:12 No. And the real question is, are you proud of yourself?
Speaker 1 00:28:18 He looks a bit wounded at that. Listen, I'm just trying to give myself any leg up. I can for that big promotion coming up, we both know that I'm the family fuck up and you're a shoe in for it. But I think we also both know that you don't want it. And I would really love to get out of my broom closet,
Speaker 0 00:28:38 Kiva size and pushes the bottle of tequila a little bit further away from her. So you're still chasing after her approval.
Speaker 1 00:28:48 I'm not, I'm trying to advance my career. There's a difference.
Speaker 0 00:28:52 Our mothers, our boss, there's really not
Speaker 1 00:28:56 His eyes narrow at you. And he trains the rest of his drink before motioning at SIFA for another one. Yeah, it says mommy's little angel. Enjoy your breakups special. Anyway, just promise me you won't do something stupid, like going and engaging in a fling with a mortal
Speaker 0 00:29:16 Kiva rolls their eyes. I'm lonely. Not an idiot.
Speaker 1 00:29:21 Look, I'm just saying you remember that really nice new girl in the department. Uh what's her face got us a pestilence. Really sweet girl. If you ignored the bugs and the oozing.
Speaker 0 00:29:35 I recall. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:29:37 Well, a couple of months back, as far as the office gossip tells me she got involved with some mortal guy, he got sick. She defined her nature to make him better. And the next thing you know, boom, she's on the Larry project.
Speaker 0 00:29:51 Y careers go to die.
Speaker 1 00:29:57 Exactly Kiva, you know, very well that the O'Leary project is something that your Pantheon is working on in conjunction with a couple of the other skyscrapers in your corporate neighborhood, where there is a planet co orbiting, the planet Saleya that most of you all have divine Providence over. It is early on in its development. Sentient life. There has not gotten too far yet. It's where Pantheon sent problem children.
Speaker 0 00:30:34 Kiva shakes her head and stands up readjusting the veil over the bottom half of her face. In any case, no, I've resigned myself to the fact that the closest thing I'm getting to a great love is you. And then she leans in, gives them a little squeeze and says, we're going to be like, let's go
Speaker 1 00:30:57 Kimmerle scoffs. And kind of gives you this lighthearted shove and then looks down to check it as watch, ah, shit. Yeah, you can afford to be fashionably late, but I can't siphon a breakup special for the road. Please
Speaker 0 00:31:14 Make it to Kimra you find yourself standing in front of your mother's house. It is so bad to look at, you know, those like eighties McMansions that have every architectural feature. You know, they have the lawyer foyer and they have the rotunda and they have the fucking skylights and shit. It has windows and like five different styles. It is horrible to look at and it is made worse by the fact that it is the worst shade of like bright, minty neon green Kiva standing next to you raises the bottle of tequila in her hand and says, all right, 1, 2, 3 chug.
Speaker 1 00:32:15 Oh yeah. Bottoms up
Speaker 0 00:32:18 Fortified by liquid courage. Kiva starts to walk inside.
Speaker 1 00:32:24 Kimra looks up at this ugly, ugly house. His childhood home drains his breakup special and throws the empty bottle into a nearby rhododendron Bush, and then walks inside
Speaker 0 00:32:39 You and Kiva walk into this McMansion. As soon as you walk in, you hear your mother chattering about something and you see your half-brother a Dryas the God of fermentation skid through the foyer. He would appear to a person to be like 15 or 16. He's got the mall golf side bangs. He could change his appearance anytime he wanted, however he wanted, but he has decided to dye his hair black, like with a box dye. And he's wearing a little sweater vest
Speaker 1 00:33:16 As he skids by Kimbrel sticks, a hand handout for a high-five.
Speaker 0 00:33:20 He gives you a distasteful look and does not give you a high-five. You are not cool enough for this kid.
Speaker 1 00:33:28 Not anymore. Ah, sunrise, sunset. He just kind of stands there with his hand up left, hanging for a couple seconds, but then turns around and walks into the dining room.
Speaker 0 00:33:41 Kiva, pat you on the back and walks in with you around this table. Sit I Fona the creator goddess of your Pantheon, your mother she's wearing a power suit to much like Kiva is, but somehow stiffer and with bigger shoulder pads, she is talking to somebody on a Bluetooth earpiece, like in a nineties movie. Yeah, no, I understand. See, the thing about that is that I really need that deadline met, uh, or things are going to get and the ground rumbles under your feet, as she says messy.
Speaker 4 00:34:24 Okay.
Speaker 0 00:34:29 Next to her sits REM Russ, the God of time, your father, they are divorced. He's got like the hippie headband on, but he is like visibly an old man. He's got bad facial hair. He's wearing a tie dyed t-shirt and some sandals. He is smoking a joint at the table.
Speaker 1 00:34:50 Kim role, just kind of stares into the middle space for a second and then sits down in the nearest empty chair. You know, not that I don't like seeing the little rug rats every now and again, but uh, what are the bastards doing at dinner?
Speaker 0 00:35:04 Your father immediately fires back. It's my weekend with them camera don't be a Dick. And as Kiva takes a seat, she says, are they sleeping in the van with the wizard painted on the side? Or
Speaker 1 00:35:22 Kimra reaches under the table to slap her five?
Speaker 0 00:35:25 Oh yeah. She slapped you back. No question. As your father says, cat, if I told you, once I told you a thousand times, the van is a Demi plane, I can make it as big inside as I want. You would know that if you ever came to visit your old man, Kiva, adjust the half veil over her face and go, I'd love to, but I'm allergic to that perfume that your girlfriend wears. Not that I'd ask her to change it. I know it's very in with people our age.
Speaker 1 00:35:57 No, I don't think real can hold it together through that. He does put a hand up over his mouth
Speaker 0 00:36:02 On Kivas other side, your half-brother a dry us goes, uh, why do we have to do this every time? And from between him and your father, there is a snore as your half sister, our Sienna, the goddess of dreams. She's a young girl. She looks to be about 12 or 13. She has blueish silver hair tied up in a big fluorescently pink scrunchie. And she is wearing FIDI pajamas patterned with her divine symbol, which is a Crescent moon and a cloud. And she is asleep face down on the table.
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Hey, I love these kids,
Speaker 0 00:36:41 The ground rumbles again, as your mother adjusting her fantasy, Tiffany bracelet on her wrist says everybody behave.
Speaker 1 00:36:53 Yeah, Kimberly's used enough to being the black sheep of the family. That he's not really scared of their mom. That much
Speaker 0 00:37:00 Kiva next to you in her chair does shrink a little bit and then says, dinner looks lovely, mother, is there a garlic bread? Can someone pass the garlic bread, please?
Speaker 1 00:37:13 Camera's going to pass her the garlic bread and then use that movement as an excuse to take his little champagne flute of what I'm sure his fantasy Martinelli's and pass it behind her back over towards the driest. Hey man, help your brother out.
Speaker 0 00:37:29 Your mother is distracted, dishing out ZD as you're doing this. So a dry is cuts. His eyes. Overside was at you and his, his back lots in it for me,
Speaker 1 00:37:40 Kimra glares at him and then reaches into his pocket and digs out his wallet and pulls a $5 bill out. You're a cold little mother fucker. You know that
Speaker 0 00:37:50 Kiva kicks you super hard in the shin. As she sees you, get your wallet out of your pocket asshole.
Speaker 1 00:37:59 It has my brother that got a fermentation boost up my apple cider.
Speaker 0 00:38:04 Yeah. He runs a finger along the rim of your little champagne flute of apple cider. And it looks funky.
Speaker 1 00:38:13 Cool chugging. It,
Speaker 0 00:38:16 It tastes vile, but this is the strongest apple based liquor you have ever had in your life.
Speaker 1 00:38:28 Yeah. So how was everybody's week
Speaker 0 00:38:38 As Kiva also Hans, a champagne flute and $5 over to your younger brother. Your mother says not as eventful as yours has been sweetheart. You know, I noticed an anomaly in the reports coming up from accounting today. One of the new interns pointed it out. I think his name was Bradley. Brendan
Speaker 1 00:39:02 Fucking Brandon. All right, listen. I was in a bit of a hurry this morning. I misread the schedule, you know, Tuesday and Thursday, both start with a T and the, uh, the world war got kicked off a little faster than we thought it was going to, but it's okay. All the paperwork's done. All the souls got processed. I've got this, it's under control. I'm good at my job. And you know, speaking of which, given that you just broke your own rule about not talking shop at the dinner table about that promotion,
Speaker 0 00:39:38 The ground starts to rumble again, and Kiva looks at you sideways. Like she thinks the last one of your brain cells has finally curled up and died in there. Has your brother says, honey, do you really think now's the time to ask for a promotion really
Speaker 1 00:40:03 Well. I mean, if I'm being Frank, this seems like a perfect time for me to get out of here, go back to my meet damn apartment and close out this hell day with my cat, a pina colada and the newest episode of the fantasy bachelor. But these things don't always happen at our convenience. Mom, do they,
Speaker 0 00:40:21 Kiva is gripping so hard onto the edge of the tablecloth. It has just fisted up in her hands under you. You feel your chair go from dead wood to a living tree. As your mother gets angry at you and the branches just start to snake around you. She gives you this very saccharin smile and says, how about we talk about this tomorrow at the office, baby? How's that sound
Speaker 1 00:40:54 Because he is restrained. Kimbrel cannot throw his hands up over his head in the dramatic gesture that he intends to. It kind of gets cut off at the elbow and he does angry little jazz hands across the table. Oh, isn't this just typical. I spend my third overtime shift this week, banging my horns into the wall, over a job I never even asked for. And the second I asked for a little bit of recognition, or you forbid a leg up, you get pissed because this is all your grand design and how dare I want more. This is stupid. Let me out. I'm going home.
Speaker 0 00:41:34 Your mother looks at you. So at that big saccharin smile and goes dialing. We all have to act according to our natures. And then she cuts her eyes at Kiva and says Kiva, sweetie, you're storming a little bit. And yeah, sure enough. There is a light dusting of sand, the coalescing around the bottom of your sister's chair. She makes a little noise and just goes back to her dinner does not say anything. And then your mother looks back at you and says, you're a part of this family, young man, each is 80. I made it special.
Speaker 1 00:42:13 You made everything, mom. How special is it?
Speaker 0 00:42:17 Your father snorts and guess, yeah, at least in this Pantheon. And as he says that much more rapidly than yours has share sprouts to life and branches just go through his shirt and he looks down at them and at the acre that is whizzing out around one of them and goes, I mean, camera, you shouldn't speak to your mother that way.
Speaker 1 00:42:42 Yeah. And you shouldn't have cheated on her after 80,000 years of matrimonial bliss, but Hey, everybody gets a Mulligan. He whips back around to glare at his mom. You want me to act according to my nature, fine God, a death. Here we go. He smacks at the living tree that his chair has now become and it shrivels and dies beneath his hand and just crumbles away as he stands up
Speaker 0 00:43:15 Down the table, our Ciena finally wakes up. Hmm. Was it
Speaker 1 00:43:22 Nothing new kiddo? Just me being the family fuck up as always hot tip. When you and your brother get old enough, start looking into those fancy study abroad scholarships to go to college and the nine Hells or something. Get the fuck away from here. As soon as you can. And then he storms out of the dining room, out the front door, onto the front porch and just starts pacing and chain smoking.
Speaker 0 00:43:46 You're out there for a few minutes before a trickle of sand washes over the front step. It is exquisitely uncomfortable. It immediately gets in all of your clothes and Kiva comes and sits down the steps next to you mind if I bought one,
Speaker 1 00:44:08 He pulls out another cigarette and holds it towards them without looking at them. These things will kill you. You know,
Speaker 0 00:44:18 Very funny. And she lights up, start smoking next to you. You know, I found takeout containers in the garbage again.
Speaker 1 00:44:29 Yeah, of course he did. When's the time you actually saw her cook anything,
Speaker 0 00:44:34 The primordial soup and that shit was disgusting.
Speaker 1 00:44:40 Yeah. You know, I don't mean to ruin everything. Right.
Speaker 0 00:44:50 Well, and another flurry of sand falls out of their hair as mother always says he can act against our natures.
Speaker 1 00:45:03 Yeah. That's the fucked up thing. I mean, I know I talk a lot about wanting the promotion and the corner office and the cushy job security and everything, but I'm down there on the prime material every day and the mud and the blood and the shit. And I look at the mortals and they could just change, you know, wake up one day and decide everything's going to be different and there's consequences for it. Sure. And judgment everything else. But they've got the choice and it kind of fucks with me that I feel jealous over that.
Speaker 0 00:45:53 You notice Eva's hand shaking a little bit around her cigarette. Yeah. Well the corner office, isn't all it's cracked up to be anyway.
Speaker 1 00:46:06 I'll have to take your word for it. I guess. Not like I'll ever see the inside of one myself, Kim roll stubs, a cigarette out and stands up off the stair. You know what? I might not have a lot of choices, but I got the choice to not go back in there. I'll pay for it at the office tomorrow. I'm sure. But I'm gonna go
Speaker 0 00:46:30 Kiva. Shorter's tightened a little bit, but they tilt their head to the side nod. Right? I am going to have to go back in there. So I'll Smith things over as well as I can. I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 00:46:50 He's going to head down the walkway off the front porch and then just fully dragon out in the front yard and take off into the sky. It's very edgy.
Speaker 0 00:47:00 Kim REL, as you fly away dramatically, Edgerly probably thinking to yourself that looks bad as fuck you here next to your ear. You left your cat at the bar, dumb ass
Speaker 1 00:47:19 Kiva. We pick back up with you, your sitting in your office, most of the way through your Workday, just finishing up some paperwork. You saw your brother come in morning, looking, hung over and upset. But then he headed down to the prime material plane to reap his souls as he is wanting to do all in all. It's a pretty quiet, normal day until you see the little Intercom on your desk, light up and buzz, your mother's voice comes through the speakers Kiva. Sweetie, do you mind coming up to my office for a second? There's something I wanted to talk with you about
Speaker 0 00:47:59 Kiva contemplates, taking out the little airplane bottle of vodka in her desk drawer resists. And then they push the button on the Intercom and say, I'll be right there, mother. And then yeah, they're going to go.
Speaker 1 00:48:12 You continue on your way down a hallway into this glass elevator that goes up the outside of your building. As you are rising quickly up to the top floor of this skyscraper. You see something kind of weird and you think it might just be a trick of the light or maybe you're just tired. But for some reason, the building next to yours looks a little bit closer than it used to. Like it is moving into the physical space of your workplace, but you don't have a lot of time to think about it. As this elevator carries you up to the very, very top floor of your building to your mother's office suite. There's a reception area right outside the elevator and your mother's secretary. One of them today, it's the sun goddess, but she and the moon goddess switch off they're married is sitting at a computer typing feverish early as her fingertips glow. She looks up fixes you with a big bright smile. When I say bright, it does glow. It hurts your eyes. Oh, hi honey. She's ready for you. Go on in
Speaker 0 00:49:25 Kiva. Hess's great. Yes. I'm very excited. And then squinting, she moves in towards the office.
Speaker 1 00:49:36 Your mother has the biggest, most luxurious corner office in existence. Two of the walls of this room are just solid plate, glass window, looking out over the bustling metropolis of the celestial plane. She has like modern art sculptures on her mahogany bookshelves, not fun, modern art, weird modern art, the kind no one actually enjoys. And she is sitting at a big intricately carved wooden desk with little off shoots of branches and leaves growing out of it talking feverously on her fantasy. Bluetooth headset. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I understand that. Uh huh. Uh huh. Well, per my last email, we already had that covered. So you might want to go back and check again. Awesome. Glad that's cleared up. Talk to you later. Bye. And then she clicks at her headset and smiles brightly up at you. Kiva baby. Thank you for coming so fast. I know you're busy. Can you have a seat for me please?
Speaker 0 00:50:48 Of course. Kiva sits in one of the exquisitely uncomfortable chairs in front of the desk.
Speaker 1 00:50:56 Your mom glances over and types of quick email at her computer before turning back to you, perching her elbows on the desk and stapling her fingers in front of her face. So I'm sure you've heard from deity relations about that new promotion opportunity. That's coming up for department heads and middle management, right?
Speaker 0 00:51:16 Uh, yes, of course it was in the office newsletter and you know, I don't like to skim
Speaker 1 00:51:23 Anyway. I felt like I should be more forthcoming with you about why this new positions opening up. I'm sure you saw on the way up. Pathy a closer proximity of things around us. We're doing a merger Kiva. I'll just put my cards out on the table.
Speaker 0 00:51:49 Um, merger. That's wonderful. What brought this on?
Speaker 1 00:51:55 Well, everybody in this office park has been working. Their hind ends off ever since the inception of intelligent life down on them prime material. And given how quickly the mortals are advancing. There's been a lot of travel and trade and cultural crossover. And as you know, as much as the mortals are our responsibility, their belief does shape everything here on the celestial plane turns out our folks are getting a little too chummy with the Pleiadian Pantheon. And if we don't merge, then we risk our entire company culture shifting as soon as the belief system does, the merger should be done by the end of the week. However, that means that the company size is about to double, which means that we're going to need more management. We're creating a new department, that's going to supervise all of the previous subsidiary departments. So the department of afterlife integration and soul recycling department of reverence and worship, um, department of divine intervention marketing with the increased client load, it's all going to come under the umbrella of something that we're calling the department of mortal relations. And we're going to you to hit that up.
Speaker 0 00:53:28 Kiva leads back in her, share a little bit. Me mother, I specifically did not put my name in for that promotion. I'm very happy with where I'm at. And I think we're all very happy with me being where I'm at. I Excel at my job. I can think of five people off the top of my head that do want it. I know Cameron put his name in at least once
Speaker 1 00:53:57 Sweetie. Kimmerle can't even make it through a family dinner without causing an uproar. You really expect me to bring him into meetings with executives from a whole other Pantheon.
Speaker 0 00:54:09 Um, how about that girl in ritual sacrifice and take, I know she's been itching to get out of the slaughter house.
Speaker 1 00:54:17 You see your mom pull up a spreadsheet on her computer and squint as she tries to figure out who you're talking about. Oh, her, well, yeah, we need to keep her where she is. Not everybody in the office has the stomach for that job
Speaker 0 00:54:36 I know of are in put his name in for it. He's great at his job. And you can always get someone to fill the accounting slot mother. My job is a little more specialized.
Speaker 1 00:54:45 Oh, I'll be Frank with you. If RN almost had it, I actually had him up here right before you to break the bad news and you're right. He's graded as job, but I know who I trust Kiva. I know who I trust to do. What's right. For all of us
Speaker 0 00:55:04 Mother don't you think this reeks of nepotism
Speaker 1 00:55:08 Says the person who just tried to convince me to give Kimmerle their job.
Speaker 0 00:55:14 Yes. And there's a reason that between the two of us, he has the public facing job. Mother he's suited to it
Speaker 1 00:55:22 Is suited to it because he likes attention. Not because he knows how to actually do his job. Look, sweetie, I get it. You didn't put your name in for the promotion, but you're taking it Kiva any further questions
Speaker 0 00:55:40 With their hands in their lap. Kiva starts picking at her cuticles with their fingernails as a little dusting of sand washes out of the ends of her sleeves. Am I dismissed?
Speaker 1 00:55:56 Yes, of course. Go finish up your paperwork. We'll have a meeting with the other Pantheon in the morning,
Speaker 0 00:56:06 Right? Absolutely. And then they're going to stand up and walk out.
Speaker 1 00:56:14 When you get back to your office, there is a Supreme leaf milk toast entity pacing, the hallway front of your office door. If RN, the God of knowledge and secrets, your brother's boyfriend snaps his head around to look at you as you approach and goes, oh, thank goodness. You're back. I need to ask you something
Speaker 0 00:56:39 Kiva who was fully intending to walk into her office and scream into a throw pillow for a few minutes, stops size and says Ivara. And if you're asking me for anniversary gift ideas, again, I just implore you to not get posted notes for the fourth year in a row.
Speaker 1 00:56:58 They were personalized post-it notes and he loved them. First of all, second of all, speaking of the person in question, have you heard from Kim roll today?
Speaker 0 00:57:10 No, not since he got in this morning, he went down to the prime material early
Speaker 1 00:57:17 If Arinze eyebrows pinched together. And he runs a hand back through where he has his bronze hair tied back in a low ponytail. No, no, he didn't. He said he was doing that and he came down to my office and he said some supremely worrying shit.
Speaker 0 00:57:35 W what do you mean?
Speaker 1 00:57:37 I don't know what I mean. I was hoping you could help me figure out what I mean. He walks in right before lunch and says something about being fed up and being burnt out and not having a choice and wanting to have a choice and then goes back to work. And I've been trying to page him for hours because it's date night tonight. And he won't answer me.
Speaker 0 00:58:03 Hmm. I don't like that. Kiva kind of defensively crosses her arms over her chest and goes, all right. I'm sure there's a logical explanation.
Speaker 1 00:58:17 I'm not sure there is. I asked me they can't get him either
Speaker 0 00:58:22 Kiva thinking back on her conversation with their brother last night, purses, their lips behind the veil and says, all right, hit, what exactly do you think is going on?
Speaker 1 00:58:37 You watch a weird thing happened with the lenses of Ivara Ann's glasses. He braces one hand against the doorframe of your office. And you can see in numerable words, in infinite languages, scrolling across the glass, as he looks out upon them, he kind of staggers to the side a little bit and grips at the doorframe a little harder. I think that there is information in my filing cabinets that Kimra could have gotten to if he wanted about certain artifacts down there on the prime material that can moralize and a mortal being and give them a choice. He was angry about not having a choice. And I think he's about to do something stupid.
Speaker 0 00:59:29 Oh, fuck. Kiva raises both hands and kind of buries their fingers and their hair. Okay. I'm sorry. I need a moment to think. I,
Speaker 1 00:59:44 We might not have a moment Kiva. I don't know what he's thinking about doing, but it's not good.
Speaker 0 00:59:51 Where do you think he's going?
Speaker 1 00:59:54 His glasses do that weird thing again, where you can see in comprehensible amounts of information scrolling across them, and then he purses his lips and nods. I think I know let's just, and then he sticks a handout and this swirling portal of magic that looks almost like a heat haze appears in the hallway in front of you.
Speaker 0 01:00:19 Kiva goes through it. No question
Speaker 1 01:00:22 You emerged through this portal onto the prime material plane in the middle of a desert of red sand. These rolling dunes, stretching out. As far as you can see beyond you on any side, you orient yourself. After this portal closes behind you look around and see that there are decimated ruined bits of a large building coming up out of it. Stone that has been demolished and cast asunder shelves that have been toppled and are rotting. You see Avara and sprint across one of these sand dunes and skid to his knees by one of these toppled bookshelves, just digging up handfuls of sand and tossing them aside, trying to get to whatever's under it. This used to be a library, belonging to my priesthood. Thanks for the sand storm. By the way, we're looking for a box, a big black box with a silver lock,
Speaker 0 01:01:29 Alright, take over. And then he, Eva raises their hands slowly and huge piles of sand around them. Also start to raise. And once their hands are all the way above her head, she flicks them out to the sides and the sand starts whirling around them.
Speaker 1 01:01:54 And by taking this action, you unveil the full ruins of this library. It was a little side project for you. You're not really sure if you remember it, but whatever this place used to be, it was fully demolished by the act of nature and random chaos and death that you brought down upon it. There are mortal bodies modified by the sand that are just littered across what's left of the stone floors of this place. And despite the fact that the remains of these people are likely members of Yvonne's priesthood. He pays them no mind. He is just digging through the shelves that have been unearthed by you pushing all this sand away, pulling out books, shoving them in a backpack and trying to claw through cabinets and things, looking for something. Okay. Kayla is going to start looking as well, just pouring through shelves, looking for this box that he described.
Speaker 1 01:02:56 You find in these shelves, a vast amount of mortal knowledge. Again, you didn't pay too much attention to this assignment whenever you did it. But now that you're down on the ground, you can tell that this place was probably the primary repository of knowledge in the mortal world. Before it was destroyed behind you. You hear of are and throwing books and artifacts across the room, into the sand where they skid away from him. There's this artifact at knife. As far as I can tell, it's been translated from every language on this planet. As something called the end, it's a blade of metal from the prime material plane forged in a portal to the celestial plane. It's a bridge. It can impart divine effects on mortals or mortal effects on the divine. And I think it's what he's after. So we're, we're looking for a box and we're looking for the knife that's in it. All right. Um, is there anything distinctive about it besides the locker or am I just, I wouldn't know, Kiva, a lot of shit got lost in the sandstorm that destroyed my library from behind you. You hear the rustle of sand being brushed away from something, a metallic thunk, several quick footsteps. And then you feel the sharp fiery pain of a blade lodging itself in your back son of us and Kiva, it hurts. It hurts in a way that you are not familiar with because you have never experienced mortal pain before.
Speaker 1 01:05:02 You've never had to feel anything like bleeding or shock or having a punctured lung before, but you feel it now, you can't breathe. You feel that within your body, there is something horribly wrong and right behind you, a voice in your ear says, do you know what it's like spending your entire career, your entire existence, trying to bring people knowledge and enlightenment, and then to lose it all to one random sandstorm, one simple act of chaos. Oh, sure. We're doing a merger. We're ushering in the next great age of the mortal realm. And we're putting the wheel in the hands of someone who only knows how to destroy the blade and your back twists a little further. And for the first time you experienced the feeling of ICAR bubbling over your lips, don't take it personally, Kiva. We all have to act according to our nature.
Speaker 0 01:06:35 Kara, you find yourself on a battlefield as you often do. You are surrounded by the newly dead. As you walk through the chaos and the carnage and lift them from their cold bodies. The air is thick with the smells of blood and smoke and the sickening thuds of artillery shots, finding their marks. You stand in the middle of all of this bloodshed, untouched by it. And then your pager goes off.
Speaker 1 01:07:21 Kim roles like halfway through pulling a soul out of a dead body. Here's the pager go off and just goes, God dammit and drops the soul back into the body. And that person gets to live. Now he wipes some of the gore on his hand, off onto his khakis, and then pulls the pager out to look at it
Speaker 0 01:07:42 In the time, since the invention of the pager, you have gotten very familiar with what an alert for a death looks like. You have silenced the alerts for all the deaths on this battlefield. So this is definitely a more distant one, but as you pull it out and it gives you the standard location and urgency, the pager in your hand, pops and smokes
Speaker 1 01:08:11 Fucking up
Speaker 0 01:08:14 The flickers as another pop in another spark fly off of it. And then it goes dead.
Speaker 1 01:08:21 Did he get the location and everything, at least before it did that, He kind of just stands in the middle of all this carnage staring down at the smoking corpse of his pager. All right, this is just what I needed today. I can't afford another. Write-up Mia.
Speaker 0 01:08:42 in the middle of your entourage. Absolutely dripping in blood with a knife. And each hand looks up at you with a manic Gran and goes what you need.
Speaker 1 01:08:57 I, uh, need you to finish clean up here. I just got a really weird alert and then my pager exploded. So if I don't fix this, it'll be my ass.
Speaker 0 01:09:07 As you say, I need you to finish clean up. Mia looks around and their grip on both of the knives, tightened a little bit Mia as primarily a spirit of violence is in their element right now, their grain gets a little wider and they say honest, sweetheart, don't hurry back.
Speaker 1 01:09:28 Just follow the protocol. I don't want any mess ups on the paperwork. All right,
Speaker 0 01:09:35 You're no fun sugar.
Speaker 1 01:09:37 Kimmerle flips them off. And then just blinks out to the location on this page that he got
Speaker 0 01:09:45 You teleport to the middle of a sandstorm around you are the ruins of some building, spires of rock and rotting piles of wooden paper. And around you in this dome shape almost is whirling clouds of red sand and, and foreign is here standing next to one of these piles of rotting, wood, and paper, holding what looks to be a knife in his hand,
Speaker 1 01:10:28 I pay what what's going on. I got a page. And then
Speaker 0 01:10:33 As you're saying that you hear,
Speaker 1 01:10:39 Okay, looking around for the source of that
Speaker 0 01:10:42 From right over wherever, our understanding, he gives you this big, bright smile and says, Hey baby, you're a little early,
Speaker 1 01:10:53 Early for what he goes over there quickly
Speaker 0 01:10:59 In this pile of what appears to be a ruined bookcase. You see a seven and a half foot tall figure in a very sensible pantsuit, half veil over the bottom, her face shaking up dark viscous acre.
Speaker 1 01:11:22 I w what? Kiva? No, no, no, no, no. He baseball slides onto his knees next to them.
Speaker 0 01:11:33 As you're doing that, Kiva has one hand on her chest and is again choking. And the other hand grasps at your arm and latches on super tight. And do you watch a slow drip of Ecker fall from the knife and a bar in his hand?
Speaker 1 01:11:56 Why
Speaker 0 01:11:58 If RN, squints at you and tilts his head birdlike and says, why are you looking at me like that? I did this for us. He takes the knife, wipes it off on his khakis. Look, all I'm saying is it's the beginning of a new mortal age, the old way of doing things was fined for its time, of course, but what they want now more than anything is to feel like they're in control your mother's way of running things, puts her in opposition to that. So if we want to stay competitive, we need to rebrand. And he gestures with the knife, nonchalantly stage, a hostile takeover. If you will, me and you, we give them exactly what they want. So we make ourselves the faces of the future and we build everything up better. It's really just basic economics. If you think about it
Speaker 1 01:13:09 At this point, Kimmerle has fully pulled Kiva into his arms and is getting her upright, trying to stem the blood flow in a way that he has learned after so many thousands of years on battlefields. And he just looks up at a Varenne shocked and disgusted. What about this is building things up better?
Speaker 0 01:13:34 Well, we're not there yet. Obviously, sweetheart, it's the most logical way to go about things. No more infighting, no more jockeying for control no more. And then he looks at Kiva again, chaos, messing up our plans, just me and you isn't that better. I mean, come on. Do you really want to spend an eternity living in your sister's shadow?
Speaker 1 01:14:12 He is still holding pressure on this wound that Kiva has and the look of shock disbelief that he is shooting at a VAR and turns into a snarl and Baird fangs Benner her shadow than yours. I know he's a God, I can't technically kill him unless I have the knife. Can I do something to hurt him real bad?
Speaker 0 01:14:37 I mean, if you wanted to, you try to grab the knife
Speaker 1 01:14:41 I could, but I know what a mortal wound looks like and doing that would necessitate letting go of Kiva and letting her bleed out. So now he's still just holding pressure and looking at Avara and with all of the divine wrath of a God of death, you didn't do this for us. You did this for you. I was just the only person stupid enough to go along with it. And yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe the way that things are run now is on its way out. But for now we all have to act according to our natures. You know what? Mine is run.
Speaker 0 01:15:28 As you sit on floor of this ruined library with your twin sister, dying in your arms. If RN gives you a look of wide-eyed betrayal and disappears with the sound of fluttering pages, Kivas grip on your arm, tightens a little bit as they show again, what are you going to do?
Speaker 1 01:15:56 He is still just holding them hand, pressed against this wound on their back. ICAR oozing out between his fingers. It's okay. It's it's going to be okay.
Speaker 0 01:16:09 Kiva still choking up. Ecker goes,
Speaker 1 01:16:16 Yes, it is. This is my whole thing. If anybody under the protection of our Pantheon dies, I am the one who has to come get them. And I, Tim, and I've got a choice and no, no, no, no, no. Hey, look at me. You, you don't get to leave me. You don't get to leave me. Kimra refuses to do his job. He is not going to reap his sister soul.
Speaker 0 01:16:58 You make that choice.
Speaker 0 01:17:03 You choose knowingly unconsciously to act against your nature. So here's what happens next. As a deity, you don't really have a physical body. You are belief and legend made solid around the white hot core of your divine power. That is what you are. And as you feel that core pull at you to reap your sister's soul and you say, no, you feel it pulse. And your back vowels in word as Kiva, flinches back. And then it feels like the entire weight of the universe presses down on you. And as you are sitting there beyond your own volition, a scream rips out of your non-existent vocal chords and Kiva next to you, screams in tandem. And those screams get louder. And shriller, as you feel, this pressure just increasing you stop being able to distinguish the two of your voices from each other.
Speaker 0 01:18:45 And then you stop being able to distinguish the feeling of her in your arms, from the feeling of your own body pressing. And as this self, something fucked up is happening right now. You feel that core of your divine power pulse again, and then it like a wildfire grows and bill and envelops, the two of you, and then like a rubber band. It snaps back. You look down at where you see four hands pressed to the ground to just bone and the other two translucent and shimmering like glass. There's another pulse and another snap. And you are simultaneously looking at a great horn skull and the darkness of a hooded robe. You say, keep a says, both of you say the hell is going on.
Speaker 1 01:20:09 And that's where we're going to end this week. And y'all wanted the backstory on the gods.
Speaker 5 01:20:22 We'll see what happens next time
Speaker 1 01:20:24 On compelled dual
Speaker 1 01:20:40 Hey, everybody, Barry here with the postscript, just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, I'm going to go ahead and plug our social media is you can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and TechTalk at compel dual. We have a lot of other cool stuff like an official Spotify profile and official website. You can find all of that linked on our various social media profiles. We also host a Q and a live stream every week on our YouTube channels. So if you want to head on over to YouTube and search compelled, dual and subscribed to us over there, we'd love to see you come hang out for that. It's a lot of fun. If you like what you're hearing so far on the podcast and are interested in supporting us. We ask that you consider heading over to patrion.com/compelled dual, where starting at just $2 a month, you get access to all kinds of cool patron perks, including, but not limited to early access to episodes, access to bonus content and exclusive Spotify playlist, and even handwritten letters from your favorite character every month.
Speaker 1 01:21:42 If you'd like to support us in ways, other than pledging to the Patrion, we ask that if you're listening to us on apple podcasts or Spotify, that you leave us a rating and a review, since that helps us get promoted to a wider audience. And as always word of mouth advertising is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal. So if you like the podcast, we just ask that you tell a friend about it, and if they like it, ask them to tell a friend as well. And another news we did just open our official merch store. So if you're interested in getting any kind of cool compelled duel merchandise, you can head on over to compel dual.my shopify.com. We have lots of cool stuff. T-shirts stickers, notebooks, buttons, pretty much anything you can imagine. Next episode goes up Friday, March 18th at 9:00 AM Pacific time. Or if you are a patron, you'll be getting your early access to that on Thursday, March 17th. Thank you so much. And we'll see you next week.
