[Whatever I do, rest assured that I have obtained BC’s permission beforehand.]
Ergos Materia
The pocket universe is little more than a featureless gray void. A simple, smooth, gray stone table protrudes from the similarly smooth gray floor, as do the seats. Five deities sit in a circle, facing one another.
“The experiment is a success,” says Psychosis, goddess of thoughts and mentality. She is quite literally a floating brain in a jar… or rather, a brain crafted from faintly luminescent violet stone, floating in some sparkling clear liquid, contained within a transparent spherical class bubble, situated atop an elaborate base of amethyst, which serves little practical purpose as the whole object floats at roughly eye level to an ordinary human. As her current form has no mouth, she resorts to telepathy for communication, but naturally her mastery of the psionic art is such that her telepathic messages feel virtually identical to spoken speech. “The subject shows no signs of relapse as of today, five years from when his reprogramming was performed.”
“Any side effects?” The dark half of Ergos Materia asks, her dark blue eyes calm and cool as ever.
“None observed,” Psychosis replies.
“Excellent,” Materia allows herself a small smile. She turns to the god of undeath, Nekross, jet-black hair of liquid metal shifting slightly as she does so. “How is progress with your experiments, Nekross?”
“It goes wonderfully,” the undead god says with a slight hissing voice, his bleached grinning skull of a face grinning even wider. Twin indigo motes smoulder within his bottomlessly dark eye sockets, the same as the chilling, suffocating darkness that shrouds his skeletal form, resembling a tattered black cloak. “A single corpse raised with deific essence rivals ordinary undead more than a thousand-fold! The soul-binding is nigh flawless. Within months, they will be capable of unquestioning worship to us and our cause!”
“Good,” Materia nods. “And you, Andros?”
“Successful but unpromising, Lady Savant,” the man-god answers. He resembles a perfected version of his former mortal form, a tall, handsome, muscular man with fair skin, long blond hair, and light blue eyes, clad in shining golden armor of medieval design with a futuristic flair. “Subjects are as powerful as predicted, sometimes even more so, but we have no easy ways of ensuring their worship or even cooperation. If I may express my humble opinion, I believe it to be better to focus deific essence infusions on the Undying Lord’s creations,” he says, nodding politely to Nekross.
“Agreed,” Materia nods. “Reallocate fifty percent of our available divine essence to Nekross’s division. And you, Lethea?”
“Well…” The goddess of poison and chemistry sighs in a bubbling voice. She appears as a feminine figure of viscous, sizzling, venomous green liquid, greenish vapor constantly escaping from bubbles that pop up all over her body. “Not as much progress as we’d have hoped, I’m afraid. I mean, really, it’s orium-psionite acid we’re talking about.” She sighs again, noxious fumes escaping from the slit in her liquid face that resembles a mouth. “Even you have troubling stabilizing that. We can’t work our poor mortal chemists to death now, can we? As amusing as orium poisoning can be.”
“Indeed…” Materia closes her eyes for a moment. “Any other matter that needs to be addressed?” She looks around at the four deities before her.
Silence.
“Very well,” she says. “Dismissed. Go and return to your experiments.”
Without any more unnecessary words, the four deities depart immediately, fading away into the gray background.
Moments later, a figure begins to materialize from the empty gray void. Humanoid figure of medium height, plain hooded gray cloak, and perfectly featuress convex oval of a smooth gray mask, he appears to be a part of the void itself. Or rather… the void a part of him.
Materia smiles, eyes sparkling. The lines and crystals of dark blue and indigo on her body glow a little brighter. Still smiling, she wraps her arms around the figure’s neck in a warm embrace, and presses her entire being into him. “Master…” She whispers, sweetly.
The figure remains silent, but raises one gray-gloved hand to move his fingers through Materia’s hair, hair that somehow remain silky smooth despite its metallic composition.
“You were awfully quiet today, Master,” the goddess murmurs, a faux expression of sadness on her face. “Did we bore you that much?”
“Of course not,” the figure lightly chuckles. His voice is perfectly normal, perfectly human. “There simply was no need for me to speak, was there?”
Materia looks up with a slight frown and pout at the figure’s face, or his lack thereof. “Let me see your face when talking to you,” she says, reaching up with slender, black-encased fingers to touch the blank gray mask. “Why hide it when we’re alone, hmm?” Without waiting for a response, she removes the mask, the pout turning into another smile as she does so.
“Whatever you say, dear,” the figure’s own smile can now be seen. Just like his voice, he appears perfectly human, perfectly normal, a young, reasonably handsome face with lightly tanned skin, short messy brown hair, and eyes the same shade of gray as all of the surroundings. He reaches out with a hand, to take hold of not his mask but Materia’s hand holding it. “Where is your other half?”
“Going to another meeting of deities, apparently,” she responds. The corners of her mouth curl slightly in the hint of a jesting smirk. “Perhaps you should attend one of those some time, Master.”
“And risk having my existence known? No thank you,” the man laughs. “It is plenty comfortable in here, is it not?” By now the grayness is fading away from them… or perhaps the other way around. Within moments, they are inside a bedroom with luxuriance beyond mortal description, a room truly fit to house gods.
“I suppose…” Materia murmurs. “But simply taking a break from your ponderings is good also, don’t you agree?” The liquid black of her fingers begins to peel away and fade, exposing the soft, flawless skin underneath. Her smile becomes wider, taking on an altogether different quality. “Searching for ultimate knowledge is fun, yes… But can you look at me in the eyes, and say that it’s as fun as this?”
“Hmm… Debatable,” he smiles, pretending to think it over as he pulls her in closer. “Why don’t you… convince me otherwise?”
…
Meanwhile, the other half of Ergos Materia floats happily along the streets and crystal spires, toward where the meeting is supposed to take place. She knows she’s late… but making sure those weapon manufacturers who keep making progressively bigger and bigger guns in her name don’t blow themselves up testing their newest model is more important. Because, you know, big guns. Who doesn’t love big guns?
The lightning and plasma swirling around her make complicated-looking geometric patterns as she enters the room. Looking around, she plops down on the seat designated to her, leaning sideways and casually swinging her legs over one of the armrests. The brilliant flames surrounding her body spread out to consume the chair in an instant, and recedes. But rather than being reduced to ashes, the chair has been transformed into an ultra-futuristic floating recliner, all shiny and shining and bobbing gently up and down as Ergos leans herself back.
Looking at the other deities in the room, many of them bored-looking, Ergos flashes them a cheerful grin, with the slight hint of a smirk. “Come on guys, was it really necessary to wait for me? I’m not that important.”
[Don’t worry about the wall of text. It’s just me.]
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