Daycation: Who's Who

Diwa watched the rising sun make the water shimmer a dark purple tipped with orange on the horizon. “Anybody else I know come here often?” she asked after a few quiet moments.

“A few.” Aldous said. “Probably anyway,” he added. “I don’t know how far you’ve traveled or who you’ve talked to recently.” he told her.

“Name a few, I’ll let you know if I don’t remember the name.” she offered. “Would be…nice to know if I came here without you I’d at least not be in a sea of strangers.”

“Fair.” Aldous said thinking. “I managed to drag Soularous here once, but he’s a bit to high strung for a rumpus vacation,” he said.

“Sounds like him.” Diwa noted.

“Hjardmadra.” Aldous said next. “But I haven’t seen or heard from her since things in ‘The Heaves’ started getting weird.”

“I’ve heard the name but I don’t recall meeting her.” Diwa commented. “She someone important?”

“I suppose you could say that.” Aldous thought about how to put it. “She’s a demi-god of sorts. Bearer of the Horn, or something like that. Fierce frontline warrior. Huge angel wings. But she had a bit too much of a thirst for battle. Never friends but, she understood I wasn’t a devil to be killed or even fought.” he shrugged.

“She sounds a bit scary.” Diwa commented.

“Oh she is.” Aldous said, “Let me think. Jennigune.”

“Muse of the Sea?” Diwa asked.

Aldous nodded. “The same. She’s wonderful but when she gets a few drinks in she is a lot to deal with.”

Diwa raised an eyebrow “How so?”

“No control over the volume of her voice, and a bit handsy. Nowhere inappropriate.” Aldous said to make sure to not beseech Jennigune's name. “She just gets interested in things. Like fabric. Since she’s only got the strange silk-like stuff where she comes from.”

Diwa let out a little laugh. “Muses can be strange.” she shook her head. “Who else?”

“Jahodus.” Aldous said.

Diwa’s eyes went wide and she blinked hard. “Jahodus, here? In the land of debauchery?”

“Hey, Hey Now!” Aldous said in a mock serious tone. “I haven’t debauched once since we got here.”
Diwa let out a little snort laugh. “My apologies ‘Oh Great Demon King of the Nine Hell, Lord of Lust.”

“Anyone else.” Diwa said now more interested after hearing the last name.

Aldous thought and leaned in his seat slightly pointing up the beach after getting Diwa to follow his point. A figure sat almost far enough away it would be hard to make them out during the day but the last morsels of night made them stand out starkly. A cascade of white hair and ivory skin.

“Is that?” Diwa started to ask but Aldous shushed her, and nodded. “But you didn’t see her.” he winked.

“Okay my lips are sealed.” Diwa assured Aldous. “Anyone else I’d never expect?”

“Ar.” Aldous said quickly.

“Okay now I know you are lying. Ar. THE Ar?” She said she didn’t believe him. “Seriously?”

“I wouldn’t believe it if I’d not seen it myself.” Aldous said. “He’s a right bastard.”

“So I’ve heard but why do you think that?” she asked.

“A god obsessed with the abuse of women, gold, and slavery. And that’s just for to start. I’ve burned down so many of his auction houses in Zatar disguised as temples, and brothels. But they just enslave more people to clean up the ashes and more to rebuild. I’ve the power to just…” he scooped up a handful of sand and threw it hard at the ground, making a point without saying it. “But not everyone there is evil,” he sighed. “If I could…” he drew a line over his neck. “Ar…I would. But…I can’t…or rather won’t. Not yet anyway.”

“If you hate him so much and see what he does as that evil why won’t you?” Diwa asked.

“Belief is a hard thing to kill. I could kill the entity that is Ar to the eyes, and he’d be gone for a while, sure. But eventually the concept would remake itself and the cycle starts again. And to take a system of ideas like that way you can’t just pluck them and move on, you have to put something in their place. Through small changes over time, and Diwa, I don’t want to be a god.”

“Then what will you do?” Diwa asked.

“Nothing, well…not directly. I’ve ‘accidently’ left some scrolls of a god they outlawed around to try and bring him back to power, but its not borne much fruit yet aside from a few smaller villages with fewer guards from the capital to bother with prayers.”

“Okay, seems like a subject that’s in need of changing.” Diwa said, “Anyone else I’d know? Maybe someone nice this time?”

“I think I saw Neki when we were walking to the bar.” Aldous said, looking behind him back at the lights of the resort.

Diwa tapped her finger to her lip thinking, then snapped her fingers. “One of your cousins.” she said “Right?”

“Right.” Aldous confirmed.

Then Diwa’s look became confused. “Wait, what? When did she become a goddess?”

“She didn’t.” Aldous said, “She just knows a lot of them and gets along because she's having a good time.”

“Well.” Diwa said, “Does that cause any problems here?”

“None so far.” Aldous said. “Want to go get breakfast?”

Diwa was about to object to going to eat with what would probably be a large group of people at this hour but her stomach decided otherwise letting out a little grumble. “Yeah…” she said a bit of defeat.

“Come one.” Aldous said, looking back at Diwa as he started to walk in his long graceful strides but sensed something and stopped before slamming into none other than Ar.

Ar stood there letting out a sharp breath through his nose. He stared Aldous down for a moment, then looked over and saw Diwa, and he raised an eyebrow. “Aldous.” he said dryly.

“Ar!” Aldous said, taking his reaction obviously overboard, and before Ar could react Aldous hugged him, in a back slapping hug.

Ar stiffened not sure how to react and attempted though stiffly to return the manly gesture. “I see you are occupied with a…” he didn’t finish letting the choice of what he thought it was up in the air.

“Hows the whole ‘god’ thing going?” Aldous asked, pulling out of the hug.

“I found a group of your little…coven held up in an old basement in a long abandoned village,” he said. “Your cultists are like mold, they always seem to crop up in dark damp forgotten places.”

“Really.” Aldous said with fake interest. “And?”

“The infestation was removed.” Ar said.

Aldous snapped his fingers and stomped the ground once. “Shoot. Better luck next time I guess.”

Ar scowled a scowl of someone unsure how to react. “Well I would say it was a pleasure…”

“Because it was.” Aldous interrupted.

Ar went to say more but thought better of it before heading down the beach in the opposite direction of where Aldous had pointed someone else out before.

“I hate that guy.” Aldous said, sticking out his tongue at Ar’s fading from view form.

“Now I think I need a Mimosa or Bloody Mary with my breakfast.” he said.

“More civil than I expected.” Diwa commented, finally standing by Aldous watching Ar turn and walk into the trees a fair distance down the beach.

“Just wait. When I hugged him I covered his fancy cloak with glitter.” Aldous grinned. “Magic glitter that will never come out.”

“Just when I think you are the most adult god I’ve ever met you do something so childish, funny, but childish.”

“Balance.” Aldous said, offering her his arm to escort her to breakfast.