Totally Normal Humans (Paradox)

Soshi sat close to the fireplace of what had become a new home for both her and her odd companion, Paradox. She looked around before tossing some fire into the wood there, smirking before going back to something she was working on. She quickly used her powers to form some earth in her hand, and attempted to mold it into the appearance of a fire phoenix. Then she tried to set it, only to have the earth crumble away.

"For the love of all that's good! Why is this an issue!?" She grumbled a little before tossing the dirt aside, quickly sending it back to where it came from. She grumbled a bit more, just sliding the dirt back to try again. She only hoped she hadn't annoyed Paradox or someone else with her yelling.

Some time had passed since the God of Chaos and (for the time being) her companion, the first human Goddess, had arrived in the village. Though village might not be quite fitting, as the settlement they came to call their home for the time being was larger than the average village, though not by enough of a margin to be called a town by human standards, something that Paradox came to learn of quickly enough. Just how Chaos was bound to not shape, always willing to adapt and reshape itself to its surroundings, so was Paradox willing to learn of human norms, standards and etiquette, not that it bothered him. His plans were grand, far beyond a scope any present here could even come close to understanding.

The house they resided in was not lavish by all means but comfortable was a fitting word nonetheless. Unlike the dragon dens of old, carved into mountainsides and deep into the earth depending on the draconian heritage, humans were much more uniform in their choice of residence. A house could be built anywhere where there was flat and solid land, could be as large or as small as one wished for, if provided the resources, and could hold any amount of interior utility and decoration, making each house unique by default. After discussing the potential ways of creating such a residence, Paradox finally simply decided to conjure the amount of payment needed for the locals to provide the materials and expertise both of them were lacking.

Now finally, by all means, they could be considered part of the community. They had a house they lived in, professions to work if necessary and neighbors and other members of the settlement could visit them at any time, they could attend events and celebrations, simply put they were finally able to live a normal human life, though the definition of normal was rather lacking seeing how it was still two beings of unimaginable power who simply decided to settle down among their own kind, at least as far as Paradox's companion, ally and, yes, even friend was considered.

Such friend was it who disrupted the quiet of their home, as she failed in a task she set out for herself. Paradox, in the meantime, or Eris as she came to be known among humans, looked up from her selection of reading material, though what she was reading in particular would remain unknown for anyone but her for reasons unknown to anyone but her. Closing the book, as the page she stopped at wasn't important to her, she leaned forward to take a look at her friend.

What's the matter, Soshi. It seems something is quite bugging you.

Soshi sighed, licks of fire flicking from her hair. She looked at "Eris," sighing as her flames subsided. The goddess looked at her friend, not sure what to say. The woman shook her head bringing together the dirt again, this time into a lizard-like form, before standing up and letting the new puppet climb to her shoulder.

"I'm able to...!" She took a breath before getting quieter. "I can use magic to turn someone into a dragon... to an extent and a long story I don't want to explain, but I can't make some dirt into a crystal." She demonstrated with the puppet, only to have it fall apart like the design before.

Eris leaned back into her chair as she listened to her fellow deity's issues. Her fingers twitched for a moment, all her poise lost as a flicker of memory flashed before her mind, a memory of a time before her divine status, of where she was just a normal dragon, as normal as she could be at least. Though that memory was just as quickly crushed as it came, she took the moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath. Was she getting careless, ahead of herself, as a human no less? No, that couldn't be it, the situation was simply too familiar for the chaotic human-dragon. She opened her eyes again, regaining her sense of control as she found herself not in the dusty old library of her memory but rather in her human home, next to her human friend.

Eris looked over Soshi as she considered her next words, thinking back to exactly what she tried to achieve and what the goddess of chaos had witnessed. Say, my dear, how familiar are you actually with your own powers. Have you ever managed to take the time to attune to your realm? It was a simple question, something that would be self-explanatory for the dragon gods. They came with an innate understanding of how to access their powers, likely due to their close resemblance to Him, the Creator. The question, as obvious as it may have seemed, was asked in seriousness though, as the human goddess might have experienced it differently, something not even Paradox would know for certain, though he himself was an oddball among gods in his past experience with divine powers.

Soshi slowly moved to another chair in the room. She looked over at Eris, noticing her in thought. Whatever was on her mind seemed to pass as her friend spoke up though. And then Eris went and confused the poor goddess.

"Attune to my realm? What the heck are you talking about? Like, to the elements? I mean, I literally lived in hills for decades." Soshi wasn't trying to sound harsh or anything, but she really didn't know how to explain everything.

Eris simply shook her head before reaching out with her powers, the flow of chaos ever present in the world of the living. She could percieve it, see it, and experience it for herself at any given moment. No no, nothing quite like that. When the divine powers awaken in the dragons, they enter a phase I refer to as Attunement. During this time, they would reach out to percieve their Realm and the powers it held. Though my tale is one quite different than that, it is how I have percieved it in other gods and goddesses since time ancient. You may have been living among the elements, but have you ever had the time to commune with them, to reach out and feel their aspects?

She couldn't show it for her own realm, chaos was different than any tangible force in existence. Though whenever she applied her powers, to force change and, oftentimes, nonsense into existence, that chaos could be witnessed. She also always kept a thin veil of chaos around her, as it was the force moving reality forward every moment of time. Whereever she stepped, things would change, very minorly, impercievable by the humans and many dragons around them during their lifetime, yet the god knew it was there, knew it was keeping everything going.

Soshi gave Eris a confused look, trying to understand what she was saying. Soshi looked around, not sure what the God of Chaos meant. She sighed, shaking her head a little. ”I’m not sure what you mean. How do you commune with something that doesn’t really talk back?” The human shook her head as she moved some earth again.

“And feeling aspects? Like how water always flows, or how fire is almost impossible to really control?” It was clear Soshi wasn’t too confident right now. It was all so new to her. Even after all this time.

Very well then, I suppose a demonstration is in order. You better try not to freak out, my dear. Otherwise you could get lost in where we are going to end up. And don't worry about our fellow humans, they won't notice anything amiss, I take care of it.

A thin veil of chaos laid itself upon the house, ensuring that those witnessing it would not see anything amiss. Sometimes the two women would cross the windows, waving back before visibly returning to whatever they would supposedly do. Inside, however, forces of ancient were at work, primordial and absolute in nature. Stabilizing all chaos in the room for naught but a fraction of a second, Eris snapped her fingers in her usual habit and everything changed. Walls and furniture disappeared, save for the chair the goddess had seated herself on, they visibly melted, vanishing into the aether as the space was replaced with a background of swirling colors, ever changing, not bound to a single shape.

Not a moment later, Eris' human form vanished under the strain of the chaotic energies, revealing the draconic God of Chaos Paradox in all his splendor. He took the moment to stretch himself, his tails whipping the air/color/space and his wings extending far beyond the horizons before he folded himself back into the dragon-shaped package he was known as.

Welcome, Soshi my dear, to my realm, or at least as close as I can bring you to it, that is.

Soshi looked around, shocked by what she saw. She looked around at the "realm" that she was now in, and was astonished. She looked around, trying to take everything in. The human looked back at her dragon friend, not sure how to handle what she was looking at.

"So.... This is what chaos looks like?"

Well, this is how I can show you Chaos. In truth, it is much more varied, much more complicated and much deeper than I could ever hope to represent. It is primordial and omnipresent, in all things Chaos exists and I can always see it though that is despite the point. It is within my realm that I have my deepest connection to Chaos, that I can sense it across the whole world, that I become one with it. I would assume that Gods of the past have lost themselves within their realm, losing their form and identity, returned to the aether of their aspect.

He looked around for a moment in thought, seeing beyond the veil of colors to the force he commands. He took a deep breath before returning his gaze to the human goddess, his closest friend in centuries. I believe that, given the opportunity, I could unlock your suppressed connection to the Elements, to try and connect you to your Realm, raise your awareness to the forces under your command, under your care.

Soshi wasn't quite sure she understood the dragon, and looked down as she tried to think. Paradox figured he could help her connect to her realm, and this both excited and worried her. She thought for moment more before speaking with a calm tone.

"If you think me connecting to my 'realm' will help, I'm all ears. But what would a realm of elements even be like? Or where? She leaned back again, not sure what to do again. She just waited to hear what Paradox had to say.

The appearance of a realm is all up to the deity who is representing it at the moment. I have seen quite a number of dragons that have reshaped a realm to fit their own design as compared to their predecessor. Though you, as a human, would very likely make quite a difference compared to the dragons, their imaginations are always so dull and uniform, you humans are much more diverse. Oh, am I looking forward to it!

After a moment to compose himself, he coughed into his hand to continue his explanation. As for 'where' it is, it's everywhere. Well, your element that is. As for the realm, it's difficult to explain. Essentially, it's a place that exists within this world, simply behind a curtain that the mortals can not see through. Though I would advise against just pulling that curtain back, it can cause some issues. Transferring yourself to your realm through your connection is a much safer route, even I do it since I, despite all evidence to the contrary, do not wish to cause permanent harm to this place, otherwise we might incur something like yet another monster invasion and, to be frank my dear, we don't need more troubles threatening to cause extinction of all life in our world.

Soshi nodded a little, but still seemed confused.

"Ok. So I have a connection to my realm? How am I supposed to use it then? I mean, I know what I can do, but I don't know where this connection goes."

For a moment Paradox considered how to explain it to the Goddess. Both the connection to the realm of Chaos as well as using the powers of Chaos came most natural to him, though how he acquired his powers was most un-natural. He stroked his golden strands of facial hair before snapping with his talons, bringing them both back into the physical, material world, leaving the near omnipotent form of the Dragon God behind and returning to the modest appearance of Eris.

As a beginning advice, think of it most literally. Whenever you are within your elements, whichever they may be, imagine a door or a curtain in front of you. Next think of a room, as large as you want it to be, looking the way you want it to be, and open the door! Pull the curtain aside and enter that room of your imagination! Such I believe is how you will be most easily able to enter your own realm, your own alignment within this world, a place aside reality where your power is most strongest.

With this little explanation given, Eris settled back into the armchair, awaiting what the Human Goddess would choose to do and how it would end up.

Soshi eyed her friend, closing her eyes for a bit to think. focusing on the various elements she could command. From the outside, what Eris would see would be flashes of elements. Fire, then water, ice, earth, a pulse of light and odd waves of shadowy energy. What it was seemed to shift as Soshi thought of each. She thought about where all this would be, what kind of place would this realm be. A place where all these things were.... Ok honestly there was a "duh" in her mind. The normal world. But that couldn't be it right? No she just had to think more. Maybe it was... no. Or.... wait no. Pull back the curtain.... Open the door.

She continued for a while longer, just trying to think before finally stopping, and looking at Eris.

"Why does it feel like this isn't really working fully?"

Soshi, my dear. We are in a completely new and unfamiliar situation, there never has been a Goddess among the human kind and the period of Attunement I have only witnessed within dragons, and it comes most natural to them to retreat into their own Realm, be it either on accident or without so much as a second thought once they are chosen by His Fragment to carry on the legacy. I myself made a spectacle out of transitioning us to the edge of Chaos as that, frankly, is within my nature to do. But even I could simply slip inbetween cracks of reality and be gone in an instant.

Eris hummed for a moment, contemplating the situation. Once again, another side threatened to emerge from within the confines of her dragonic soul, though once more it is cast back into the abyss without a moment's notice. It wasn't without merit though, as an idea came to her mind, something that she once theorized in ages past when she hadn't been the God of Chaos yet.

There is something we could try, if you are willing to. As I am the undisputed God of Chaos, my powers are absolute within our world. Barring once place, chaos exists everywhere and, as such, I would be able to access it. Though, as it is a Divine Realm I would be stepping in, an active one at that, I can not do that without permission of its current holder. If you were to, willingly, grant me so much as a tiny sliver of your power, a sample if you will, I will be able to thread together an entrance that will bring us to your realm, your place of retreat where your powers originate from, where they are the most focused and where you are all-powerful, in theory at least.

Soshi thought as Eris spoke. She couldn't even put her energy into a rock, and somehow she was supposed to extend some of her power to make this bridge. She crossed her arms, speaking up a bit.

"There isn't a chance of some sort of adverse effects of trying this right? I'd rather not get either of a killed." She waited for the response, but would sigh a bit, looking at the God of Chaos.

"We can try it, or at least I'm not going to resist. I don't know how this'll work though so you need to take the lead."

Eris got up from her comfy seat and stretched for a moment, this would require some fine work. After a moment of contemplation, she got up and over to her friend, putting a hand on her shoulder as Eris could sense the flow of energy within herself and Soshi.

If it helps you, my dear, I can also feel that the energy within you is all over the place, unfocused and blocking itself at times. That is something we will have to work on in the future as well.

All was still for a few seconds before Eris started drawing shapes into the air with her free hand. Strings of silvery-white magic came to be, lightly interwoven with her own brand of chaos magic, the scent of vanilla and tropical fruits filling the room. As more and more magic strings appeared, the soon drew themselves into form and before long, a door was made in the middle of the room, a door looking like wood painted in silver, with doorknob and hinges in various shifting colors. It was a work of art, made in cooperation between the two.

Lifting her hand from Soshi's shoulder, the goddess of chaos wiped some slight sweat from her forehead. Crossing her arms, she glanced over to her friend and grinned.

Well, my friend. There you have it, a door of your own magic that leads to the Realm that holds your the purest essence of your power, where the energy of the elements is made manifest. Go ahead and open it, see where it leads to.

Soshi looked a bit confused as the vanilla scent hit her nose. She looked at the door, then back to Eris. So this was where her "realm" was. She looked at the door curiously.

"So just... open it and walk through? She looked back before finally opening the door and looking out. She looked through the door, opening and closing it a couple of times as she looked back out, somewhat confused.

"Are you sure this worked right? It just looks like... the normal world."

I hope you do enjoy the first look upon your own realm, my dear. A magnificent place where you can- wait what?!

It took Eris all self-control she had to not jump at the door in a mixture of disbelief and anger. She slowly made her way over to Soshi and, as the door was slightly ajar, she took the handle herself and fully opened the door to step through.

On the other side, as far as she could see, was no esoteric realm like the dragons of the past used to possess. No manifestation, no abstract concepts lining the horizon. In fact, as she gazed across the landscape, she could very much make out where she was, she had visited the places before her already, and in the not so distant past no less!

Stepping back through the doorway and returning home, her mind was racing with the speed of the fastest of dragons zipping through the air. It made no sense! She knew her magic was correct, her theories never failed her! Calculations were well made and the process was applied correctly, but just how could it...

In that moment, clarity arose and the scholary side of her, the few shreds of a once mortal mind that never left her side, no matter how hard she tried, offered the solution before slinking back into the darkness of her own immortality. It DID make sense in the end, just not in a way that would ever be expressed on parchment and ink as she would have wanted long long ago.

Yes, Soshi my dear, I am most certain it worked right. And this is quite a revelation, my friend. You just keep upheaving the order the dragons established in their own divinity. *laughter* The other side of the door leads you to your Realm, where you most attune to your elements. It just so happens that the realm is this world in its entirety. All the world is your realm and it is here that you must attune to your powers proper, so that you may take your position as goddess of humans with the grace and authority it demands.

Soshi looked at Eris as she fully walked through as well. This was odd indeed. It was… the world. Then the goddess’s friend seemed to have an idea. The world was her realm. The world itself. Because it was where the elements were really. A flame flicked in her hair in a moment of slight annoyance before she calmed down.

“So if the world’s my realm, why does some of this stuff still seem so difficult. I mean, I doubt it should be if I’m a goddess, but still…. Or maybe it’s me….” She sat down for a moment, closing her eyes to think. Soshi had been so worried about the other gods finding her that maybe…. Maybe she was her own problem here. She couldn’t let that stop her right? She wasn’t just some human they could simply snuff out. She was one of them. With that, she collected some the earth there, and focus. Condensing it a bit. Manipulating it to have an obsidian look and feel, forming in the shape of a serpent. She then stopped, picking it up to check if it was strong enough to not fall apart.

Eris stayed quiet as she watched her friend return to her attempts at making her own magic work. As progress was made, her own mind wandered, contemplating her friend's situation. Perhaps there was some sort of mental block, something in her mind that disconnected Soshi to her true powers. Maybe this doorway needed to be created to unlock some sort of connection.

In her mortal life, such a moment would have consumed the scholar's endless demand for knowledge. Eris could see it before herself, the Nightwing dashing through and across the library he called his home, though it was moreso an assortment of knowledge than an established public place. He would gather scrolls and handbound books, draw sigils and calculations across parchment and grovel over the inability to solve the conundrum.

The mental image faded and Eris found herself looking out the window, observing the mortal humans go about their business. After Paradox had claimed the primal force of Chaos for himself, stealing it from a much less deserving individual [or did Chaos allow itself to be taken, something he pondered and never knew for certain], he took a different opinion on life as a whole. Despite the idea of what people believe Chaos to be, Paradox tossed his old notions aside for a much more relaxed approach to his everyday existence.

As a Dragon God, he found himself blessed with agelessness. With time no longer being a constraint, his pursuit slowed down and he began to appreciate the simple things in life. He no longer needed to know everything at once, to leave behind some sort of legacy once he found himself in Nimbus' embrace. He could begin to appreciate all existence for what it is, watch how life's gears and systems kept working each and every day.

Eris gazed over to her first true friend in life and a small smile crossed her human lips. She didn't need to know what it was that held Soshi back. She didn't need to draw up calculations and formula to try and decipher how her elemental magic worked, with the world as a whole being her Realm. Eris was here to experience it first hand and she would do so how she has done it all since her ascension, one second at a time.

Soshi looked, noticing the smile on Eris's lips.

"Having fun?" she asked looking at the Gem, attempting to change it. It seemed to work... somewhat.... It looked like a griffon now, but she looked. Still obsidian. She focused again, thinking before looking and finally seeing it shift to opal. She sighed a bit, tossing it to Paradox.

"I'll be honest. For years I thought if I did too much one of you would bring the starts down on my head and just snuff me out." Paradox may have noticed something odd about the gem. A hint of energy to it. "Either I was too scared... or no one's actually watching."

I'm finding amusement in each and every day, my dear. Though right now, I am simply happy to see my friend making progress with her project. I have long since taken even some of the most mundane daily happenings as something to behold, for I see beyond the veil, I see what makes the world truly move.

Eris looked up for a moment before catching the figurine in her hand. It was a simulacrum of a gryphon, wondrous creatures that inhabited this world. On second look, though, it appeared a bit rough, so Eris decided to add her own little touch to it.

Gently blowing across the figurine, the opal started to shape itself. Across each wing, feathers started to come into being, carved to a detail impossible for any hand or claw to do manually. Plumage and fur appeared while the claws at the front narrowed and sharpened. Now in her hand, still fully made of opal, stood a majestic creature, eyes reflecting both the noble and ferocious nature of the gryphon.

As Eris held it high against the sunlight, she could see a faint pulse of energy coming from within the figurine. She mused that something must have moved within Soshi, something unlocked within her and whatever this energy is, it was a sign of the progress she made.

Booping the gryphon on the beak, a faint chaotic energy enveloped it before the figurine came to life, shaking itself and dashing across Eris' arm before settling on the goddess' shoulder.

I see you have improved in your technique. The transition from obsidian to opal was clean. Though I do need to ask what the energy inside the statuette is about.

Soshi smirked a bit as she watched Eris shift the small figure some, adding new details before allowing it to come to life. The new goddess wondered if this was like her own puppetry, or actually for all intents and purposes alive, but that soon passed as her friend asked what the energy locked within the gem was for. Soshi smiled a bit bringing a small orb of light to her hand.

"From what I understand, many of the other gods have some sort of... object? Focus? Whatever you want to call it, that their followers would have. Something like that, but these first ones I'm planning something, special. A small amount of the energy I use to control various elements. That one there, has light magic trapped in it. Only one I already know who should receive it. The others... I'm planning ways to make sure someone deserving of them reach them." She tapped the ground, pulling a few more forms from the earth around hear. A serpent, a two different phoenixes, a manticore, a thunderbird, and a mosasaur. Each one also soon took on a new material. Black or maybe dark grey, red, icy blue, green, smoky, and blue respectively, though no energy was put in them. It seemed to be more for a slight show of the plan. It was also clear doing all this at once, while still learning, the gems weren't... that great. But they got the point across.