[PRP] Another Face (Mrost+Beelzel)

[Baneful]

Mrost was getting the lay of the land again, trying to figure out from scent markers and other clues who the prides even were these days. The pridelands at least seemed like they hadn't changed at all, still lush, still verdant and still full of complacent pampered lions. Beyond those borders though things had changed and it would take a long time to even comprehend how much. As War, it was sort of his job to know where the borders were.

Today he was back in the rogue lands, because in these ruler-less lands was where a god could really pick up no end of stragglers and misfits with which to entertain oneself.
 

[Toshihiko Two]

Beelzel liked the land, sure he did, it was full of like, dirt, and stuff. He pawed at a a bleached, beetle-picked rib bone. Next to that, a rock. Really fascinating. It was...great. Mortal stuff was great. Especially the stuff that eroded, or sat there, or rotted.

He was taking this trip in order to convince himself of this, but the longer he looked, the less interesting a lot of it got.

There were smells, he noticed. Organicky smells. Really, just a library of squishy, earthy, fleshy information. The best smell was the storm brewing in the distance, which gave the air a delicious prickly feeling.

A strong wind whipped through the too-warm air.

His form slipped into a cloud of fat, black flies, and they spun dizzily through the swirling wind, riding the feeling with little effort.  

[Baneful]

Mrost could tell there was a god nearby, sometimes you could just feel it, like an electricity on the air that drew you towards it. This time he couldn't tell if it was the impending storm or that particular sense, but he moved in that direction anyway.

He looked up at the flies and narrowed his eyes a little. Other gods were always a toss up, you just never knew what they were up to.

He spread his wings and flew sleekly up towards the interloper, hovering lazily like a vast armoured dragon. "Lost?" he said a little sweetly.

Toshihiko Two

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"I mean, like, are there actual locations that matter?" The swarm buzzed, twisting and clumping together into something vaguely liony, taking after Mrost's form.

Beelzel was small, as lions went, even when he was just sort of the shape of one.

"Like oh no I'm next to this dry patch of grass and rock which is super far from the other grass...rock...patch." Beelzel said.

The lion shape flipped over in the air, batting its paws at what was essentially itself. Its midsection stirred triumphantly at a gust of wind, then settled again.

"Is it your grass patch?" Beelzel grinned, sort of.  

[Baneful]

"This whole ******** ball of grass and whatever else is mine." Mrost said, a little triumphantly. "There are just a lot of little creatures with little meaningless boundaries all over it who do my good work."

"I'm Mrost. War, by the way."

"And the importance of locations depends entirely on what you find important."  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, okay," Beelzel snorted. "Are you sure your domain isn't like, Everything? The Everything God. Cover all the bases. I think a God like that would probably be actually pretty great? But you'd also admit they'd have to be not all there. You can't handle that much Greatness without being a liiiiiiittle off."

He swarmed over up and around Mrost, not threateningly, but with a lot of buzzing, ruffling really weirdly through his mane and then reforming on the other side of him, doing the aerial version of a lion backstroke.

"Location CAN be important if you have a lot of great stuff in it, but this place looks like it's compleeetely out of everything but sticks."

He became shimmering and solid and furry. He was a handsome, buzzing, black lion, with silvery wings, a curl of horns under his ears, and bright, bold lightning marks right up and down his pelt.

"Oh, hey, yes, introductions." He flexed all of his claws in something like a wave. "Beelzel, Energy."  

[Baneful]

"Nah, it's not everything." Mrost said. "I don't need everything, I just need what other people want. Nothing vague about me, I'm all here."

The other lion on the other hand was all crackling motion and sleek movement.

"And there's plenty here for the taking. Lions like food, they like places to stay, territory, places to defend against other lions. That's valuable. It's valuable to them."

At the other god's introduction though his eyes lit up. "Energy? Well, well, now THAT is a domain. How are you at fighting?"

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Uhhh, I'm actually really, really, good at fighting, it's like, roar, and zap, and bzzzzt, and they never see me coming. But I don't like touching that much because everyone always gets their...reachy things everywhere? And no thanks."

He made a hugely skeptical, buzzy noise at valuable.

"Zzzzzo, you find out what living creatures like, and you make them fight over it? Which, mostly is grass and rocks. I mean, yeah, sounds like it could be fun to watch," B0nez considered. "Do you ever like, get in on the action? What's your like, best battle move?"  

[Baneful]

Mrost looked a little bit dubious at the other lion's claims. His domain was impressive, but physically he was slight and pretty much missing a mane entirely, which wasn't normally a huge problem - because lionesses were mean as hell - but in addition to the rest of the package he presented it was just not very tough.

He lowered himself slowly to the ground, curling his tail around him.

"Exactly that though." he said. "They fight, they kill one another, they starve, they murder, they do really inventively horrible things to one another." He grinned at the memory of it. "And oh yes, I do. I couldn't simply watch, I take part, on whatever side needs a bit of oomph."

He flexed a paw.

"I couldn't choose just one move." he said. "But when I choose to I can augment even the mortals and make them the most wonderful fighting machines."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oooooooh, mmm, zzzzz, machinezzzz, yes, those I definitely miss," Beelzel hummed. He didn't know if it was possible to lament anything harder in his life.

"That's the real problem. All this, you know, everything and nobody harnessing it. Fires burn up. Things get warm. Storms roll in. But seeing everything light up- ooh, with wires connected into a bigger web than anything else here. It was like, perfect, and now it's- Ahhh, going to make me tear up."

Beelzel didn't begrudge Mrost not showing him his best move, he probably wanted to save it in case he had to use it later.

"Anyway," Beelzel puffed, turning back into flies, "I'm, you know, finding my roots myself. Getting back to basics. I guess. ...Really, really basics."