< Sacrifices | Ex Pulplogs | They Meet In The Middle >
Corve Corve isn't exactly sure how to contact Sixth now that the First Age Solar is in his head. Does he just think very hard? Think about him? "How the fuck does one talk to the memory of one's past?" he thinks to himself, wrinkling his nose oddly.
Sixth laughs at Corve, who finds himself standing in what looks like another room of the same glass palace where he first encountered Sixth. The huge Solar is reclining in a vast pool of blue glass, filled with clear water. Overhead a glass ceiling lets sunlight pour into the luxurious room, keeping the plants healthy and adding to Sixth's bronze tan.
Sixth "You really think too much about most things."
Corve blinks, and rolls his eyes. "I hope my next Exaltation's mind is as comfortable to me as mine is to you," he says, leaning on a pillar and looking at Sixth. "Thinking's how I operate. Haven't you noticed that I'm not eight feet tall, or that I can't lift a mountain?"
Sixth "I'm sure you can work on the second one."
Corve "Could work on both, if I wanted to, but I'm fine with my proportions," he retorts, sitting down at the edge of the pool. "So to what do I owe the pleasure of being dragged inside my head again?"
Sixth "You're the one that wanted to talk to me. I'm just enjoying a bath."
Corve "Oh, I see," he says, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah, I guess I did. I'm just curious about you. Being my past makes you interesting. Especially considering our differences."
Sixth "I suppose I'd be curious if I found out I'd once been as amazing as I am. But I'm fairly sure the incarnation before me was obliterated by a Primordial before he could do anything really interesting."
Corve snorts a little, and shakes his head. "Uh huh. So... this Stoneborn thing... what is it?"
Sixth idly looks around, frowning. "Your mind isn't very good at producing servants to wash my back."
Corve "My mind's built like me. Self sufficient."
Corve "...mostly."
Sixth "Mhmm. It means I was born on the slopes of the Grand Mountain. That's all."
Corve ""Well, you're obviously different from most other people in Creation- since you were- uh, eight feet tall? So it must mean a little more than where you were born."
Sixth "Eight feet and a handspan. On the Mountain, the Earth shapes you, makes you stronger and bigger. Sometimes bigger sideways, sometimes upways, sometimes bothways."
Corve nods a little. "Did you know a lot of other Solars aside from your Circle back then?"
Sixth "I knew them all at one point or another."
Corve "So you probably knew Myrrh's past incarnation, and Carmine's..."
Sixth "Well, one of them. They might have died a lot since I was around. But unless you know some names.." he shrugs.
Corve shakes his head. "No, not really. Myrrh might know his own past incarnation, or at least be able to describe him, if he's had any significant memories from back then. We never really discuss it," he says. "Carmine though... she can't even remember her life further back than a few months, when we met."
Sixth "Don't see how I can help then. Unless you need some help wooing her." He grins.
Corve snorts a little, shaking his head. "I think we're a bit beyond wooing," he says. "Just wish I had a way to know what's going on with her- she's so damn... reclusive with her thoughts." He shrugs. "Drives me up the wall."
Sixth "You know I used to be able to tell what someone was thinking just by watching how their eyes moved." From the look in his eyes, Corve can't quite be sure if Sixth is exagurating or not.
Corve rolls his eyes. "Well, I can tell if someone is lying to me- but that doesn't help me when people don't even *talk* to me."
Sixth "You'll learn, I'm sure."
Corve "You're so helpful," he says, sighing and scratching his chin a little. "How odl were you when, uh, your memory got impregnated into the statue? I'm guessing that's what happened, anyway..."
Sixth "Don't be foolish, Corve. I've was never in a statue. You just didn't know I was here until you found the statue. I last remember my 424th birthday."
Corve "Uh... oh. Well, I'm not very good with the whole magic thing- not my forte," he says, shaking his head. "424? Hope you lived a lot longer, 'cause that's not much for a Solar, if I got my numbers right."
Sixth shrugs. "About middle-age. I wouldn't mind going out in a blaze of glory. I'm sure I did."
Corve "I'm sure you did," he says, chuckling softly. "Wonder if I'll save Brume. I mean, I'll do everything I can to accomplish it- but... still have to wonder if we've all got what it takes. This is much bigger than what it seemed when it started out."
Sixth looks seriously at Corve and actually steps out of the pool, wrapping a towel around his waist and sitting on a nearby glass bench so he can look more directly at his successor. "That's how things work, Corve. We thought similar things about the First War. Fighting the things that created humanity, the whole world. It never looked simple."
Sixth "Don't concern yourself with small things, there's people who do that already. The big things are what you're all about now."
Corve "You hear stories now a days- about people like you. People who were powerful. Who fixed the world on a daily basis. They seem like fairy tales when you grow out of your innocence, but for an Exalt, those tales become a possibility. It's just hard to not want it now."
Corve "I can't help worrying about the small things. My daughter, for instance."
Corve "She may be small to everyone else- but she's everything to me."
Sixth runs a hand over his bald head and nods. "If she's your daughter, then she isn't a small thing. But you can't go around righting every single wrong. You have to save Creation. It's as much your job as anything. When I was alive, I did fix the world a few times. But it wasn't every day and...well, alright I could have saved Creation alone a *few* times.."
Corve "Yeah, well, I'm a virgin at saving the world, okay?" He snorts, though it's mostly to force the humor into something that really doesn't have any. It isn't funny. He's responsible for too many people.
Sixth smiles broadly, looking quite smug, then he becomes serious again. "But just because I could have and...well there was that one time. Anyway, it wasn't ever easy. And I had my Circle."
Sixth "You're facing an enemy that I fought when I was alive. It was difficult to fight for me, and now it has even more power. I still think you'll do me proud, Corve. Your head isn't empty and your heart isn't weak. After all, I live here now. You can't help but be great at everything anymore."
Corve snorts a little and raises a brow at Sixth. "Just promise you won't make me as full of yourself as you are," he says, chuckling softly. Corve's not like Sixth, obviously. But there are some similarities. None of them are physical- but... Corve knows that Sixth and he share something. A need to surpass obstacles maybe. Or perhaps just the drive that it takes to truly fix what's wrong. "It's funny. I've actually
Corve * gained things trying to save the world."
Sixth "I did that. Money. Fame. A gorgeous wife. Several children."
Sixth "An incredibly wonderful set of throwing knives made from the teeth of a celestial lion."
Corve just shakes his head. This guy can't help but brag, apparently. "I think I'm happy with my new friends," he says, smirking.
Sixth "Friends too, naturally. I quite liked Blossom's little brother. Until he started getting senile, but there's only so much you can do for that."
Corve sighs. "That's... not good. Mortals aging... watching them die... I don't know. It's a bit much."
Sixth "Well he was a Dragon-Blooded, but it's the same idea. It's not particularly easy to watch your son grow up, get grey hair and wrinkles then die while you're still handsome and strong. And then his sons do that. And their sons. And so forth."
Corve pauses. "I think Xar spoke with Blossom's brother. He's trapped in some artifact..." he says. "Maybe it's not him- maybe just a memory or something... I don't know. But Xar spoke to him."
Sixth concentrates, trying to remember. "I think she'd mentioned something about that. Maybe she put him inside before he died. I don't know, Blossom got funny about two centuries back, never wanted to talk with anyone. Always building those flying islands of hers. When she did talk to me, she didn't seem quite right." He shrugs.
Corve "Maybe she went completely insane, like most of you did- or so I'm told," he says, grinning at him. "That's what history says, anyway."
Sixth "I don't recall going insane. Possibly lust for me may have caused some insanity, but I'm fairly sure I was never insane."
Corve "You don't recall dying, either- but you obviously did. Maybe it happened after whatever happened to make your- uh- personality hang around a few thousand years to invade my head."
Sixth grunts in response, taking some time to dry himself with another towel. He idly scratches at the scar running across his broad chest as he dries. He doesn't appear interested in discussing him going insane or him dying.
Corve smirks and then shakes his head. "How'd you get the scar?"
Sixth looks down at his chest and frowns. "I didn't used to be very smart, to be honest. I was rather full of myself when I first Exalted. Before meeting Jaguar, I lead a company of Dragon-Blooded against a demon, one of the Soul-Hearts of Ouranos the Thousand-Eyed."
Sixth "The battle didn't go well. I lost all 25 of my Dragon-Bloods, the last one was a young Wood woman who threw herself on top of me to save me from the razor-tapestry the demon was weaving of our defeat."
Sixth "She had purple eyes and lilies growing in her hair. Later, after the demon was gone, I went back and picked them out of her hair and planted them. They have white petals with red speckles on the edges and violet centers."
Corve "Huh. I've still to accumulate any scars of my own. Maybe I'll be smarter than you were back then," he says, raising a brow. "Or luckier. I'll settle for either."
Sixth snorts at Corve and cuffs the smaller man across the head with his heavy fist. "If you ever do happen to be that stupid, I'll be letting you know."
Sixth "Don't go making me angry with you Corve, not even if I'm just a voice in your head."
Corve "Ow,"
Corve scratches his head a little and snorts. "Yeah, you might bruise my brain."
Sixth "Haven't yet met anyone who couldn't stand a little of that."
Corve "Frankly, neither have I. Most people are too dense."
Sixth lays back, stretching out on his bench and letting the warm sunlight wash over his bare skin. "I do have to say, it's nice to let someone else worry about Creation for a while."
Corve "For a while? I am you. The part of you that made you worthy of saving Creation, anyway."
Sixth rolls onto his side to glare at Corve with the first openly hostile expression Corve's seen on the huge man's face. Even knowing that Sixth isn't physical and probably can't do him any true harm, the expression scares Corve. "You are not me. And I was worthy of saving Creation before ever the Sun touched me. You and I share something, but You are not me. Don't mistake me for some figment of your inner self."
Corve raises a brow, trying to hide the fact that the man is, in fact, intimidating. "It's a figure of speech, Sixth. And you're right- 'worth' was the wrong word to use. Perhaps 'capable' would be better."
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